We interrupt this regularly scheduled Waiting for Wednesday to bring you the following.
DC Comics is officially publishing Watchmen prequels, all under the name, "Before Watchmen."
Who says there are no new ideas in comics today, right?
Snarky comments aside, this is pretty big news--it's all over the Internet this morning, and it's been picked up by a bunch of major outlets. Watchmen is, of course, a watershed achievement in comics history, considered by many to be the greatest comic book of all time.
The graphic novel collections are an enormous source of revenue for DC's back list and is a huge source of pride for the company. Returning to the franchise, then, is a big decision that DC hopes will bring in big sales.
What perhaps makes this even more intriguing, though, is the fact that the book's author, Alan Moore, has quite famously been opposed to any kind of follow-up, tie-in, or prequel to the original series. Moore also quite famously refused to endorse the feature film that was released a few years ago, having nothing whatsoever to do with its production.
Alan Moore's take on this will, I'm sure, be big news in the days to come.
As for the forthcoming prequels themselves, there will be eight in total, highlighted by a Rorschach series by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo; a Minutemen series written and drawn by Darwyn Cooke; a Silk Spectre series written by Cooke with art by Amanda Conner; and most surprisingly, an Ozymandius series by original Watchmen editor Len Wein and drawn by Jae Lee.
Personally, I'm not offended by the idea of prequels, as I hold fast to the theory that, no matter how continuity may change, the original story remains exactly as it was. As long as I own the graphic novel by Moore and Dave Gibbons, I can read it any time I want.
And, frankly, I plan to give a couple of these new books a shot--I'm especially interested in the Rorschach book, as Azzarello and Bermejo have made some incredible comics together.
How about you guys? Any thoughts on the big announcement?
1 comment:
I'd read Rorschach or Ozymandias; they were the most interesting characters to me, and I wouldn't mind seeing them in action again.
Post a Comment