Before...all the moaning began

The recent announcement of 'Before Watchmen' has once again caused fanboys to drop their dummies and spew forth more bile than ipecac drinking contest.

   Do we need these prequels? No, not really, we don't need chocolate biscuits either but the're impossible to resist.

   I will grant you there are some fundamental problems with the idea, namely there is no dramatic tension, you know what happens to these characters. None of them can die, you know the character arcs eventual destination, but how did they get to the state they were in before Watchmen? How did the Keen act effect them? How does Rorschach avoid the police for so long? When did Doctor Manhattan walk on the sun? These are potentially interesting stories to tell and in the right hands they could be worth reading. 

   There's going to there's some very good creative teams  behind them:

• 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 

   So long as JMS can get past the first few issues.

   Taken from D.C.s website, and the artwork for the covers is truly gorgeous to behold, in fact the only thing ruining them is that bloody awful logo they thought was a good design.

What do you see? A mask that needs a wash.

Blue man group porn.

   The angriest buzz about this though seems to be fanboys thinking that this is all somehow disrespectful to Alan Moore and that somehow his feelings will be hurt. Now I've read some of Moore's reactions to this that include statements that make Moore sound like he's now living in a nursing home.

   

Not yours Mister Moore.

   “I tend to take this latest development as a kind of eager confirmation that they are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago.” : Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman all pushing 70-75 years old. DC have been dependent on ideas a lot older 

than 'yours' Mister Moore.

   
   “completely shameless.”: Why should DC feel any shame in this? Or more to the point do you think they are going to?

   Apparently Moore is afraid of an “infinite battery of lawyers.” if he takes this to court. Again, DC OWN THE RIGHTS TO THESE CHARACTERS NOT YOU, you wouldn't have a leg to stand on, it was work for hire.

     “I don’t want money,” he said. “What I want is for this not to happen.” Good because the're not giving you any and tough shit.

Mmmm MERCHANDISEING!

   Alan Moore did the Watchmen FOR DC, it stands perfectly well by itself but if DC choose to expand that universe they can. It might even be good. They might even reach people who read the Watchmen but nothing else and hook them into comics, AND THAT REALLY IS A GOOD THING!

  Even if Moore is just acting up his crotchety hermit persona it's an act that's tired and fanboys take what they can get and use it in an almost religious fervour. 

   There may be a case to make for the fact that Alan Moore did create these characters and that DC should show them a little respect but there's two points against that. The first being:

DC are still trying to milk these guys.

   The Watchmen characters are all based on Charlton characters that couldn't be used because DC wanted to use them somewhere else. So Moore and Gibbons created some analogs for the purposes of Watchmen. Now you can get all the legal wrangling here for all its worth Alan Moore on Watchmen but what it boils down to, accepting all underhandedness from DC and moaning from Moore, is that Moore and Gibbons where doing work for hire so long as the book was still in print. It is still in print. People are still buying it. It's still work for hire.

   DC do show the characters respect. Do you really think they didn't ask Moore if he wanted to be a part of the prequels? In 2010 DC offered Moore the rights back if he worked on the prequels. He flat out said he doesn't want them back. For all intents and purposes he's washed his hands of these characters, even when he was offered to work on them again.

   He was interested in doing prequel work back in the day, so the idea of expanding and telling more stories in that universe is not a new one and even came from the series creator. The whole thing boils down to these three things:

   

No one can stop this, no one is forcing you to buy it, it may actually be a good thing .