Why does everything have to be a franchise? Are superhero books so devoid of original thought these days that they can't even come up with their own parodies/satires now?
Alan Moore doesn't want Watchmen back
- Thread starter Turtletrekker
- Start date
That happens when you fry your mind with mind-altering substances. I think the same is true of Grant Morrison.
firehawk, I tend to agree.
But I'm also divided on this one. In terms of copyright debate, I've often said (here and elsewhere) that opening stories up to multiple creators would ultimately be good for society, even if it meant a whole lot of dreck getting produced. So on that score, I should disagree with Moore.
However, I think he has a point here. What I want is an open playing field; DC wants to have a endless supply of Watchmen stories under their control, and because they hold the rights, their stories would have instant authenticity. Under those rules, Moore is quite right to go public like this: DC will almost certainly undermine the perfection of the Watchmen as it exists now, and not for any compelling reason.
I, too, would be tempted by a Nite Owl/Rorschach series, though.
But I'm also divided on this one. In terms of copyright debate, I've often said (here and elsewhere) that opening stories up to multiple creators would ultimately be good for society, even if it meant a whole lot of dreck getting produced. So on that score, I should disagree with Moore.
However, I think he has a point here. What I want is an open playing field; DC wants to have a endless supply of Watchmen stories under their control, and because they hold the rights, their stories would have instant authenticity. Under those rules, Moore is quite right to go public like this: DC will almost certainly undermine the perfection of the Watchmen as it exists now, and not for any compelling reason.
I, too, would be tempted by a Nite Owl/Rorschach series, though.
I love Alan Moore, and I think he's one of the great geniuses in Comics history. However, the plot to Watchmen is basically a rip off of an old Outer Limits episode. Watchmen was really all about atmosphere and character and what it felt like living in the Reagan Era. It would certainly be possible to create a sequel that equals the original by applying that same approach to the current decade. Of course, it would look and feel completely different, which I'm sure is not what DC is looking for, and it would require creators of high caliber, of which there are few these days in the business (and maybe none appropriate for such a project).
There are certainly other ways to expand the Watchmen Universe, though. Stories set in WWII, in the 60s, et cetera. Stories about Manhattan off in space. Comics that are the kind of comics published in the WU. Stories of completely different, but thematically linked, characters in other parts of the country or world, who represent cultural abstracts the way Watchmen did, but on a smaller scale.
But, again, it all comes down to talent; and that is, unfortunately, lacking in the business these days.
There are certainly other ways to expand the Watchmen Universe, though. Stories set in WWII, in the 60s, et cetera. Stories about Manhattan off in space. Comics that are the kind of comics published in the WU. Stories of completely different, but thematically linked, characters in other parts of the country or world, who represent cultural abstracts the way Watchmen did, but on a smaller scale.
But, again, it all comes down to talent; and that is, unfortunately, lacking in the business these days.
I'm sure he addressed this. I heard he saw the episode after writing, and threw in a reference to The Outer Limits in issue 12.
I don't know how one can equate a plot similarity to a wholesale ripoff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Architects_of_Fear
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Architects_of_Fear
That's a bit of a red herring, though. No text is completely original, and as has been pointed out, Moore has spoken in the past about that Outer Limits episode. There's also not an automatic disdain for something which riffs on an earlier text - how could there be? Everyone from Homer onwards riffed on earlier texts. The success of Waid's Irredeemable or Ennis' The Boys shows that riffing is an accepted norm.
The problem here would be making use of the specific Watchmen milieu in a way that augments, rather than undermines, the original text. Do we really need to see Doctor Manhattan's new race? The further adventures of Bubastis? What does it add?
The problem here would be making use of the specific Watchmen milieu in a way that augments, rather than undermines, the original text. Do we really need to see Doctor Manhattan's new race? The further adventures of Bubastis? What does it add?
It doesn't add anything. I personally hate the incessant need to "explain everything" with sequels and prequels. To me, it's much more intriguing to think of the nigh-limitless possibilities in your mind rather than to have them laid out for you. I mean, is the Star Wars saga better for having episodes I to III, or worse?
I agree to some extent - it's why I eventually stopped reading Star Trek novels. I used to love them, but they fell into this trap where every little detail had to be explained with a trilogy. I exaggerate, but I've always been slightly surprised we didn't see a "Picard: Why He Drinks Earl Grey: the Quadrilogy" (complete with a Janeway appearance, and a cameo by a 300-year old McCoy).
It would conceivably be possible to produce a Watchmen story that felt essential, but I don't think it would be easy.
It would conceivably be possible to produce a Watchmen story that felt essential, but I don't think it would be easy.
Your post reminds me of something completely off topic and trivial, but I have to get it off my chest. Greg Cox forgive me if you're reading this, but there's this part in the Khan prequel novels where he is in a submarine on Earth, and he exhibits "two dimensional" thinking during a battle. I suppose it's meant to set up the later battle scene in Wrath of Khan where Spock notes that Khan is thinking in two dimensions. But the whole point that Spock is trying to make is that Khan is thinking two dimensionally because although he's intelligent, he's inexperienced. By having Khan experience a submarine battle in the novel, it essentially undermines the character in the movie because then his two dimensional thinking becomes a intellectual flaw, not a matter of being inexperienced.
They already do. Just nobody gives a shit about the adventures of Captain Atom, Nightshade, Peacemaker, and Thunderbolt.
Very slightly more people give a shit about the adventures of the Question and Blue Beetle.
Actually, I don't know if Peacemaker and Thunderbolt are even alive.
In referencing Outer Limits, I wasn't saying that Watchmen is a rip off, just that it's not so original that it precludes a prequel or expansion. What makes Watchmen a classic is that the elements of its storytelling were innovative at the time, and brilliantly done.
For a guy who doesn't like to talk about his work has been adapted and co-opted I think it's funny how much of it has been. At least it must have helped fund his satanic orgies or whatever he does with all that money.
Except he shuns all these projects and doesn't make any money from them.
I just find it ironic that Watchmen exists because Moore couldn't do screwed up stories with existing heroes and now it's part of that same establishment. The whole point of the book was that it was a self-aware examination of superheroes and the comic book format, so to even think of turning it into a series of prequel/sequel books that they can churn out month after month to generate new content for a movie franchise just seems to me like the people running DC didn't really understand the point of the book at all.
Now if someone wanted to make more books in the Lost Girls universe...
I just find it ironic that Watchmen exists because Moore couldn't do screwed up stories with existing heroes and now it's part of that same establishment. The whole point of the book was that it was a self-aware examination of superheroes and the comic book format, so to even think of turning it into a series of prequel/sequel books that they can churn out month after month to generate new content for a movie franchise just seems to me like the people running DC didn't really understand the point of the book at all.
Now if someone wanted to make more books in the Lost Girls universe...
I figured he owned League of Extraordinary Gentlemen at least. If he has refused money I guess he's principled but he could have at least put that to some worthy cause or something.
It's not a question of originality but business. Everybody loves franchises. Novels, comics, movies, video games--a sequel/prequel is almost always a safer bet, from a financial standpoint, than a new creation.
But that's why the best new stuff tends to come from independent artists. They have nowhere to go but up, and are thus far less risk-averse.
I know. And hell, I like Trek and it's based on countless spinoffs. It's just that Watchmen "means" something, so even if the characters are dicking around in the DCU somewhere, the core book remains this singular text that is both about a genre and about a medium.
What's even sillier is that Mark Millar already riffed on the ideas raised in Watchmen through Wanted and The Losers and both have been franchised, so it's not like it's impossible to copy Watchmen without actually making a Watchmen related book.
All I can tell you is that nothing is sacred. Hollywood would make a sequel to Citizen Kane if they thought it would make money.
Similar threads
