Watchmen Prequels: BEFORE WATCHMEN

[Keyser Soze Alpha-Lantern Find all posts View Profile Close Keyser Soze]

Except it's a business and the end goal is always profit.

Will this really hurt your enjoyment of the original series? Do you think the prequel will leave some sort of "taint" on the original? (I'm not directing those questions at you specifically but anyone in general who seems to think this is outrageous).

I don't know. Sometimes, you can just happily ignore lame sequels/prequels to classic stories: I can happily enjoy Jaws or Halloween or The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and just pretend the subpar follow-ups or in some cases the pointless remakes don't exist. But then there are other cases, such as the sequels for The Matrix or The Pirates of the Caribbean, where each subsequent movie is not only bad, but also mucks with the mythology of the series, to such an extent that you don't just hate the sequels, but are left wandering if the original film was all that good in the first place if this is where the story was going. In this case, unnecessary expansions of the mythology ARE damaging.

And Watchmen is a classic. It's not my favorite comic by any means, but from an objective perspective I can say it's a solid contender for the greatest graphic novel of all time. And there are certain classics that - in any other medium - would be sacrosanct. Nobody is going to have the audacity to go back to Citizen Kaine and tell a prequel going into more detail about the adventures of a boy and his bobsled, and you're not going to get a modern author writing The Son of Moby Dick and finding a credible publishing house willing to put it out on the shelves. We take this for granted, we hold these mediums to a certain standard of good taste where things like this would be unthinkable. But with comics, anything goes? And where everything else has been shilled and exploited and retconned and resurrected to death, Watchmen has always been that one entity within the Big Two wheelhouse that has been placed on a pedestal, and viewed as a piece of true literature: unblemished, definitive, complete.

So you see, making more Watchmen stories is about more than writing lame, unnecessary prequels. It's about tarnishing that status, and acknowledging that Watchmen is just another "franchise" to be milked like all the others. And fans willing to read it are no better than publishers willing to do it in the first place. You're all saying the same thing: that comics are just a throwaway trash medium that shouldn't be treated with the respect of an artform. And if the folks on the inside have that perspective, no wonder the folks on the outside think that way too.

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

I would not read a Watchment, LoEG, or V project that doesn't involve Moore.

... and you're not going to get a modern author writing The Son of Moby Dick and finding a credible publishing house willing to put it out on the shelves...

http://www.amazon.com/Perdition-Book...9373557&sr=8-1

[myuserid Lantern Hex Find all posts View Profile Close myuserid]

You honestly think that if Simon and Schuster or any other publisher thought that The Son of Moby Dick would sell a million copies, they wouldn't print it?

Of course they would.

[Mister.Weirdo Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Mister.Weirdo]

You honestly think that if Simon and Schuster or any other publisher thought that The Son of Moby Dick would sell a million copies, they wouldn't print it?

Of course they would.

People were still angry about that happening. Sometimes it's not good to touch a piece of classic literature, especially one like that. But thankfully that never happened.

[Keyser Soze Alpha-Lantern Find all posts View Profile Close Keyser Soze]

You honestly think that if Simon and Schuster or any other publisher thought that The Son of Moby Dick would sell a million copies, they wouldn't print it?

Of course they would.

I don't think Watchmen: The Early Years would sell a million copies, though. At least, I have enough faith in humanity to hope it wouldn't. And I think any gains it might make in monetary terms would surely be cancelled out by the loss of good will and credibility for DC. Or, again, at least I'd like to think so.

[CYLON (13) Alpha-Lantern Find all posts View Profile Close CYLON (13)]

I certaintly wouldn't buy it with a title like Watchmen: The Early Years!

That sounds, honestly, phookin' silly. Then again it is a comic...
Still, though; makes it sound like it'll be too "kiddy".

I would see a Watchman movie prequel, though. Is that weird?

[Mister Ed Horse of a Different Color Find all posts View Profile Close Mister Ed]

But then there are other cases, such as the sequels for The Matrix or The Pirates of the Caribbean, where each subsequent movie is not only bad, but also mucks with the mythology of the series, to such an extent that you don't just hate the sequels, but are left wandering if the original film was all that good in the first place if this is where the story was going. In this case, unnecessary expansions of the mythology ARE damaging.

This is exactly how I felt about the first Highlander sequel. It was SO bad, it retroactively tarnished my enjoyment of the first film. AND it forever killed my interest in any of the following Highlander productions, even though I have it on good authority that some of them were quite worthy. After watching that movie, I simply no longer care.

(To those that are Highlander enthusiasts, yes, I know I'm being unfair, and likely depriving myself of further enjoyment to boot.)

[Space Cop The Dandy Find all posts View Profile Close Space Cop]

(To those that are Highlander enthusiasts, yes, I know I'm being unfair, and likely depriving myself of further enjoyment to boot.)

Well, I've seen and own every Highlander movie and show and #1 is still the best by far, so not necessarily. #2 is the worst of the sequels though #5 is close. The show, overall, is significantly better than those sequels.

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker Moisture Farmer Find all posts View Profile Close Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

I worship the ground Watchmen walks on, so I'll buy this when hell freezes over. Or pigs fly.

Unless Moore, Gibbons, and Higgins did everything from top to bottom, this is just a big fucking joke. Kingdoms and DKSA revisited. And honestly? I'll be surprised if this ever sees print before falling apart. DCD couldn't even get their Gibbons' style figures off the ground.

[Ωmega Man Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Ωmega Man]

I really enjoyed a few of the characters and wouldn't mind seeing more of them in adventures pre-Watchmen. I thought both Nite Owls kicked ass, and while we hear about how Manhattan could have...

"...turned the gun into steam, the bullets into mercury, the bottle into snowflakes.."

All we ever saw was simple energy waves and him constructing really complex looking stuff. I wanna see him changing things up and not be so doom and gloom and serious.

Anything with Rorschach would be awesome to see if handled by the right creators. It all depends who's on what books and if the stories connect in any way. I'm also patiently awaiting Multiversity if that's where the Charlton/Watchmen-ish Grant stuff will be happening. Is that where his parallel Earth stories will be going?

~KL~

[Hypo Lil' Leaguer Find all posts View Profile Close Hypo]

Andy Kubert To Draw Watchmen 2 (UPDATE)

[Keyser Soze Alpha-Lantern Find all posts View Profile Close Keyser Soze]

+ YouTube Video

[CYLON (13) Alpha-Lantern Find all posts View Profile Close CYLON (13)]

[Hypo Lil' Leaguer Find all posts View Profile Close Hypo]

JG Jones To Draw The Comedian In Watchmen 2

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker Moisture Farmer Find all posts View Profile Close Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

This is going to be a ton of crap. And is it just me, or does Kubert doing this seem like slumming? I've never seen the fascination with his work. Why DC couldn't get Gibbons to do all of the work tells me everything I need to know.

Want to make these characters work DC? Try putting some effort into your Charlton line of characters. Something with better effort than Giordano's L.A.W. miniseries. Those are the characters with the future you should be concerned about. Revisiting Watchmen with the staff simply available at the time is like letting George Lucas tweak the Wizard Of Oz. You should just fucking KNOW better.

This is going to be awful. Kingdoms awful. I will not own copies of any of this garbage for free. I don't want it sullying my longboxes.