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This eve , DC Comics fans got their first look at the upcoming upshot serial publication , Doomsday Clock , during a panel with DC President and Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns as New York Comic Con . During the panel , Johns portion out thefirst six pagesof the 12 - publication serial publication - which will have graphic symbol from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon ’s seminalWatchmenseries cross paths with the heroes of the DC Universe - offering up a solid feeling of what we can expect fromDoomsday Clock . In curt , Doomsday ClockhasWatchmenin its osseous tissue , with Johns regularly commenting on how much he and artist Gary Frank were animate by that original comedian and that they tried to nearly adhere to what he calls a " Watchmen rule book . " And it ’s evident in just these few pages , with their nine - panel grid , heavy dialogue , much of snippet from programme , and a generally bleak state of the world . Though the Page share today are in blackened and white , it ’s very easy to imagine them inWatchmen ’s decided palette of pink , purples and greens . It was recently annunciate thatDoomsday Clockis a true sequel toWatchmen , and evaluate by these Thomas Nelson Page , that is very much the case . However , Doomsday Clockis also an event profoundly connect to the DC Universe and its heroes ; in particular , Superman . Johns has repeatedly discuss that his intention with DC Comics’Rebirthwas to restore hope to the DC Universe and no persona personify that optimism more than Superman . And if Superman represents Bob Hope and optimism and the bright ideal that Johns imagines for the DC Universe , then the inverse of that is the despair and cynicism of the Earth painted inWatchmenand so clearly embodied in the detached Dr. Manhattan . ThroughoutDC Universe Rebirth # 1and afterward miniskirt - events , such asThe Button , Johns and his team have cod those play off domain views , with them set to come crashing together acrossDoomsday Clock ’s 12 issues . But how ?
The Countdown to Doomsday Begins
In the very first instrument panel ofDoomsday Clockwe can see a narration house of cards that reads , " November 22nd , 1992 … or perchance it ’s the 23rd , " giving an ( almost ) exact start point for the narration being tell . From there , it ’s quickly established that what we ’re see are events happening in the same cosmos inhabited by the theatrical role ofWatchmenseven eld sooner . And that humankind is in pandemonium , any peace reach by Ozymandias ' insane programme fromWatchmen ’s last take has since rotted , and the earth is now worse off than it was before . In all this , their heroes have abandoned them , their god - Dr. Manhattan - has abandoned them , and the people are left in terror . The world ofWatchmenis one in dire indigence of hope . So what happened ?
During the New York Comic Con panel , Johns confirmedDoomsday Clockwould have the solvent , saying : " Everything that you read from these six varlet will be explained . " mean we ’ll larn how Ozymandias was divulge , we ’ll learn what happen with Rorschach ’s journal , and oh yeah , we ’ll discover howRorshach is n’t dead- all of this and more will be answered over the course ofDoomsday Clock ’s 12 government issue . to boot , we can look Johns to explain his intellect for setting the get-go ofDoomdsay Clarkin 1992 , a year which he also remarked is " an important year " in DC Comics history . So what take place in the DC Universe in 1992 ? And how might this link in toDoomsday Clock ?
The Death of Superman
In 1992 , DC Comics began what would become one of the most famed comic book stories of all time -The Death of Superman . Beginning withSuperman : Man of Steel # 18 , the story of how Superman would come to struggle and defeat the undestroyable monster , Doomsday but ultimately give his life in doing so open across seven issues . The event spanned the four Superman claim currently being published at the time as well as an issue ofJustice League of America , before culminate with the climactic confrontation inSuperman # 75 in November 1992 .
The Death of Supermanarc was a monolithic success for DC Comics , gain ill fame the world over , selling out issue after issue and pinch the chart . For the characters within the DC Universe , the impact of Superman ’s death was enormous . Heroes grieved , the world despair , and many of the proceeds surveil Superman ’s demise make out with the hopelessness that had descended on the DC Universe .
of necessity , because these are comic books and no bide beat forever , Superman would return , but the landscape painting of the DC Universe had been changed . As the modern long time would go on , the tale became darker , the character more cynical , and in meter , the hope which had always been a cornerstone of the DC Universe did n’t shine as bright as it once did .
How It Connects To Doomsday Clock
It ’s an established fact that within the universe ofWatchmenthe DC Comics type survive in the same agency as they do in ours - they ’re fictitious characters found in risible books . As Hollis Mason write in an excerpt fromUnder The Hood , found inWatchmen # 1 ,
" For me , it all started in 1938 , the year they invented the super - hero . I was too one-time for comic books when the first issue of Action Comics get out … but from the consequence I fructify eyes on it I only had eyes for the Superman floor . Here was something that presented the basic morality of the flesh without all their darkness and equivocalness . "
Johns confirmed this during the NYCC panel , replying " yes " to a question about whether or notDoomsday Clockwould address the fact the publishing house and its fancied graphic symbol already live within theWatchmenuniverse . Obviously , Johns would n’t elaborate further , but the late 1992 setting forDoomsday Clock ’s floor coupled with his input that the class is also an important one for DC Comics provides us with a giant clue . IfAction Comics # 1released in 1938 starring Superman in theWatchmenuniverse just as it did in ours , then we can probably assume 1992’sThe Death of Supermanarc did so as well .
This puts the start ofDoomsday Clockin the days just after the release ofSuperman # 75.The deed of conveyance , Doomsday Clocktakes on whole different substance now , does n’t it ? The motif of seconds retick towards midnight has long been associated with theWatchmenbrand ( not too advert impend global annihilation ) , but in this context , it ’s refers to Doomsday , literally , and to the death of Superman , the death of hope .
Now , just howThe Death of Supermancould factor in toDoomsday Clockremains a secret . In the originalWatchmencomic , the story within a story machinist was employed by possess a character inWatchmenreading another comic , Tales of the Black Freighter , and the report of that comic would serve as a fellow traveller to the events inWatchmen . Doomsday Clockmight take a similar itinerary , with Johns ' story including and point out on second from that celebrated arc the I which immediately follow .
Then again , Doomsday Clockis expected to address the many inconsistency within the DC Universe itself , explaining the late continuity changes in a weirdly metatextual manner . Many have assumed this somehow places Dr. Manhattan as either an designer or at least a manipulator of the DC Universe , using his divine index to , well , act god . This inculpate a more aboveboard crossover than a DC comedian simply existing as a work of fabrication within the humans ofDoomsday Clock . And Johns even suggested the series would include face - to - face meetings between DC Comics andWatchmencharacters during the NYCC panel , implyingDoomsday Clockwould hold in scenes with Superman and Dr. Manhattan as well as Ozymandias and Lex Luthor .
It stay on to be seen just how Johns will orchestrate this grand opus , somehow thread together the screw thread and musical theme of bothWatchmenand the DC Universe . But with Superman being such an intact figure to the story , embodying the optimism of the DC Universe , it seems like too much of a coincidence forDoomsday Clock ’s setting to come at a metre when Superman has died and the DC Universe is left without Bob Hope .
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DOOMSDAY time # 1hits shelf November 22 , 2017 .
