Yesterday, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced that for the first time since 1953, the Doomsday Clock – its representation of how close the world is to a catastrophic, civilisation-ending disaster – would be moved to two minutes to midnight. DC Comics decided that was a grand way to promote its current event series, named Doomsday Clock, until it went a bit awry.
Image: DC Comics
For those of you who aren’t following along, DC is currently running a 12-issue series from Geoff Johns, Gary Frank and Brad Anderson, which promises to merge the iconic Watchmen universe into the wider DC Comics continuity. Dr Manhattan meeting Superman, Batman meeting Rorschach, things like that. The third issue of the series just came out this week.
But everyone’s talking about the Doomsday Clock for another reason today, now that the Bulletin’s announced the new position of its Doomsday Clock. It’s the closest it has ever been to midnight (the metaphorical moment of a global cataclysm of our own doing), and the first time the clock has been moved this close since 1953, when the Cold War saw the US and other nations begin to develop hydrogen bombs far more powerful than previous atomic payloads.
With that in mind, DC Comics thought it had the perfect opportunity to promote its own Doomsday Clock… and then immediately got lambasted on social media for capitalising on #DoomsdayClock being one of the the top trends on Twitter.
Probably not the best time to tweet something like this @DCComics pic.twitter.com/2n2ENE05uN
— Callum – Biglius Squiglius (@CallyWally19) January 25, 2018
It wouldn’t actually be the first time the publisher has tied the event into our rapidly-encroaching end times. The company previously announced the first issue of the series would be made available at 11:57PM at special midnight launches. It was a pointed reference to the real Doomsday Clock’s then-current position of three minutes to midnight (the clock moved to two-and-a-half minutes in 2017, sparked by President Trump’s nuclear sabre-rattling with North Korea). But it would seem that this time, being the closest the world’s been to total destruction in over 60 years, was a bit too much – and the tweet was surreptitiously deleted.
DC has now issued a new tweet apologising for its earlier Doomsday Clock promotion.
Sincere apologies for this morning’s tweet – it was not meant to offend or minimize the seriousness of today’s events.
— DC (@DCComics) January 25, 2018
Enjoy your distractions from impending disaster responsibly, folks.
Comments
10 responses to “DC Comics Tries To Capitalise On Announcement Of Impending Apocalyptic Disaster, Regrets It Immediately”
Oh good grief. You read something like this and fear the future of humanity, not with the threat of Nuclear annihilation but silliness.
Yes it is not a laughing manner but at the same time laughing is a humans way of dealing with complicated issues. There is a reason why in such serious times shows like Stephen Colbert, Daily Show and Last Week Tonight resonate with people, well the ones with a sense of humour.
You’re living in the past man. Nowadays, we deal with complicated issues by getting outraged and tweeting about it for 3 days…Then forgeting all about it.
True, well that’s what the Twitter fueled masses do. Thankfully they are just the vocal minority of the world.
The tweet wasn’t a joke though, just a completely shameless marketing ploy.
Oh come on, the Clock is really a bit of a joke now. Back in 1953 it was poignant because the threat of global nuclear war was actually very, very real – for some it seemed almost inevitable. The Clock has been steadily ticking forward since 2010 not just because of the DRPK and Trump, but because of climate change inaction and proliferation of nuclear technology in the Middle East and NE Asia.
There’s no reason to take the Doomsday Clock so seriously. It’s a metaphor that keeps getting diluted so as to remain relevant.
If you watched the stream the scientist even said its a metaphor, a symbol to promote discussion, he even reiterated it again just to be clear its not a real clock. Yet the amount of comments thinking its is a literal clock was just so disheartening.
As for not talking it so seriously, mayne we should. I mean do we really want to get to the point of no return?
As for this arcticle it makes it out got slammed on Twitter but shows one comment which is a mild suggestion at best.
The Clock is really an expert opinion, an image to demonstrate that opinion, so that the masses have something to stare at… And then promptly ignore. The real serious stuff are the issues it represents, not the fairly arbitrary setting of the hands. At best it’s little more than a reminder. At worst it’s fear-mongering, like suggesting that we’re going to suffer through nuclear war over a tweet…
Both works of fiction meant to fuel the imagination, only difference is ones entertainment and the other is fear mongering.
Another difference: one is for-profit and the other is not.
True true, though scared people tend to fall for increased military spending.
Look here in Australia, a few warnings about North Korea being able to hit us and politicians are bending over to throw money at the Military-Industrial-Congressional complex.
Didn’t even get a single story explaining how many early warning and missile defence systems it would actually need to get past to hit us.
(And who can forget all these “accidental” false alarms)