10 Reasons To Look Forward To Doomsday Clock

In 2016, DC for a great deal of the year teased a mysterious, forthcoming Rebirth. They would then take to the stage in a livestream event, quite uncommon in style to a lot of comics announcements, and pulled out all the stops to announce their upcoming refresh (not quite a reboot, but not a relaunch either) with most of their books going in a new direction.

This would all be kicked off by DC Rebirth #1. Pretty much right the way up until release, we knew nothing about the book except rumours.

Then, when the issue leaked a day or two before release in the deep recesses of the internet, DC didn't go out and spoil their own book in a major news publication: they let people who wanted to be spoiled hunt out the spoilers, and those that didn't got a chance to go into the book and be surprised.

Releasing the same day as the finale of The Darkseid War, both titles, written by DC Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, contained hints at a crossover that no one was expecting: Doctor Manhattan was the one truly responsible for the New 52 reboot, and was continuing to manipulate things behind the scenes.

This year, and running for 12 issues, Doomsday Clock finally brings this controversial mystery to a close, and will leave the DC Universe changed yet again. Let's get hyped.

A great deal of recent DC stories, especially by Geoff Johns, were inspired by Alan Moore's ideas. With this tale, perhaps we'll move on from this trend.

It's in pretty much everything. From his time on Green Lantern and the event, Blackest Night, Johns built upon a small, almost throwaway piece of history in an old Alan Moore comic starring the Green Lanterns.

It led to the exploration of the emotional spectrum, the formation of Yellow, Red, Indigo and Orange Lanterns, among others, and characters like Sodam Yat.

So yes, Johns was inspired by Moore and his works clearly, but he also has built upon those old stories and often small elements to create vast, multileveled histories, structures and stories that have gone on the fuel the DC Universe for years.

And now it seems Johns is getting inspiration from Moore's greatest, most well-known work, The Watchmen.

It makes sense - Watchmen, when it came out, was one of the comics that saw a complete change in direction for the future of comics as a whole, not just at DC, as Moore and artist Dave Gibbons created a masterpiece of the form. But it also arguably led to the introduction of darkness and 'grim 'n' gritty' to comics storytelling, something that audiences now are starting to turn away from in the pursuit of something more hopeful and positive.

So Johns looking for inspiration here makes sense, even if taking the Watchmen into the fold of the DC Universe proper is a controversial choice (Moore famously is not on the best of terms with DC, which is putting it mildly, ostensibly over his treatment surrounding this book's rights).

However, hopefully, this will prove to be the end of it for Johns. Johns can find inspiration in other old stories or continue building on the universe as it stands without pulling out old plot threads. Only time will tell, but if one were to end their excavation of an old writer's work, waiting until you've drawn from their masterpiece is a good time to do it.