Thursday, February 2, 2012
graphic novels DC Comics plans 'Before Watchmen' prequel comics
Posted by Curt Holman @Curt_Holman on Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 9:14 AM
The graphic novel Watchmen has a reputation as the Citizen Kane of graphic novels, so DC Comics' decision to publish a series of prequels sounds as ill-advised as a film called Charles Foster Kane: The College Years. Nevertheless, this summer DC will release 7 titles involving such Watchmen characters as Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan, written and drawn by big name creators in the comics industry:
RORSCHACH (4 issues) — Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: Lee Bermejo
MINUTEMEN (6 issues) — Writer/Artist: Darwyn Cooke
COMEDIAN (6 issues) — Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: J.G. Jones
DR. MANHATTAN (4 issues) — Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artist: Adam Hughes
NITE OWL (4 issues) — Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artists: Andy and Joe Kubert
OZYMANDIAS (6 issues) — Writer: Len Wein. Artist: Jae Lee
SILK SPECTRE (4 issues) — Writer: Darwyn Cooke. Artist: Amanda Conner
Original Watchmen writer Alan Moore has been quite vocal in his disenchantment with DC Comics, even having his name removed from big-screen adaptations of his work. Straczynski, who has an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for Clint Eastwood's Changeling and impeccable geek credentials as the creator of "Babylon 5," provided for the Hollywood Reporter a persuasive argument that in favor of other people making more stories about Moore's characters:
The perception that these characters shouldn’t be touched by anyone other than Alan is both absolutely understandable and deeply flawed. As good as these characters are — and they are very good indeed — one could make the argument, based on durability and recognition, that Superman is the greatest comics character ever created. But I don’t hear Alan or anyone else suggesting that no one other than Shuster and Siegel should have been allowed to write Superman. Certainly Alan himself did this when he was brought on to write Swamp Thing, a seminal comics character created by Len Wein.
Leaving aside the fact that the Watchmen characters were variations on pre-existing characters created for the Charleton Comics universe, it should be pointed out that Alan has spent most of the last decade writing very good stories about characters created by other writers, including Alice (from Alice in Wonderland), Dorothy (from Wizard of Oz), Wendy (from Peter Pan), as well as Captain Nemo, the Invisible Man, Jeyll and Hyde, and Professor Moriarty (used in the successful League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). I think one loses a little of the moral high ground to say, “I can write characters created by Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle and Frank Baum, but it’s wrong for anyone else to write my characters.”
The whole point of having great characters is the opportunity to explore them more deeply with time, re-interpreting them for each new age. That DC allowed these characters to sit on a shelf for over two decades as a show of respect is salutary, but there comes a time when good characters have to re-enter the world to teach us something about ourselves in the present.
Of course, just because an entertainment corporation can do something, doesn't mean they should.
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