Duh. The headline is that 25 years after-the-fact, DC finally decided to snatch the money off the table. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen is the bestselling graphic novel of all time, and there’s good reason for it: It’s a piece of art with mystery, politics, philosophy, and (of course) action and violence, told using characters with depth and weight.
So why do prequels and fuck that all up? Simple. $$$
Yeah, there’s a lot of talent attached to the seven 4-issue minis that will each focus on a particular Watchman, but I can’t imagine why this story needs to be told. Dave Gibbons graciously calls the project a “tribute” to the originals. As you can imagine, Moore hasn’t been as kind—he calls it “shameless…confirmation that [DC Comics is] still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago.” Fans of comic history will recall that it is this precise book that led to Moore’s exit from the “big two” once and for all when DC stopped paying him royalties. 15 years later, still angry, he rebuffed DC’s offer to give him back the rights to his (entirely original) characters if he would take up the prequel/sequel project. He refused because he’d done what he wanted to do with the Watchmen characters and didn’t want anyone else playing in his sandbox either.
I’m not saying I agree with Moore: When, as a creator, you agree to sign with a publisher and create stuff for them, it ain’t yours no more. Can you imagine if Stan Lee threw a hissy fit every time someone worked with Spidey? Or what if Alan Moore himself hadn’t rejiggered Charlton Comics characters to create the Watchmen in the first place? Or what if they stopped using American Gothic knockoffs in commercial projects? (Okay, he’s got me there.)
Moore’s kind of a nutbag. Genius, but nutbag.
So now, DC has finally decided that they don’t need no stinkin’ Alan Moore. I pray they’re wrong, but I’m practically certain that they are wrong and they do need him.
Here’s the lineup on the various books.
- Rorschach. Everybody’s favorite Watchman. By Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo, who previously worked together on the fairly good “Luthor” miniseries.
- Minutemen by Darwyn Cooke (writer and artist).
- Comedian by Azzarello and J.G. Jones.
- Nite Owl by J. Michael Straczynski, Andy Kubert and Joe Kubert.
- Ozymandias by Len Wein and Jae Lee (Underwire),
- Silk Spectre by Cooke and Amanda Conner.
- Dr. Manhattan by J. Michael Straczynski and Adam Hughes.
- As a back-up feature (God, I hate backups, but at these are only 2-pages per issue) Crimson Corsair will be serialized, written by Len Wein and drawn by John Higgins, who was the colorist on the original Watchmen. Oh, the irony. Alan Moore completely transformed Len Wein’s Swamp Thing character and made everyone forget about Len, and now Wein is taking on Watchmen!
The only ones I’m really interested in reading are Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan (because I want to see how JMS handles that). Oh, and Silk Spectre. Because I’ll read Amanda Conner drawing just about anyone’s boobs.
Now hit the break for more news you can’t use, about X-Men First Class 2, Spider-Man and the Avengers flicks, Robocop, and more….
Tags: Comic books
As artist only, the writer/artist who created Frog Thor and Beta Ray Bill will be the new regular artist for the Brian Michael Bendis written Avengers book, beginning with issue #25. Of course, with Bendis promising to leave The Avengers this year, could it be Walt is prepping for a larger role? One can only hope, as Simonson’s imagination has led to some brilliant work in the past, such as:
In with the old, out with the new…Let’s start this year with a look back.
launch in April, just a few months before each character will be featured in a major motion picture.
from New X-Men (like the see-through guy, the floating head, and Beak)? Even a look back a the old Power Man and Iron Fist rogues gallery, who were largely inane but terrific fun to read (Chemistro!). This is a book that could, can, and should reward nerds—we’ll buy it, I promise.
Also known as the top 10 suggestions D.C. will ignore in 2012….For indies and the overall industry, go here.
4. Less books, better books. 
2. ‘Mazing Man: Absolute Edition and Steve Gerber’s Hard Time Vol. 2. 
madly in love with. I enjoyed it, and I can see why so many people are nuts about it, but I actually fell for Lapham based on a much later work: His DeadpoolMAX series. It’s one of the best superhero satires I’ve ever been blessed to read. After reading that, I went back to dig up copies of Stray Bullets and some other work he did. One of the items I found was Crossed: Family Values, the sequel to Garth Ennis’ extremely graphic gross-out take on the “zombie” theme. (It’s not zombies, it’s a madness virus—kind of like 28 Days Later, but the tale reads like many zombie stories.) Crossed: FV was like Ennis’ most disgusting work times ten. It was brutally violent, full of rape and incest and all forms of sick baby violence you would ever want.
