Toaster's Ramblings... Before Watchmen Edition

I decided I’m going to sort of piggyback off of Jonny Prophet’s previous post about the new DC Watchmen prequels. Jonny and I agree on most things when it comes to the Watchmen graphic novel and properties… though Jonny is a lot more of an Alan Moore “purist” than myself. For instance, I didn’t hate the movie. Yes, it has a lot of flaws, but I found it to be pretty good (not great). I finally got Jonny to agree that the movie is “alright” after I showed him the Watchmen – Ultimate Cut, which at almost 4 hours long is as comprehensive and close to the graphic novel as possible. (Jonny still hates the theatrical version though.)

For quite a long time DC has been discussing a way to try to cash in on the Watchmen’s following beyond selling the classic graphic novel. Now Dan Didio has found a way. This summer DC comics is releasing several 4 issue miniseries about the “origins” of several characters from the Watchmen: Rorschach, Dr, Manhattan, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre and 6 issue runs about Ozymandias, Comedian and The Minutemen; All of these under the banner ‘Before Watchmen.’

Where to begin? The first thought that occurred to me was that half of the graphic novel was told in flashbacks, so what more of the origins can there really be? Given that writer Alan Moore has nothing to do with this new “cash-in” we can effectively rename this project ‘RetCon Watchmen’ because everything the new writers do will only add new details to these characters after the fact.

To DC’s credit, they have employed some of the best names in comics to write and draw these RetCons; names like Brian Azzarello, Darwyn Cooke, J. Michael Straczynski and Len Wein (an editor of the Watchmen and the only man from the original work involved in this project) write and a few of the artists include J.G. Jones, The Kuberts and Jae Lee (a personal favorite of mine).

What’s interesting is that Jonny and I have discussed who would best rape Alan Moore’s masterpiece if such a violation had to occur. Darwin Cooke was actually a name we brought up, but the names we wanted more were Warren Ellis and Grant Morrison, both of whom we consider Moore’s protégés, and of course Neil Gaiman. Gaiman is an easy choice considering how he has picked up where Moore left off before on the Miracleman series.

When it comes to the books about Dr. Manhattan, Silk Spectre, Nite Owl and Rorschach, I don’t really know what more we can learn. They had a great deal of time spent on their pasts throughout the graphic novel. (I suppose Nite Owl could have had more flashbacks, but his story didn’t seem that interesting. He was essentially the ‘average guy’ who became a costumed adventurer, hence why he was the main protagonist.) The other three books actually have some potential.

Ozymandias really didn’t have much time given to his back story so it stands to reason that he could have a lot to mine. How did he get to be a superhero? How did he get his fortune? How did he orchestrate his plan? It’s unnecessary for the actual Watchmen story, but as long as you have to go there, it could be a decent enough book.

The two books that I think have the best chances of not being anal-rapingly stupid are the Comedian and The Minutemen. Why? Because their careers were the longest and could really be explored. The Minutemen fought Nazis and gangsters. We know this from “Under the Hood” excerpts and some flashbacks, but it could be cool to have actual stories written about their exploits. It might also be interesting to explore the reactions to the many tragedies that the team suffered like the death of Dollar Bill, the institutionalization of Mothman and the revelation of Silhouette being gay, her ouster from the team and later her murder. Also add that Darwyn Cooke will be writing this book. Considering his excellent work on The New Frontier, writing about this group of Golden Age heroes should be right up his alley. The Comedian had a long career both as a costumed adventurer and later a mercenary. That right there has a lot of potential and given that Brian Azzarello has a gift for writing books with darker tones and anti-heroes, this miniseries gives me a glimpse of hope.

Honestly, The Minutemen and the Comedian books are the only ones I am somewhat interested in. However, I would be lying if I didn’t have some sort of morbid curiosity to check out the rest of the car wreck; will it just be a scratch, a fender bender, or a crumpled burning heap of metal with zero chance of survivors? Both Jonny Prophet and I predict that the initial first issue sales will be great… then the disappointment will set in (like the New 52?). In the end, though, it will have to be DC comics cleans up whatever debris is left from this project. History tells us that going back to add to an existing comic classic seldom turns out well (i.e. X-Men: Age of Apocalypse 10^th anniversary, The Dark Knight Strikes Again, The Kingdom… perhaps even Superman Returns?). Somehow I doubt this will fare any better. 

Dave Gibbons, the artist of the original Watchmen graphic novel had this to say of the Before Watchmen books: 

"The original series of WATCHMEN is the complete story that Alan Moore and I wanted to tell. However, I appreciate DC’s reasons for this initiative and the wish of the artists and writers involved to pay tribute to our work."

Let's be serious here. This isn't paying tribute to the work of Gibbons and Moore. This is all about dollar signs. If Dan Didio and DC comics were really interested in paying tribute to the Watchmen, they would respect the wishes of Alan Moore and leave the book as the stand-alone masterpiece that it is. 

In an unrelated bit of news, I can’t wait for Michael Bay’s new film Citizen Kane 2: Rosebud’s Revenge!