The Backroom

Before Watchmen-Thoughts

Kevin Malcolm — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:23:30 +0000

"In Gratitude" seems a bit presumptuous, no?

By now you’ve probably heard the news that DC has decided to release prequels to the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons miniseries, Watchmen, in the form of 7 new miniseries with 34 total issues. If you’re counting, that almost triples the number of issues in the original series.

DC has certainly put A-list writers and artists on these books. Brian Azzarello has made his career on telling stories about gritty, semi-moral (at best) characters, so he seems to be a good fit for the Rorschach and The Comedian series. Darwyn Cooke has previously shown his love for 1950s era heroes, so he seems like a great choice for Minutemen and Silk Spectre. While I’m not a big fan, I can understand why DC chose to use J.Michael Straczynski on Watchmen’s Batman and Superman analogues Nite Owl and Dr Manhattan.

The artistic talent is as top notch as the writing talent: Amanda Conner, Adam and Andy Kubert, JG Jones, Darwyn Cooke, and Adam Hughes–all artists with amazing illustrative chops. On paper, these miniseries look like slam-dunks, but even if the books are executed in top form, I can’t help but feel uneasy about the decision that DC made to do these comics in the first place. I just don’t see the need for it. Sure, I could be a typical raging nerd and grouse about how this is all about DC and Time Warner wanting to make money, and I’m sure that figures highly into their calculation, but a financial need is not what I’m talking about. Where is the need in regards to the story?

What stories were left untold in the original miniseries? Why should I care about these characters outside of their original raison d’être–they were cyphers that allowed Moore and Gibbons to examine what heroes were, are and will be? They’re not characters like Superman or Batman that will forever fight never-ending battles. The characters in Watchmen had a finite purpose and I don’t see the need to tell the stories behind the motivations that Moore and Gibbons already carefully crafted.

I could be wrong. These comics may not only fit into Watchmen canon seamlessly, but also give the original series a heretofore unknown depth, and if they do, I’ll gladly read them. But I also once thought the same thing about the Star Wars prequels.

I owned these. My prequel disappointment pain is REAL.

Episode 154 – True Believer

Spencer Fornaciari — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:39:43 +0000

The Backroom team are joined by special guest Joe Dilworth to talk about the impact of comic movies on comic sales, his indie comic Believer, and 1222 Studios.