Watchmen sequel / prequel ??

[Emperor]

I don't know what to make of it:

www.bleedingcool.com/2010/02/03/get-ready-for-watchmen-2/

It will happen so I'd hope it was done well but it is a bit of a poisoned chalice.

Previously:
www.2000adonline.com/forum/index.php/topic,11719.0.html
www.2000adonline.com/forum/index.php/topic,13379.0.html

[Kev Levell]

Did this for DrawerGeeks ages ago.



original post on my blog.

I f**kin' knew they wouldn't be able to leave it alone!
"Hurm" indeed!

[radiator]

What a shit idea.

The sales are expected to be massive, whatever the hardcore fanboy reaction

I wouldn't count on it.

Perhaps it's a blessing that the film was a commercial failure - otherwise they'd surely be pressing ahead with a sequel/prequel despite it making zero sense.

[Dark Jimbo]

If Alan Moore's not interested, why should we be?

Leave it alone, for God's sake.

[Roger Godpleton]

It should be the graphic depiction of the procreation of all the characters.

[Emperor]

Now they have partly brought in a Watchmen-like universe as Earth-4 and Grant Morrison is already playing with that but only in one of the eight one-shots that makes up Multiversity:

www.weeklycrisis.com/2009/04/multiversity-grant-morrison-watchmen-2.html

Now it might be they are going to hook into that and try and get the best of both worlds out of this (similar but not too similar). That's what I'm hoping for anyway. Although perhaps not with a hulked up Batman giving a back handed slap to Rorschach.

[uncle fester]

What's the point? An army of writers couldn't dream up something that could stand next to the original premise.

(Why not do something useful with a budget that large and give it to Terry Gilliam so he can finish Don Quixote?)

[bluemeanie]

I've been um... debating this on Facebook   

I dont see how its a bad thing. If they make more Watchmen stuff and it sucks, then the original book (which will stand alone if for no other reason than it predates everything else by 20 years) will still be the awesome work it is.

But the world and characters created were rich ones and the story does, by necessity, jump forwards a lot. So why not a 6 issue mini showing The Minutemen at their prime?
Its the kind of project they'll only put their best on. Why not let them have a chance to tell a story using these characters? I know Moore would kick off, but he's gotten enough play from other peoples creations. Why not let the next generation of writers build on his stuff.

Dont see how it could dilute the original any more than you could say a bad Dredd story (cant think of one, but there must have been one dud) spoils the Cursed Earth.
As good as they are, they are only comic book characters. Comic book characters need to have stories told.

[TordelBack]

I couldn't say that I care one way or the other - the extistance of The Farthest Precinct doesn't take away from my enjoyment of Top Ten, nor does DK2 spoil The Dark Knight for me.  I just ignore them, much like the Watchmen movie.

That said...

So why not a 6 issue mini showing The Minutemen at their prime?

Wouldn't that just be a couple of foiled bank raids, and maybe an opium den bust?  Crimebusters OTOH was just one failed meeting, and the dockside adventures of Rorshach and Nite Owl don't seem to have much that's special about them that isn't already in the parent book.  This idea that there are cool superheroics to explore in the Watchmen backstory seems to me to undermine the whole concept - there were no superheroics, just some low-key vigilantism, a police strike and some mass-murder in Vietnam.

(Although I do confess a sneaking interest in seeing more of Hollis' dog's adventures, and maybe Myron).

[bluemeanie]

Wouldn't that just be a couple of foiled bank raids, and maybe an opium den bust?

Yeah. But a good writer could do so much with that.
Hell, the characters are so good you could do a mini series just on the Silhouettes struggles being a lesbian in a time where it was taboo etc
Any of them could support more exploration.

And I know people will say the characters work better without being expanded upon, but pre Killing Joke how many would say the Joker would be ruined by telling his origin?

Again, its just denying the chance for stories to be told I dont get.

[Richmond Clements]

Yeah. But a good writer could do so much with that.

That's true- but it's a it of a poisoned chalice, ain't it? I'm not sure any good writer would want to write this!

[Kev Levell]

In most cases I'd agree that (good) characters deserve a spin off. But Watchmen was conceived as and only ever intended to be a one off. It is complete, all the origin that is necessary to make the overall narrative work is there.
It needs nothing more.
I respect your opinion though Rich, it is far nobler to expect the best, than condemn something before it has happened.

[TordelBack]

Again, its just denying the chance for stories to be told I dont get.

Fair points, Richard.  In the case of buggered-about comcs characters like Batman and the Joker I'd be inclined to agree - so many writers, so many directions, why not one more?  With Watchmen (for me) it'd be more like reading Terry Brook's Tolkein-estate-authorised The Adventures of Young Master Frodo - Book 1, i.e. something I couldn't be arsed to do.  Not that I'd have any real problem with someone doing this - I just wouldn't be interested.

[bluemeanie]

Dont get me wrong... Im not "pro" this idea. I dont actually think it needs a sequel.
But the amount of people literally saying "This will be shit" or "This will fail creatively" before page one has even been written is just wrong.

If DC who own it want to do more and theres a writer out there who thinks he can bring something to the universe then at least lets see what he comes up with before crapping all over it. Watchmen itself was originally built on old Charlton characters so itself owes something to other peoples work. Sure there was a Charlton comics fan somewhere at the time wishing he had Twitter so he could type

The Question as an insane killer? Blue Beetle impotent? Captain Atom blue and walking about with his cock out?  #FAIL

Well... you get the idea  

[starscape]

So why not a 6 issue mini showing The Minutemen at their prime?

I've heard that was going to be the case. Gibbons was going to be illustrating it but not sure if Alan Moore was to be the writer.  Of course, that was many years ago.