Why hasn’t there ever been second series of Watchmen comics? It’s not as though Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons actually own the characters. Well, apparently, any talk of a sequel had been squashed, time and again, by Paul Levitz, former president of DC comics. He was very protective of the title, even denying the creators of the tie-in videogame to invent any new material at all. This was sacred stuff to him.
Now, though, he’s not in charge of the comics at all and is the Contributing Editor and Overall Consultant of DC Entertainment, the spin-off and movies arm. He’s not going to be able to do anything, directly, to stop any Watchmen sequel. More importantly, though, it seems that Dan DiDio, SVP-Executive Editor of DC, has made it his mission to realize not only a sequel series but also several prequels. Why? I suppose he’d say Why Not? And there’s good reason to believe they’ll be coming to screens as well as pages, too.
Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool has the story. I was gobsmacked but, as I can count Rich as a close friend, I called him up and checked his sources and, let me tell you, this is solid stuff. Here’s Rich on what involvement Alan and Dave might, or might not, have:
I understand that both Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons have to be offered first refusal before any of these titles could be published. But if they don’t want to work on them themselves (and Alan Moore is never going to agree), DiDio has been sounding out people who might be willing to take on the task. While some creators are reticent, the argument goes if there are a number of Watchmen spinoff projects, any blame or shame can be spread on many shoulders. The sales are expected to be massive, whatever the hardcore fanboy reaction and such expected sales benefits will be shared amongst the creative teams.
Now, if I was Alan Moore I’d sign on right away and twist this entire project into a pretzel. But he’s not me, so no matter how subversive the possibilities, I still think he’d rather not meddle with what is certainly a neat and tidy work of great completeness, not even to derail a publisher’s attempt to exploit it.
So, someday soon it looks like somebody else will be writing Watchmen comics and I sure wouldn’t be surprised to see them headed to the big screen, if most likely after Levitz has departed DC Entertainment too. Sadly, for the cast of the first film, they all had sequel clauses in their contracts so, no matter how much an embarrassment it might be considered, they’d find it very hard, or expensive, to get out of taking the job on.
Funnily enough, Rich actually broke the news on the Watchmen sequel clauses too, back when he was at Comic Book Resources.
I’ve got that same horrible taste in my mouth that I had when Disney’s Circle 7 were working on a non-Pixar Toy Story 3. That story had an unexpected ending - can we really hope Alan and Dave will give us one here? Will they step up and give us a Watchmen 2 that isn’t peeing in the pool?
maybe whoever does it will rewrite a good ending for the first one, too
once you alter the work of others, you lose all claims to self-righteous indignation when someone comes along and does it to yours
thank god i'm old enough to realize this won't affect my love of the original
I don't want this mainly because I hate all manabyte style comic book fans and I would rather not read their opinions of it.
I don't want this mainly because I hate all manabyte style comic book fans and I would rather not read their opinions of it.
I don't want this mainly because I hate all manabyte style comic book fans and I would rather not read their opinions of it.
Swamp Thing/Marvelman/Superman were, by design and execution, serial adventures. Watchmen is a bit different.
When I read Watchmen the first time I thought it would have been neat to read about Owl & Rorschach's salad days.
There's no objective difference between Moore using characters he didn't create and other people using Moore's characters, but they'd still feel like different situations to me. I expect different authors to give their take on Superman, cause at some point I mentally filed him away as a quasi-public domain character. OTOH I've only ever known Moore's version of the Watchmen, so anything Watchmen without him involved won't feel "official" or whatever.
Yeah, it's not fair or logical and it's kinda bullshit, but for a lot of nerds (many of whom are gonna take this way too personally) it's kinda intuitive.
Raban: Oh yeah. Just like Shatner was the only Kirk for years, and maybe a few decades from now someone could ask you to rank the Kirks like you would the James Bonds.
I was actually gonna bring up Jane Austen's characters as an example in my post, then I remember they actually are public domain and I just refuse to read any of the "sequels".
I know it's hard
Like Willco said, Superman/Marvelman, etc were serialized superhero stories. Watchmen was designed from the beginning as a single, cohesive statement. This is about as artistically valid as Stuart Little 2.
I know it's hard
See now it sounds like you're giving me emotional support during my hard times and I gotta be all "Hey hey I'm not that invested in this!"
I hope I'm reading this wrong, but are you saying that the first Stuart Little movie was good in any way?
I hope I'm reading this wrong, but are you saying that the first Stuart Little movie was good in any way?
I never saw it
The lack of Patel in this thread is dumbfounding. The only explanation I can put forth is that title alone left him stunned and foetal, unable even to thumb out a txted 'FUUUUUUUUUUUUU'
If they made an Invisibles movie, with McDonalds toys...
Vaughan wants to make it and he may have the Hollywood cachet after Kick-Ass! get ready for the Dream Car and his guardian polar bears!
Vaughan wants to make it and he may have the Hollywood cachet after Kick-Ass! get ready for the Dream Car and his guardian polar bears!
I liked the original pun. Re-edit!
I get a lot more worried about bad movie adaptations than bad comic/novel spin-offs or re-imaginings.
If someone screws up a comic there's always a chance the next person to take it on will do better. If you botch movie, you don't get another chance. Not for a long time, anyway.
Raban: But I'm not invested in this. I've got more than my share of irrational attachments to geek culture, but Watchmen isn't one of them. I'm just pre-emptively defending my right to get pointlessly upset when they remake Jaws with Justin Long, Gerard Butler, and Larry the Cable Guy.
holy shit who told mandark about my remake of Jaws?!!!
I understand that both Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons have to be offered first refusal before any of these titles could be published. But if they don’t want to work on them themselves (and Alan Moore is never going to agree), DiDio has been sounding out people who might be willing to take on the task.
QuoteI understand that both Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons have to be offered first refusal before any of these titles could be published. But if they don’t want to work on them themselves (and Alan Moore is never going to agree), DiDio has been sounding out people who might be willing to take on the task.
Watch as Alan Moore signs up for the project anyway and then spends the rest of his days sabotaging the project at every step.
What would a sequel even be about?spoiler (click to show/hide)Someone on GAF suggested that it might be about the remaining costumed adventurers trying to track down Ozymandias and stop his latest plot to conquer the world. I bet that's what they do with it. :-\[close]