The door is open to Watchmen sequels, prequels, and spin-offs

[Watson]

This is all too believable. If you think that movies are creatively bankrupt when it comes to sequels, prequels, reboots and rip-offs, then you haven't seen the comic book industry, where nothing is sacred, anything can be retconned and any story - no matter how finite, no matter how classic - can be continued.

You want to talk about creative bankruptcy? How about Watchmen 2? Or Untold Tales of Watchmen? They could be coming.

According to noted comic industry gossip Rich Johnston, Paul Levitz stepping down from his position as President and Publisher of DC Comics has opened the door for the company to cash in on their best-selling comic book of all time. Executive Editor Dan DiDio, already hated by fanboys across the globe, has apparently made it his personal mission to ride off the continued sales success of Watchmen with prequels, spin-offs and possibly sequels.

Johnston explains that this has been a long time coming. The Watchmen world was going to be included in 52, DC's multiverse spawning event, but apparently Levitz stopped that. Now with DiDio free to do as he pleases we'll get to see the original adventures of the Minutemen, the team ups of Nite Owl and Rorschach, and possibly what comes after the attack on New York City.

You can't be too surprised. What you can do is promise to not buy this. No matter who is writing or drawing it (even if it's Dave Gibbons, as Johnston hints), no matter how good you hear it is, do not buy it. Show DC that you have some sort of backbone and that you're not the easily fleeced fanboy they think you are.

http://chud.com/articles/articles/22396/1/WATCHMEN-2/Page1.html

 

[Chewy]

The most overused emote on the Hype is the only thing that can properly express my thoughts on this

 

[The Question]

I concur.

 

[SuperFerret]

To play the devil's advocate, how is it being creatively bankrupt when you utilize characters that haven't been used in years and quite possibly have a good story left in them?

 

[dsfjr1190]

I have a bad feeling about this...

 

[8Diagrams(WU)]

Im not that attached to watchmen so I dont care that much. Im actually shocked theyve held for this long without doing anything other than adapting the story to film.

 

[Hush]

Just no.

 

[dsfjr1190]

I'm actually scared now that I think about everything they can now do with the property. I hope to God, that if they insist on doing this, they don't butcher the characters. Or worse, retcon the whole graphic novel.

 

[TheComicbookKid]

Grant Morrison's the only guy I trust to at least do interesting stories with the characters, but even he's not crazy enough to attempt that.

Just leave it alone.

 

[Drz]

Grant Morrison's the only guy I trust to at least do interesting stories with the characters, but even he's not crazy enough to attempt that.

Just leave it alone.

Morrison is actually doing a "Watchmen" story but yeah he's just doing it in the Multiverse story instead of trying to continue Watchmen universe itself. >_<

Honestly tho who would really want to read this? There's already Watchmex which was a parody/satire run of the superhero elements and whatnot.

 

[fifthfiend]

 

[Gilpesh]

To play the devil's advocate, how is it being creatively bankrupt when you utilize characters that haven't been used in years and quite possibly have a good story left in them?

To counter. It's being creatively bankrupt when they are only just doing something with the Watchmen characters... to do something with them. It's not like this is a story about how a good creator has come on and wowed the pants off the guy that was stopping sequels/prequels/untold stories of Watchmen.

This story is some idiot saying, "Now that we can do stuff with the Watchmen characters.... LET'S JUST DO WHATEVER! AND FAST! "

 

[WompuM]

There is no curse in entish, orcish, elvish, or the tongue of man to describe this. Possibly Klingon.

 

[SuperFerret]

To counter. It's being creatively bankrupt when they are only just doing something with the Watchmen characters... to do something with them. It's not like this is a story about how a good creator has come on and wowed the pants off the guy that was stopping sequels/prequels/untold stories of Watchmen.

This story is some idiot saying, "Now that we can do stuff with the Watchmen characters.... LET'S JUST DO WHATEVER! AND FAST! "

Good point, but it's still not inherently a bad idea to continue the world around Watchmen.

 

[Gilpesh]

Good point, but it's still not inherently a bad idea to continue the world around Watchmen.

No. It is not an inherently bad idea.... but this version of the idea, is pure crap and should not happen. Which is what everyone is really reacting to. If this was announced and it was because Alan Moore and DC finally made up and he had an amazing idea.... people might be a little more in the middle. But again, it's not the case.

 

[fifthfiend]

 

[Symbiotic]

I have a bad feeling about this. The kind of bad feeling that makes me wake up in cold sweats at night, thinking of the horror. Seriously though, they're making a BIG mistake if they're actually considering this.

 

[fifthfiend]

Possibly Klingon.

awesome​

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

 

[WompuM]

 

[The Question]

There is no curse in entish, orcish, elvish, or the tongue of man to describe this. Possibly Klingon.

Dan Diddio is a flabby white petaQ.



Also, people need to cut back in the gifs. This page is starting to take forever to load.

 

[Dirt Like Me]

Grant Morrison's the only guy I trust to at least do interesting stories with the characters, but even he's not crazy enough to attempt that.

Just leave it alone.

I agree that DC should just leave well enough alone.

But...

I can actually imagine Morrisson incorporating some Watchmen elements in the Multiversity project that has been mentioned. And really, I don't think he'd do anything to undermine what the characters and their world is about.

The fact is, as great as Watchmen is, it's still a comic book. And it's true that there isn't much--if anything--that's sacred in comics. They killed Superman. DC is a publishing company and if they think something will sell, then they'll probably look into it. From my own perspective, I (reluctantly) admit that if the right talent was on board (Morrison, Gibbons), I'd be curious enough to take a look. Hell, I sat through the prequel trilogy...

But I hope DC doesn't go ahead with this. The cons greatly outweigh the pros.

 

[Dirt Like Me]

Alright, so when I mentioned Multiversity, I got to thinking. Here's an excerpt of Grant Morrison told CBR last May about the project:

Will “Multiversity” be DC’s big summer event next year?
It was never planned to be that way but it may well be. It’s getting bigger by the day. It’s something that I think would work that way. The only difference is that this doesn’t involve a lot of the main DC characters. But they could be worked into it. This takes place outside the DC Universe, but is tied to it.

“Superman” and “Action Comics” are doing very well right now without Superman. And Bruce Wayne is nowhere to be found, thanks to you. Maybe some new characters isn’t the worst thing?
I like to think that as well. Also, you can do more with them. You can kill people. You can do real change with characters that don’t have to come back every month. And you can play with a lot of different tones. And that’s what we’re trying to do with “Multiversity.”

Obviously, the Charlton one is done in this really kind of eye-level “Watchmen

” style. It’s all connections and self-referential.

​

So we at least know that he's been kicking around the idea of a Watchmen styled world. Then, a bit later in the interview, he said something that seems especially interesting:

Will the heroes in DCU proper know what going on in “Multiversity?” Or does this series exist outside regular continuity?
There’s a bit of both. It’s actually all about the connections between the DC Universe and the Multiverse. There’s a big story. There’s a thing that kind of runs through all of the books and it affects the DC Universe, as well but due to the nature of the Multiverse, only these guys can stop it.

And what’s that big thread that runs through all of them?
Each of the Earths has comic books on them with characters from the other Earths. And those come in handy when you have to cooperate and attack against the bad guys of the other Earths. There’s actually a comic book in it that’s haunted and it kills everyone who comes into contact with it, so we actually publish that comic. That’s “Ultraa the Unknown,” the sixth issue.
​

Here's the potentially mind-effing part: The seeds for the idea of alternative earths becoming known to each other via comic books is already in Watchmen. Don't forget that beat cop Hollis Mason decided to become a superhero/masked adventurer after he read a Superman comic.

If this sort of thing is what is being discussed, I'm much more intrigued in seeing more from the Watchmen world than I thought I would be.

 

[DJ Kornphlake]

 

[yenaled]

Morrisons idea isn't using the Watchmen characters but using Moores original pitch with Charlton characters before Moore loosley adapted them.

Actually Watchmen was never ever meant to be a one time story Moore had loads of ideas what he wanted to do with them, remember at one point this was just another comic book story before it was thou Holy WATCHMEN that we know today. Some of these ideas can be seen in the Watchmen Table Top RPGs that Moore and Gibbons were working with the game makers to refine the story (to this day that's the only official Watchmen spin offs ever made). It was only DCs handling of Watchmen and them pissibg off Moore which made it have no follow ups - Moore does still hold Creator Rights over the property.

Anyway this is a ******ed idea and a bit of a none story "Dan DIDio is an idiot and now the person that held him back isn't able to anymore".