New Watchmen Prequels

I'm a Darwyn Cooke completist, so I'll be getting his parts for sure.

Moore will say what he says - I think we can all predict what he will say by now - and that's fine.  I don't resent him for it and I probably agree on most points.  But Watchmen is pretty untouchable.  Nothing will ever put a stain on that.  Haven't read Straczynsk so don't know what to expect.

Confession time - When I watch Godfather III by itself, I think hey, it's not too bad.  There's an interesting story there with the popes and the banks and so forth.  George Hamilton is a poor sub for Duvall, but Sofia Coppola's not as bad as everyone said when it was released.  When I watch them back to back to back, holy shit, it's nearly unwatchable.  But by itself, its qualities are a little more apparent.  Maybe the same for the Watchmen prequels, who knows.

I'm of the opinion that the actual comics, as unnecessary as they are, will likely be fine. Who knows, Cooke might actually have something to say about Laurie outside of her boyfriends. The quality of the work is probably the least of the concerns here.

To me, the whole thing strikes me as the Didio regime telling Alan Moore to fuck off once and for all. Levitz obviously had too much respect for Moore to go that far. Didio is basically saying that Moore and Gibbons will never get the rights back and DC will exploit Watchmen however they damn well feel like. It's not like the Levitz approach got DC much of anywhere with Moore.

To me, that's where the disrespect lies. Watchmen is an untouchable classic and it will remain an untouchable classic. DKSA had no effect on The Dark Knight Returns and I expect Before Watchmen to have even less effect.

To DC, Money is sacred.

The Thor Crew weighs in. (EDIT: Or rather, we will shortly)

I kept it short, mainly because I agree with pretty much everything that Prankster says. I also like what this guy has to say about the weird double standard that fans have regarding Alan Moore.

When's Jerusalem coming out, again?

Quote:

Originally Posted by D.S. Randlett 

The Thor Crew weighs in.

 

 

Sorry, I accidentally hit "Publish" when I was trying to Preview. I corrected it pretty fast (I thought!), but Eileen hasn't officially published it yet so it doesn't have the "star" ratings. It does seem sporadically linkable, though.

But by golly, when it does get up, it's a corker.

Ah, I was wondering why it popped up on Twitter but not the main site.

Up now.

That's an excellent read, and I appreciate everyone's thoughts but I admit my emotional investment in the topic isn't up there with everyone's.  The good thing is, nothing will put a dent in Watchmen.

I'm not outraged, largely because it's not unexpected, DC have been planning it for a long time.

But I'm also not interested. Watchmen by itself was perfect. DC and Time Warner are trying to turn it into a franchise as is the strip mining goal of anything popular these days in the never ending throw it at the wall to see what sticks search for the next Harry Potter phenomenon.

But no one is ever going to convince me that anything can be added to Watchmen; that anything new could possibly enrich it. In the end, they'll make money but they'll ultimately dilute the original story. I'd rather DC put their energy into developing and improving the products they've got, doing sensible things like keeping the same amazing creative team on Batwoman rather than digging up old bones and smearing lipstick on them, but they smell controversy and that means money.