‘Before Watchmen ‘ Announced, Because Everybody Loves Prequels
I give you, Watchmen Babies!
Everything's coming up Milhouse!
Well, sort of…but not quite. DC has finally officially announced Watchmen 2. Only they’re going to be prequels, under the banner of ‘Before Watchmen’. This is pretty cool news, and I wish I could give it a bigger push.
But this has been a pretty lousy week for my blog. Chalk it up to a busy day job. I may not be posting as much cool stuff, but you readers should know that I’m going to be earning a ton of overtime covering this big murder trial. So…yay me! I’ll try to get comic reviews up like normal this weekend, and a new list.
But for now, let’s check out this badass Watchmen announcement. Check out the titles and some covers after the jump.
You can check out the full press release here, and the covers here, but essentially DC Comics has gathered up some of the most popular writers and artists in all of comicdom to do a bunch of prequel mini-series for pretty much every Watchmen character.
Rorschach, by writer Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo.
Nite Owl by writer J. Michael Straczynski and artists Andy and Joe Kurbert.
Dr. Manhattan by writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Adam Hughes.
Silk Spectre by writer Darwyn Cooke and artist Amanda Conner.
Minutemen by writer/artist Darwyn Cooke.
Comedian by writer Brian Azzarello and artist J.G. Jones.
Ozymandias by writer Len Win and artist Jae Lee.
Honestly, that is an impressive list of writers and artists. Some of the very best in the business. So at the very least, DC Comics is being respectful about this. Each mini-series will get either 4 or 6 issues, and will eventually end with a one-shot epilogue to tie it all together. They’ll start this sping.
But c’mon, DC just wants money! What other reason is there for doing this? DC offered one possible reason that reeks of PR crappery:
“It’s our responsibility as publishers to find new ways to keep all of our characters relevant,” said DC Entertainment Co-Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee. “After twenty five years, the Watchmen are classic characters whose time has come for new stories to be told. We sought out the best writers and artists in the industry to build on the complex mythology of the original.”
Lame. I don’t think anybody’s buying that.
DC Comics wants money and is willing to dig up a beloved classic and spit on its exalted corpse to earn a few more bucks. My guess is that they’re sad that their New 52 reboot isn’t winning the monthly comic book market anymore. So to stay on top, they’ll start throwing insane Hail Mary passes. They can never take this back. This will always be a splotch on the Watchmen franchise.
THERE ARE NO MORE WATCHMEN STORIES THAT NEED TO BE TOLD!
For more on this topic, let’s go to original Watchmen writer and God among comic books, Alan Moore, as quoted by the New York Times:
“I don’t want money. I want this not to happen. I tend to take this latest development as a kind of eager confirmation that they are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago,” said Moore, also the writer of the acclaimed League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Lost Girls and Swamp Thing. “As far as I know, there weren’t that many prequels or sequels to Moby-Dick.” The writer also said the Before Watchmen news reminds him of the “draconian contracts” he signed with DC at the time.
Posted on February 2, 2012, in Comics, DC and tagged Before Watchmen. Bookmark the permalink. 8 Comments.
Henchman-4-Hire 
When you first posted this, I thought you were talking about a film and then i thought it would be cool to have something focus on the older minute men a little bit more
but seein as it is actually about the minute men of the newer generation, I find it all a little bit miffed.
Watchmen is pretty much an open and shut case, with enough ambiguity in order to cast a shade on all the major characters, so that viewers can ddraw their own conclusion on what constitutes a hero or not.
These newer stories will only force the stereotypical type-casts of good/evil/antihero/villain on said characters.
Saying that, this is no different from hollywood doing an 80s film remake. It will sell and I may probably have a tinker at it since it shouldn’t affect how i view the original stories But I doubt it will hahve any significant impact on the comic book world.
Oh well.
Listen to yourself! You sound like a cynical asshole. Look at it plainly. You have talented writers and artists making some cool looking comic books about some of the greatest characters of all time. Stop caring about DC making money. And definitely stop caring about what Alan Moore said. He just compared his funny books to Moby Dick. Alan Moore can keep his high road; I just want to read decent comic books.
And that would actually be a nice change of pace. Nothing out of the new 52 has been very good. So if Watchmen prequels are DC’s attempt at breaking up the monotony of bland comic books, then I say thank you.
And don’t even get me started on this sudden prequel hate. You know prequels and flashbacks are great. The story before the story is an essential part of modern fiction. Revenge of the Sith, the flashback sequences in Godfather II, the Simpsons episodes about the births of Lisa and Maggie, these are all excellent stories that I certainly appreciate getting to see.
You say “need to be told” like that’s even a thing. It’s all fiction. It is all just make-believe. Re-read your post, I think you’ll see it’s a little nuts. You call Alan Moore a god. You refer to it as the “Watchmen franchise” so you’re already dismissing your own argument. And your assault against Dan Didio’s quote is out of nowhere. I think he makes a good point. All comic books are doing anymore is rearranging the furniture. There isn’t anything new out there, it is just the same old stuff with different spins and takes. That’s not that bad a thing. Sometimes they move the characters in just the right way and you get a great story. That’s all we can ask of them.
It also occurred to me that your whole post might be sarcastic. If that’s the case then you need to make it more obvious. Otherwise this brutal hatred for prequels is a little off-putting. I’ve actually spent this week writing up a blog entry for the 6 Best Video Game Prequels. Since I knew you had a busy week I thought I’d help out. But if this blog doesn’t wish to endorse quality story telling just because of its chronological placement, then maybe I’ll take my post to a different audience.
Now that of course is silly and I worked very hard on my post so I’m going to put it up here later tonight anyway. But seriously, re-read your post man. You kinda sound a little douchey. Just sayin’.
I don’t hate prequels. I’m just using everyone else’s dislike of prequels for a catchy title. But I stand behind my post. I disagree that there’s nothing new out there, that it’s OK for comic book companies to just rearrange the furniture. I can understand why they do it, it makes sense. But no, I don’t like it. I’ll probably definitely buy some of these Watchmen mini-series, and I may even like them, but if it was up to me I wouldn’t have gone with them.
I’d be much more in favor of DC trying to invent the next Watchmen instead of bald-facedly dredging them up out of nowhere for some random stories that nobody was asking for. I am all in favor of preserving the classics, and I chalk this move up alongside the same Hollywood studios who push live action movies based on semi-popular 80s cartoons.
Oh real quick my reply is aimed at Sean the guy who wrote the blog. I just saw that my reply comes right after Novembre Pleut’s reply and it sorta looks like I’m calling him an asshole. I just want to be clear that that is not the case. I’m not even calling Sean an asshole either. It’s a whole thing in my reply. But yeah I just looked and saw that Novembre Pleut posted like five minutes before me and I didn’t want there to be any confusion. I would never insult a fan of this blog. The blogger however, with his wacky cynicism, is another matter entirely.
Haha
no problem
When i first read it I thought, ‘oh my that was a bit harsh towards my comment’ but on further inspection, i saw it wasn’t directed at me.
But to be fair to the henchman, I think his post came off pretty neutral and even though his post title mentions prequels in it in a condescending manner, he doesn’t bash the idea of a prequel in general.
And I’m not sure this notion is something that the fans have been crying out for, so with that respect and considering all DC could be doing to go through their current lineup and make them better, it does seem out of the blue and a tad of a cash cow.
But none of us knwo how we’ll react to it, you may end up hating it while the henchman loves it.
Well said. I can’t disagree with any of that. And you make a good point, I assume the Henchman will probably do reviews on this blog for each issue when it comes out. That’ll be interesting to read.
hey Clip, good to read you again. You’re a real hot head. I was left with a bad taste in my mouth after watching the STAR WARS Prequels but have to admit Rorschach has me intrigued. the nite owl is a batmat rip off. Dr. Manhattan looks like a rapist. And that last chick is just going to be some fluff. anyway See if you can guess who I am.
C’mon, Episode III was pretty good. I know “best in the series” is probably asking too much. But it is still better than most sci-fi movies out there. Rorschach definitely looks cool. Nite Owl is supposed to be a rip-off of Blue Beetle, so being a rip-off of Batman is kind of a step up for him. And Dr. Manhattan always looks like a rapist. It certainly doesn’t help that he’s naked all the time.
And you’re going to have to give me better clues as to who you are. I don’t recall meeting anyone who calls me “Clip” instead of “Cip.” And my hot-headedness is only because of my passion for trivial things that don’t matter in the long run.