“Before Watchmen”… meh

I was going to write about “Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine” today, but guess what I saw when I opened up the L.A. Times today.

That this was coming was no surprise.  Rich Johnston broke the story months ago and after leaks of character art got hit with C&D notices from DC’s lawyers it only became more credible.  When I first heard that they were doing this, my initial thought was, “Are you people out of your minds!”  Trying to add on to what is effectively the “Citizen Kane” of graphic novels, let alone compete with Alan Moore at the top of his game, strikes me as the errand of a complete fool.  Now that it’s here, I find myself strangely indifferent to the whole event.

You can tell that DC is certainly taking this seriously by the list of creators that they’ve lined up for this, but the whole endeavor just strikes me as really unnecessary.  I can understand their desire to further monetize their largest-selling graphic novel, but is anything these people do going to come even close to what Moore accomplished?  Can anyone see a result where these mini-series sell like gangbusters and go on to become perennial best-sellers like their source material?  Seeing all of these sell “well” is likely, but I doubt we’ll see any sustainable long-term sales once their collected editions come out.  

Part of the appeal of “Watchmen” is that it’s a complete story in one volume.  I’d go so far to say that you don’t even need to have read comics before in order to enjoy it.  With these prequels, DC is effectively saying, “Hey that’s not all!  If you want to know everything about these characters, you should pick up these seven other series about them too.”  How appealing is that going to sound to someone reading it for the first time?  Seven series, by the way, is also overkill.  By putting out so many at once, DC is practially inviting comparisons to be made between them.  Expect to see a lot of “Best Watchmen Prequel” and “Worst Watchmen Prequel” opinions before the year is over.

If DC wanted to do this the smart way, they should’ve made it a 12-issue prequel series in the mold of its predecessor.  That makes it an easier sell and a hell of a lot easier to produce something of consistently high quality (in theory, anyway).  By tossing out seven of these, it’s almost as if they’re hedging their bets about which ones will turn out to be worthwhile projects.  But now I’m talking about this as if it’s a business endeavor, and that really underlines the thinking behind “Before Watchmen.”  Ultimately, DC’s new management saw the lack of any follow-up to the original series as money being left on the table and you just can’t do that in today’s market.

Still, there was some entertainment in seeing the many soundbites being tossed around the internet today.  Leah Moore, Alan’s daughter, commented on Twitter about how the creative teams involved should’ve been paid to do something new in hopes of finding the next “Watchmen.”  I’m with Rich in thinking that’s what should’ve been done here.  Then, Brian Azzarello (who’s writing “Rorschach” and “Comedian”) stated that “You’re going to get the Rorschach that you know and want” with his series.  I find that amusing, coming from Azzarello, because he has practically built his career on giving fans things they didn’t know they wanted (see “100 Bullets”) as well as deliberately atypical takes on familiar character (“Superman:  For Tomorrow,” “Lex Luthor,” and “Doctor 13” to name a few).  Hearing this from him makes me morbidly curious to see his take on the character.

So while I don’t think that any of these will be outright “BAD” due to the caliber of the talent involved, I’m not really inclined to pick up any of them beyond the fact that as a reviewer, I feel a kind of professional obligation to be informed regarding what will be the most talked-about and discussed titles of the year.

However, I doubt any of them will be as entertaining as “Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine.”  You can quote me on that.