Countdown To Final Crisis - Promotional Campaign

Promotional Campaign

At the New York Comic Con in 2007, DC distributed four pins, with the option of a fifth, promoting storylines in Countdown. The first four pins say: "WWMMD?" ("What Would Mary Marvel Do?"), "I Found Ray Palmer", "Look to the Skies!" and "Jimmy Olsen Must Die!". The final pin says, "Darkseid Rules!"

A teaser poster was released, which shows Wonder Woman comforting Superman, Batman in a different costume (with a sword and what appears to be chain mail armor) and Donna Troy wearing her Wonder Girl costume again. Kyle Rayner is wearing a yellow ring, and Mary Marvel is shown partially in shadow. Mister Miracle stands next to Big Barda. Also notable among the poster is a Legion flight ring, a minuscule red hand (the Atom's) sticking out of the rubble, and the bodies of Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), Maxwell Lord, The Question (Vic Sage), and Jade — major or notable heroes who had recently died. The heroes are gathered around the head of the Statue of Liberty; the decapitated body of the statue can be seen in the background.

While alternately revealing and retracting his statements about Jason Todd being the new Red Robin, Dan DiDio confirmed the latter within the pages of DC Comics as of July 2007. Didio had also previously mentioned that Barry Allen would be the returning Flash.

In later interviews, Dan DiDio finally explained the symbolism of the image in light of the fact that a second was soon to be released.

Released with books published on July 5, 2007 in the DC Nation: #68 column, Didio described the picture's symbolism: "Anyone standing on barren ground is doomed. In this case, it spells the Death of the New Gods...The yellow ring corrupts Kyle (Rayner) in The Sinestro Corps War...Jason Todd becomes Red Robin, driving a wedge in the Challengers from Beyond...Green Arrow struggles to win the love of Black Canary...Batman, in symbolic garb, wields the sword that hearkens the return of a deadly foe (Ra's al Ghul)...Dressed in Barry's costume, Bart (Allen, the Flash) showed that he had one foot in the grave...A Legionnaire is lost and marked for death in Countdown...The Atom, lost, struggles to survive...The shield marked Hippolyta's return...Superman and Wonder Woman discuss parent issues...Is that a Boom Tube I see, and can that be the path to salvation?...The shadow of evil falls over Mary Marvel...and the statue head, reminiscent of and tied to Kamandi #1, also reflects Sinestro's upcoming visit to the Big Apple."

A second teaser image was released by DC comics to the website Newsarama.com. Drawn by Ethan Van Sciver with the caption "...And Evil Shall Inherit The Earth". It depicts various DC characters and Dan DiDio states that it '...will get us to the end of Countdown.'

A series of promotional posters highlighting the main characters in Countdown have been released over several months. They also appeared as full paged ads in several comic books and several issues of Wizard magazine. These include:

• Eclipso extending a hand to Mary Marvel and a message that reads "Seduction of the Innocent".
• An angry Ray Palmer under a magnifying glass with the message "I Found Ray Palmer!".
• Jimmy Olsen looking up from the bottom of the poster with the message "Jimmy Olsen Must Die!"
• The hands of the Trickster and the Pied Piper handcuffed together, reading "Villains Defiant!"
• Darkseid's face with the message "Unto Man Shall Come... A Great Disaster".

A series of in house ads have run through DC's comic books based on the pins and posters. All of them have been illustrated by Ryan Sook. These include:

• Eclipso wearing a "What Would Mary Marvel Do?" button.
• Red Robin wearing an "I Found Ray Palmer!" button.
• The Joker wearing a "Jimmy Olsen Must Die" Button on his lapel. Another image has the Joker grinning while wearing Jimmy's press pass, his bowtie, and his Superman signal watch.
• Granny Goodness wearing a "Darkseid Rules!" button.
• Superman wearing a "Look to the Skies!" button.

A series of in house ads for series undergoing revamps have begun to appear. These ads incorporate the series' title as a partial crumbling stone block on a white background and the tagline "The Countdown continues". All of them have been illustrated by Ryan Sook.