Watchmen 2?

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Interview with Alan Moore on Wathmen prequel...

http://www.seraphemera.org/seraphemera_books/Alan_Moore_Interview.html

I've been thinking a lot about why this particular projects bothers me so while other stuff in this vein don't, and it comes down to this: I think of Watchmen as something better than most comics, and it's kind of painful to see something triumphant be dragged down to the level of ordinary comics, with its spinoffs of various qualities, multiple writers of various qualities, etc etc.

Moore finally summed it up for me when I read this interview (ignoring the fact how pompous it sounds to say this about your own work ):

"You see, part of the problem with all this--and the reason why Watchmen was such an extraordinary book during its time--was that it was constructed upon literary lines. It had a beginning, it had a middle, and it had an end. It wasn't constructed as an endless soap opera that would run until everybody ran out of interest in it. It was deliberately meant to show what comics could do if you applied some of those quite ordinary literary values to them. Like I've said, this was the one book that elevated the comics medium, the comics industry, above the point where it had previously been languishing. And where, when I had entered the American industry in the early '80s, it was close to death. They were going down the tubes, and they desperately needed the shot in the arm that all of the hype surrounding Watchmen provided for them.

What the comics industry has effectively said is, "Yes, this was the only book that made us briefly special and that was because it wasn't like all the other books." It was something that stood on its own and it had the integrity of a literary work. What they've decided now is, "So, let's change it to a regular comic that can run indefinitely and have spin-offs." and "Let's make it as unexceptional as possible." Like I say, they're doing this because they haven't got any other choices left, evidently."

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

If they were doing a Watchmen sequel that took place after the original ended, I would be far more skeptical. Prequels are, IMO, a different story. One of the things I liked best about the original was how detailed the world was and how it seemed like everything came from somewhere. Since the entire story was about washed-up superheroes, I wouldn't mind seeing a few token stories about each of them back in their prime.

^I seem to recall that at one point the studio wanted to update the story to the modern day and replace Vietnam with 9/11. Frankly, I'm glad that they didn't go down that route.

Yeah. Like I said, there really isn't a good modern day equivalent to the Cold War that you can swap it out with.

Granted, I'm not thoroughly familiar with the original V for Vendetta book. But whether it's about Thatcher or Bush, V for Vendetta is still an allegory, so what you take out of it will depend very much on your own personal outlook. On the other hand, Watchmen, although set in an alternate timeline, is still about the actual Cold War.

BTW, in the above linked Alan Moore interview, he mentions a plot hole in the V for Vendetta movie that was fixed in the novelization. Does anyone know what that plot hole would be?

A few weeks before that point, I'd had a phone call from Steve Moore, who said that perhaps he wasn't blacklisted from DC, because he'd just had Warner Books phone him and up say that after he'd done such a brilliant job on the novelization of the V for Vendetta film--even fixing a plot hole in the original screenplay for them--that they'd like him to do the novelization of the Watchmen film.

They also confirm that there will be a running story called "The Crimson Corsair" that will function the same way that "The Black Freighter" did and it will be written by Len Wein.

I dunno. "The Black Freighter" was always my least favorite part of Watchmen.

 

[Reverend]

Apparently a statement by JMS regarding Moore and Watchmen has been taken seriously out of context and...well...he responded.

There's only one film adaptation of his work that Moore approves of, and that's a fan animation of his Doctor Who comic book story, "Black Legacy."

While not a film, I think I read somewhere that he also liked the adaptation of "For the Man who has Everything" that Justice League Unlimited did.

He was wrong to like that. In his original story, ROBIN saves Superman's ass. Give the Boy Wonder his due.

No he wasn't. They actually *improved* his story in that adaptation by making it more character focused. And after WW got beaten bloody by that big yellow git, she deserved to be the one to deliver the coup de grâce. Sod Robin.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Interview with Alan Moore on Wathmen prequel...

http://www.seraphemera.org/seraphemera_books/Alan_Moore_Interview.html

Dear God! This man is even more bitter, paranoid, & disturbed than I initially thought. Not to mention he has no problem with broadly insulting thousands of people that he has never met.

As for the readers, I have to say that if you are a reader that just wanted your favorite characters on tap forever, and never cared about the creators, then actually you're probably not the kind of reader that I was looking for. [...] If people do want to go out and buy these Watchmen prequels, they would be doing me an enormous favor if they would just stop buying my other books. [...] I mean, there's no way I can police this, of course. But, I would hope that you wouldn't want to buy a book knowing that its author actually had complete contempt for you.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Hold me in contempt Alan.

Actually I was on the fence about getting these. Now I'm sure I will.

 

[Set Harth]

Not to mention he has no problem with broadly insulting thousands of people that he has never met.

I like him already.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Okay, I guess that means I won't be buying any more Alan Moore stuff