Doomsday Smiley Face - Looking Beyond the Smear

Ah, the blood covered smiley face. For anyone who's read Watchmen, the icon is instantly recognizable. More than just a logo, the smiley face represents the Doomsday Clock, originally conceived in 1947. The Doomsday Clock measures time for the human race facing the threat of nuclear arms being unleashed. When the "minute" hand reaches "midnight," catastrophic annihalation is represented. For those curious enough or dreadful of a nuclear apocolypse starting anytime soon, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists state the clock is at five minutes to midnight. In Watchmen's case, the clock also starts at five minutes to midnight. The blood smear represents a "hand" moving over to midnight. There is a "clock" throughout the comic that gets closer and closer to midnight as the conspiracy behind the Comedian's death unravels.

Given the violent nature of the notorious Comedian, there is a dark sense of humor involved when the smiley face takes place of the Doomsday Clock. The human race's time limit of five minutes to midnight, do people think about nuclear arms detonating everywhere in sight? No. We watch TV, play video games, go to the movie theatre, etc. to get away from life's darker nature. I believe Alan Moore penned Watchmen as a wakeup call to nuclear apocolypse. Nuclear arms still exist and present a serious hazard to Earth's future. Try thinking about that when watching American Idol.

- Kristopher