It’s official, DC Comics is making a prequel to the Watchmen series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
The last week has been filled with positive and negative comments about this action, but overall it looks like a lot of people are going to buy at least some of the titles in this collection.
[poll id=”219″]
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35 Comments
Was never a huge fan of the watchmen, but I did like ozy and the minutemen so I’d pick up either of those.
As groundbreaking as Watchmen was, I came late to the party, so most of the new and original concepts that it exemplified had been moved into the realm of tropes or become cliché by the time I’d gotten to read it. The likelihood that new authors will be able to catch lightning in a bottle a second time seems miniscule. This whole idea seems like a blatant cash grab to me, using characters that frankly aren’t that likeable or interesting in a modern context. I opted for none of the above.
I’m kind of torn. On the one hand I would like to see where some of these stories are taken, but on the other hand I really hate to see someone expanding Alan Moore’s work without his permission. It just doesn’t seem right.
That said I may pick up Dr. Manhattan and Rorschach if the reviews are decent.
This poll should use checkboxes instead of radio buttons (if that is possible), as there are multiple titles i’m interested in, but won’t probably buy them all.
Seconded. I’m buying a couple of the minis, but the “all, nothing, or only one” model doesn’t really apply for me.
Interesting, because the poll was set up to allow you to select more than one option
Knowing very little about HTML setups, I do know by nature in the code, radio buttons are single select only. I have created some forms and could never get them to do more than one section, check boxes worked.
I assume that Stephen isn’t doing the HTML, but using a pre-built polling system. Either there’s a problem in this, or an incorrect selection was chosen when building the poll.
Can anyone remember a poll on MS that used checkboxes?
I actually do know the difference between checkboxes and radio buttons. The poll application we use has an option for “allow multiple selections” and even gives me the option to select how many multiple options you get to choose. This is obviously a bug in the plug-in that needs to be reported. This is also the first (and probably the last) time we have a multiple selection poll.
please don’t give it up on the first try. I like the idea of being able to pick from a couple of different options.
Then it’s probably a bug w/the pollmaking program, because every time I try to pick the applicable titles, it jumps to the newest one I hit. There’s bound to be a way to do it, though – even Livejournal’s pollmaker-of-our-forefathers has multiple choice options.
I am a big fan of Azzarello so, I will probably pick up the books he writes, but I will probably borrow the ones I don’t pick up so I can read them.
I am probably one of the few people in the world that really enjoy the idea of prequels. I like the idea of seeing what these characters did before they became the watchmen.
It just doesn’t feel right.
I said none of the above, but not out of any (V for) vendetta against DC. I just find the Watchmen characters lackluster. What made Watchmen work is that most of the “heroes” are deadbeats and losers. They aren’t stars and outside of Watchmen proper, just aren’t compelling.
-c
I feel like I need to apologize for choosing None of the Above.
In my worldview, The Watchmen is a storytelling and a cultural artifact. It was the perfect story to tell when it came out.
I feel that adding any more to it either as prequel or sequel will dilute the impact and resonance of the work.
I wish this project would not happen.
Im just not interested in reading about the characters, I didnt really care for the original much anyways. I will say the covers look amazing.
I have a feeling that these are going to ruin my experience with The Watchmen, similar to the Star Wars prequels. I am going to save myself and stay as far away from these as I can. They may be great, they may be horrible, but I have no desire to branch off from the original story. My desire is heightened by the fact that these are prequels.
Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Connor on the same book? I’m all over Silk Spectre.
It says you can choose more than one option, but you can’t.
Voted for Minutemen myself because I can’t honestly say I will buy/read all of them. I will be interested in seeing what happens with all of them, but Minutemen is the one that I think has the most potential to be interesting, the first book covered the other characters pretty well, I’m looking for new untapped territory.
It is a shame the original creators don’t want any part of this, but watchmen was a pretty standalone piece, so I get it.
I want to see the Night Owl series. He seems like he is both the most like a mainstream DC/Marvel type hero and the least. Night Owl was the one that did not really have his back-story fleshed out. Yes, he worked with Rorschach and he knew Hollis but as the “everyman”, I guess his story was just assumed.
But he was a Tony Stark/Batman/ Spider-man/Jay Garrick/Captain America all rolled into one character. And Dr. Peter Coogan says that he is the one that survives and thrives at the end of Watchman after Ozymandias gets taken down.
I always wanted to hear more of his story.
I’m buying mulitple copies of each issue of each title in the hopes that recorc-breaking sales of Before Watchmen makes Alan Moore’s snake-worshipping head explode.
I’ll pick up the first issue, and probably second, of each title. Just to see. And I already accept the possibility I could end up gettin all of them, unless they are really bad of course. I’m a big fan of the original, but disagree with a lot of the Nerd Rage. It’s not like the publishing of these prequels will result in the immediate destruction of ALL the original issues and trades. They could add to the mythology. And if they don’t, just ignore them. But given the writers and artists on each title, I think it’ll be an interesting experiment.
I think any more stories about the watchman is kind of pointless, personally I loved the story, but don’t for the characters beyond the context of the story.
I think any more stories about the watchman is kind of pointless, personally I loved the story, but don’t care for the characters beyond the context of the story.
As much as I like the Watchmen, I think we comic fans tend to treat it like some religious text, instead of a comic book. With as much angst as I’ve seen over this issue, you’d think the Catholic Church was releasing prequels to the Old Testament or something. I’ll buy a few issues, if they suck I’ll vote with my dollars, if they do something cool…. I’ll get as many as I can afford.
I said I would/will buy them all, but I am the guy that will wait until they are “traded” and even then I will wait until they have been traded for 12 months and then pick them up for less than $10 each.
That being said I will listen to any/all review and synopsis podcasts to hear all about these when they are released.
-D!
Seen how my real choice isn’t there I’ll go with none of the above, I’ll wait for a review on the site and if it sounds good I’ll buy the trade.
This is essentially my plan as well.
None of the above. I have an interest in what at least one of the creative teams will do, but I’m not planning to buy any monthly release. If the creators can tell an interesting narrative on the scale of Watchmen, I will buy it in the trade…just like I did with the original Watchmen. If not, I will eventually get the chance to read it from the local libraries.
To riff on something I’ve heard a few times on the podcast: “I’ll pass on buying the original issues.”
This is often my default position on comics from the big two, but when a project is obviously such a money-grab, it’s trivial for me to rationalize not having these on my pull list.
Amanda Conner drawing the Silk Spectre. Do I need to say any more?
Also I’m irrationally frightened of the prospect of Adam Hughes drawing Dr. Manhattan
I’ll try them all. I want to give them a chance. Maybe they’ll be good. I gave the new 52 a chance and I found less than 25% of those were interesting to me. We’ll see.
I like the writers involved enough to want to see what they do with the Watchmen characters. Almost all of the comic book readers I know said that a movie based on Watchmen could never do the original story justice. Turns out they were wrong. I’m willing to put my cash down on the belief that Brian Azzarello and JMS can write a story that I’ll want to read.
Selected “All of the Above” since the multiple choice option isn’t working, although I’m not sure if I will buy EVERY choice. I am interested in most of them, though, so if I have the spare cash I may as well snag the remaining books.