DC Unveils Watchmen Prequels

[The_root_of_all_evil]

If Grant Morrison or Warren Ellis wrote it, I'd buy it.

If Grant or Ellis wrote it, then they'd never reach "Watchmen" without being permanently crippled.

Much love for them, but don't give them anything you want to see again.

 

[Zhukov]

I wonder how it feels to work on something knowing full well that the person who actually created it doesn't want you to touch it.

 

[JesterRaiin]

After swarms of rumors and rampant speculation, DC has officially revealed the details and cover art for seven new Watchmen comics.

NO.BACKWARD.WRITING.
Official seal of disapprovement.

 

[Quellist]

Watchmen prequels without Alan Moore being involved? just what brain-donor thought this would be a good idea?

Fuck DC

 

[DracoSuave]

I predict the future this will lead to. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=YDDHHrt6l4w]

 

[luvd1]

Hmm. What would Alan Moore think about this? Most probably he wouldn't really care, he has moved on. He told his story, if someone else sees other stoies then all power to their sails.

 

[Canadish]

What a wonderful idea. I mean, what could go wrong guys? Right? Right?!

 

[Thoric485]

This passing around of a series between several writers and artists is why i don't read comics unless by specific recommendation. It's a disguisting practice that completely tramples artistic rights.

And the sad thing is that the gaming industry is heading on a similar path. Copyrights almost always stay with the publisher nowadays, and as seen in comics, this sort of thing can really hamper the progression of a medium.

 

[Marudas]

This, like the upcoming new Halo titles, is something you should vehemently oppose and refuse to purchase. Watchmen was a brilliant story that requires no further exposition. This is a greedy attempt to milk the franchise rather than have to put time and effort into coming up with new IP. The consumers can vote with their wallets on this one, and I hope the vote is "Come up with new ideas, jerks".

 

[Disasterpiece Press]

The creative teams here are really really good, and they'll all hopefully bringing their A-game to this. Even if you don't want to see Watchmen characters written again, you have to appreciate that we're going to get some good writing and art out of this.

I was just thinking the same thing. It sounds like a horrible idea and I absolutely sympathize with Moore as a writer myself, but DC did manage to convince a serious group of talent that this was a good idea, so there must be something to that, right? Sure, there is a collective groan across the internet, but I am morbidly curious to see what they come up with.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

That is fucking pointless. Watchmen encapsulated the origin stories of those characters without getting in the way of the story. Now they're going to spin all of that out as a prequel? Prequels that may retcon the shit out of certain events in Watchmen? Yeah, fuck you DC. Watchmen stands perfectly fine on its own. Don't fix what isn't broken.

 

[Hitchmeister]

I don't know why people are saying they'll wait to see what Alan Moore has to say about these when they come out. If you know enough to care what he'd say, you should already know that no works of mortal man can live up to His greatness.

(Yes, that was sarcastic and capitalization was intentional.)

 

[Nazrel]

I'm was all for complaining about this, but Brian Azzarello writing Rorshach and the Comedian? Well played.

Edit: Also

The perception that these characters shouldn't be touched by anyone other than Alan is both absolutely understandable and deeply flawed. As good as these characters are and they are very good indeed, one could make the argument, based on durability and recognition, that Superman is the greatest comics character ever created. But I don't hear Alan or anyone else suggesting that no one other than Shuster and Siegel should have been allowed to write Superman. Certainly Alan himself did this when he was brought on to write Swamp Thing, a seminal comics character created by Len Wein.

Leaving aside the fact that the Watchmen characters were variations on pre-existing characters created for the Charleton Comics universe, it should be pointed out that Alan has spent most of the last decade writing very good stories about characters created by other writers, including Alice (from Alice in Wonderland), Dorothy (from Wizard of Oz), Wendy (from Peter Pan), as well as Captain Nemo, the Invisible Man, Jeyll and Hyde, and Professor Moriarty (used in the successful League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). I think one loses a little of the moral high ground to say, "I can write characters created by Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle and Frank Baum, but it's wrong for anyone else to write my characters."

The whole point of having great characters is the opportunity to explore them more deeply with time, re-interpreting them for each new age. That DC allowed these characters to sit on a shelf for over two decades as a show of respect is salutary, but there comes a time when good characters have to re-enter the world to teach us something about ourselves in the present.

- J. Michael Straczynski

I think that quote sums it up perfect. Moore is all to happy to writer other peoples works, but has until now steadfastly refused to allow anyone touch his. I understand they're his creation but there's such a hit of double standards off it.

Will this be any good? I don't know. I probably wont pick up the single issue, but wait until the collected volumes come along and cherry pick the ones I'm interested in.

What I do see though, is a chance for something to expand. And for those who don't want it expanding, ignore it. Pretend in your own little world that Watchmen stopped when Moore stopped it. It's kinda what a lot of people do with things like Indiana Jones, Star Wars and other IP extenders.

There is a difference between re-imaging 100 year old romantic literature characters(style not genre) and creating comic book style prequels to a deconstruction of the medium.

It doesn't matter how good they may or may not be, they're just undermining the point of the original work.

 

[TitanAtlas]

Why DC, why are you so hellbent in making me hate you... If somethings good or perfect, you leave it alone, you don't mess with the story. Different writters and artists to already perfect stories, will only ruin it. Why the hell DC.

*Punches Wall*

Help me out Lord Vader!!


Also i expect this to happen. Pretend the blond kid is DC comics and Cesar is Alan Moore:


I can only hope...

 

[Otaku World Order]

As talented as Moore is, he can be kind of an asshole when it comes to protecting his work. Then again after the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie, maybe he has a point.

Either way, I think he's right on this one. Watchmen doesn't need sequels, prequels or expansions of any kind.

I'm sorry, I was too overwhelmed with images of the Saturday Morning Watchmen video to finish the article.

But J. Michael Straczynski? Haven't seen his comic stuff but he's certainly not a hack.

I wouldn't be too sure of that. *cough*OneMoreDay*cough*

 

[Nazrel]

As talented as Moore is, he can be kind of an asshole when it comes to protecting his work. Then again after the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie, maybe he has a point.

Either way, I think he's right on this one. Watchmen doesn't need sequels, prequels or expansions of any kind.

I'm sorry, I was too overwhelmed with images of the Saturday Morning Watchmen video to finish the article.

But J. Michael Straczynski? Haven't seen his comic stuff but he's certainly not a hack.

I wouldn't be too sure of that. *cough*OneMoreDay*cough*

J. Michael Straczynski has his failings a a writer. He can't make things fit together well, which is possibly why he see's no issue with this; and a lot of the time I think he introduces enigmatic plot points with no idea what they realty mean or how they're going to play out.

One More Day however was an editorial mandate.

 

[Falcon123]

I love how so many people are convinced this is going to suck BEFORE a single issue has come close to hitting the stands. The novel will always be there, and it will always be everything it was to you when you read it, but these stories (written by some pretty solid writers from what I can tell) have a chance to be something different. Do we hate everything Spiderman because One More Day was shit? No! It would be stupid. One of these Watchmen series probably won't work. Maybe more than one. But some could be quite good. It's not like these characters are so overwhelmingly unique that no one other than Moore could write them without ruining everything.

Yeah, the intentions behind why this is happening aren't pure. Money's involved. It's a business. People need to get over that. There have been many moves in the comic book industry (New 52, any major crossover event) that were done for money that ended up really successful (39 of 52 series getting consistently high marks by IGN and other reviewers, with 5 of the six that didn't getting cancelled in two months and things like Marvel's Civil War respectively) AND were really fun reads.

My point (to which it took me far too long; sorry ) is that until the first issue hits the stand, we should hold our judgment, or else we're just limiting ourselves from a potentially interesting comic.

 

[Hoplon]

Let me explain; Sometimes IP mining (and this is blatant IP mining) goes O.K.

I'm gonna have to ask for an example on this one. Sorry, but I can't think of a single example where something is mined without the express permission of the author that doesn't turn against everything the author has worked for.

I have VERY relevant exaple; The Watchmen Movie. Alan Moore said; 'I will be spitting venom all over it' yet the film was, if anything, TOO faithful to the comic. It basically filmed as much as the comic pannel for pannel as was humanly possible.

So there.

...No. Schneider took realistic violence and turned it in to ultra violence porn. that hack mother fucker can die in a fire.

Let me preface this with an acknowledgement that Alan Moore is a madman of epic proportions.

He still makes JMS look like fucking Stephenie Meyer.

For me this is like people writing prequals to hamlet and getting dan brown to do it, DC can fuck right off.

 

[tautologico]

I'm was all for complaining about this, but Brian Azzarello writing Rorshach and the Comedian? Well played.

Edit: Also

The perception that these characters shouldn't be touched by anyone other than Alan is both absolutely understandable and deeply flawed. As good as these characters are and they are very good indeed, one could make the argument, based on durability and recognition, that Superman is the greatest comics character ever created. But I don't hear Alan or anyone else suggesting that no one other than Shuster and Siegel should have been allowed to write Superman. Certainly Alan himself did this when he was brought on to write Swamp Thing, a seminal comics character created by Len Wein.

Leaving aside the fact that the Watchmen characters were variations on pre-existing characters created for the Charleton Comics universe, it should be pointed out that Alan has spent most of the last decade writing very good stories about characters created by other writers, including Alice (from Alice in Wonderland), Dorothy (from Wizard of Oz), Wendy (from Peter Pan), as well as Captain Nemo, the Invisible Man, Jeyll and Hyde, and Professor Moriarty (used in the successful League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). I think one loses a little of the moral high ground to say, "I can write characters created by Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle and Frank Baum, but it's wrong for anyone else to write my characters."

The whole point of having great characters is the opportunity to explore them more deeply with time, re-interpreting them for each new age. That DC allowed these characters to sit on a shelf for over two decades as a show of respect is salutary, but there comes a time when good characters have to re-enter the world to teach us something about ourselves in the present.

- J. Michael Straczynski

It's a good point by JMS, but the analogy he makes is faulty. There is a difference: one thing is taking a character and writing him/her in a new or reimagined context, taking from them what the author perceives as essential but (possibly) changing what's nonessential to fit your vision. It's another thing to take characters and their context/universe (both characters and universe having previously been heavily imbued with the "voice" of the author) and trying to add to that universe writing new stories for the same character. Comparisons with Superman are also failed, as he was a character intentionally created for serials.

The difference is better explained by an example: one thing is re-imagining the Sherlock Holmes universe and characters and writing a new story in this new setting. This is what the recent movies do; be the result good or bad, it's not trying to be what it's not. What DC is doing would be like writing new Sherlock Holmes stories trying to keep the exact same universe and stylings of Arthur Conan Doyle. It would, inevitably, sound fake.

I'm not saying the prequels will be bad. The writing team seems to me to be very good. I just find it hard to see how they will be able to add to the original Watchmen universe without sounding fake or just completely superfluous. It's a closed story, all you need to know is there. You don't need to "better explain" things or "fill the blanks", and this often leads to a cheapening of the original works (see: the prequel Star Wars trilogy).

 

[The Pinray]

I don't like this idea, but I'm not judging until I read them. I'll keep my fingers crossed that they'll be good.