The countdown to DC Comics’ Doomsday Clock is ticking, and as we draw closer to the massive Rebirth event series, the publisher continues to tease out details. Today, the information comes in the form of the covers for the series’ first issue.
RELATED: DC’s Doomsday Clock Plans Were Nearly Canceled
The covers, revealed on Twitter by series writer and DC Entertainment’s chief creative officer Geoff Johns, evoke the look of Dave Gibbons’ classic Watchmen covers. One of the covers by series artists Gary Frank and Brad Anderson stars Superman, the DC hero at the center of the series’ storyline, while Doctor Manhattan, the Watchmen character responsible for the DC Universe’s current jumbled continuity, looms large in the background. Taking a closer look, you’ll notice that Superman is actually being built from a myriad of watch parts, reinforcing the theory that not only is Manhattan behind the current Rebirth upheaval the DCU is experiencing, he’s the one who was actively responsible for dismantling the DC Universe in the first place, and creating the New 52 era.
The second cover pays even more direct homage to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen, eschewing the typical image of a superhero for one featuring the normal citizens of the DC Universe. The cover is colored in the browns and reds that dominated much of the Watchmen palette, and features angry woman and men, bearing signs that declare “The End Is Near,” echoing the sentiment seen in the populace of the Watchmen universe throughout that series’ storyline.
Earlier this year, Johns appeared to confirm the longstanding fan theory that Doctor Manhattan is indeed puppet master behind the New 52 era, an idea lent even more credence by the cover above. “Thematically, and metaphorically, there was no better choice than to use Doctor Manhattan,” Johns said. “If you’re going to have a conflict between optimism and pessimism, a battle between the very forces of hope and despair, you need to have someone who personifies the cynicism that has leaked into our hearts and also has the ability to affect the entire DCU. It’s all paying off this November with Doomsday Clock.”
“Doomsday Clock is a story for fans who love the DC Universe and Watchmen and want to see what a master of this genre creates when he puts them together,” Frank said of his work on the project. “As for my artistic approach to the series, each panel is extremely detailed and I am constantly thinking through the position of every single element.”
This will be Geoff Johns’ first foray into comics since last year’s DC Universe Rebirth #1; he will be joined on the project by Gary Frank and Brad Anderson.