Feverishly anticipated and hotly contested, this concluding volume sees classic DC heroes colliding with their dark Watchmen counterparts. Along with a resounding crash, however, the collision offers a pensive moment. Volume one having brought the headlining characters together in various satisfying combinations, Johns now moves his cast ever closer, tick by tick, to global crisis. And therein comes the emblematic confrontation that will test the humanity of our two paradigmatic characters, Superman and Dr. Manhattan. Johns does substantially more than merely hurtle towards cataclysm, though. Rather than simply paying homage to the hallowed Watchmen, he takes its themes and characters on a searching exploration of the superhero concept itself, the genre, and the very industry it lives in. Equally nuanced, Frank's meticulous linework leaves the subtlest changes in characters' expressions and body language ringing with emotional impact. His scrupulously compact page compositions not only evoke Gibbons' original but also create a sense of the inescapable, which loads Superman's ultimate choice with resounding significance. Their deeply considered work pays off in a story that engages questions the genre has been struggling with since Moore and Gibbons' epoch-shattering run: what are superheroes for, and what are they about? What can they do for us, and what do they say about us? Johns and Frank suggest some powerfully hopeful answers.