The Watchmen Prequels

[userwhoquitthesite]

So, as much as I love Watchmen, I was all set to ignore the Watchmen prequels coming out, and pretend they didn't exist (much as I do with many things, such as the handheld sequels to Kingdom Hearts, and all the FFVII sequels), as opposed to futilely trying to lobby the company NOT to be fucktards.

then I saw this

That's a USA today article that contains artwork for the prequel.

FUCK
THIS
BOOK

First off, let's look at how bad the art IS. It's got this generic loopy style, looks awful. Then lets get to the comedian. Why is the comedian a gimp now? fuck you, comic!

the whole book is a betrayal of the original work, and I hope none of you even consider purchasing it.

I'm sorry, Mr. Moore.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

Just ignore it. It's not as if it's going to tarnish the original work.

And the Comedian wore a Gimp mask in the original too (to hide his identity after his face was scarred by the pregnant Vietnamese woman), just that it didn't have the zip, IIRC.

 

[Sixcess]

It's worth remembering that Watchmen started as a concept Moore had for characters he did not create, and that Moore has done a lot of work reworking other people's characters. The idea that Watchmen is somehow sacrosanct has more to do with DC's admittedly very underhand moves to ensure the creative rights to the characters did not revert back to Moore and Gibbons.

I don't particularly like prequels at the best of times, and do think that these books are entirely unecessary, but Watchmen covers a wide enough time period that there's room to explore (unlike say Moore's V for Vendetta, which although the same length has a much tighter narrative and would not lend itself at all to prequels or sequels) and there's some good writers and artists involved so let's hope some of it turns out to be good.

I like Darwyn Cook and Brian Azarello's work so those books could be good. Not sure about Ozymandias though he's probably the most blank slate character in terms of the period in which it's set. Nite Owl and Dr. Manhattan strike me as the least promising, and the thought of JMS writing Manhattan makes me cringe since it'll likely feed his worst urges to be pompous and pretentious.

Overall though, they can't be worse than the rest of the dross DC is churning out at the moment.

 

[Hoplon]

It's not other people using characters, it's the fact that most of them still do not get what the fucking comic was about and just do glossy ultra violence and cheese cake.

 

[Doclector]

Is it strange that I read that whole thing in my head with linkara's voice?

Anyway, this does seem to be just a massive cash in. The thing with filling in character's past is there has to be something important there. Watchmen...pretty much covered everything as to why the characters are the people they are now. What more could be said?

 

[Mysterious Username]

Needs more Steve Ditko inspired art.
MinuteMen at least looks interesting, only one I can see having a lot of potential given the members of that team weren't fleshed out during Watchmen(as it wasn't about them.)and I like the semi-classic looking art style.

 

[Bucht]

I'll pick up the prequels for sure, not because it's Watchmen related but because of the awesome line-up of writers and artists!

It's not because it's a cash-in that it'll be bad...

 

[Mr Somewhere]

I find it hard to feel anything toward these prequels, simply because I know there was no emotion behind them. Watchmen is nothing but a cash-cow to DC, it's painfully transparent.

 

[the abyss gazes also]

Okay. Here is my problem with these particular prequels: the seem entirely superfluous. While I think the Star Wars prequels were kind of awful, there was a series with unanswered questions. Watchmen doesn't really have unanswered questions. There were entire chapters devoted to the individual characters that tell us how they came to be.

Unless the did something with Mothman. He didn't get much attention.

 

[Mysterious Username]

Okay. Here is my problem with these particular prequels: the seem entirely superfluous. While I think the Star Wars prequels were kind of awful, there was a series with unanswered questions. Watchmen doesn't really have unanswered questions. There were entire chapters devoted to the individual characters that tell us how they came to be.

Unless the did something with Mothman. He didn't get much attention.

Nothing was done with the Minutemen in general. Which makes sense given Watchmen wasn't about them.
They really are all that's left to be fleshed out, except maybe Comedian as I never really got what led to him acting how he did in Watchmen.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Don't buy it.

Don't look at it.

Don't let them make money for doing this.

Let's just enjoy the original books, and the adaptions of Alan Moore's work that he stated he likes! We have so many adaptions to choose from, like... ummm...

V for Vendetta? No... Watchman? No... League of... RAAAAGGGGHHH!

...

I know!

The Justice League Unlimited adaption of "For the Man Who Has Everything."

No, seriously, that is the only story that Alan Moore actually gave permission for and didn't want his name removed from it.

 

[Akyho]

I donno... J, Micheal Strazinsky is doing some of the stories. OH wait...I forgot I dont buy comics. Then will ignore the upcoming Watchmen 2 movie. Since I am not very sure about it all.

 

[antipope]

Its not that I don't respect the work he did, but for the life of me I can't understand the why anyone still has reverence for Alan Moore. He has insulted every fan that still like watchmen, said out right that the only reason they still publish it isn't the demand but as part of the vast conspiracy against him. Insulted All the other creators of comics and fans of any modern com. Yes he did great work, yes the Watchmen prequels are naked money grabs, but no one owes Moore and apology least of all the fans who enjoyed the mans work so much they will buy prequels that may be of dubious quality.

 

[malestrithe]

The thing is I don't care about this project at all. I've never been a fan of Watchmen because I really don't see what the big deal is. For all of its innovation in storytelling, it still told a basic superhero story from the time. It was a product of the 80s, where the real hero was insane and the villain is a CEO.

If anything, the Dark Knight Returns has been the bigger influence on comic books. In addition to creating THE Batman of the last 25 years, DKR added different angles to comic books. It added a grimdark tone that did not exist before. It made heroes that do the job not because it's the right thing to do, but because no one else can. It ushered in the 90s in comic books.

The Watchmen had influence by adding a sense of superhero psychology to the work. We got to understand why certain heroes did what they did. It basically made DC into Marvel, but that influence did not occur until early 2000s. In the 90s, most new characters were too busy being Batman or Wolverine (Batverine? WolverMan?) to give a shit about motivation.

 

[Don Savik]

Because crazy old paranoid Alan Moore is still relevant? Let people do whatever they want to his franchises. The books where ok, and the movies were cool, and I don't really object to more people making more Watchmen. Because we're so angry over different people besides the creator of Batman writing Batman comics? Whats that? We don't care who writes Batman unless its good Batman?

Same thing.

If its good then its good, no need to hate it just because crazy tinfoil hat wearing Alan Moore didn't scribble it.

Watchmen was ok, but its not the messiah of comics as people make it out to be.