Here's my opinion on the "should they/shouldn't they" argument.By all means DC,bring on the prequels.I for one want to read them and here's why:I'm excited to read them. Plain and simple fact for me is that comics of late fail to excite that "Gotta read this now!" feeling.The New 52 stuff is good reading for me and most of Marvel's stuff is decent but more often than not,aside from "Fables" & "Green Lantern",nothing is "Must-Read" anymore,which leads to why I look forward to the Watchmen prequels.There's some stellar talent on these books and I highly doubt any of these people will want to go into a project like this without wanting to do the best they can do and with as much respect to the original story as they can and I am genuinely excited to see what they have done.
Why Moore bitches about it is beyond me.He himself has taken characters and expanded on them.League of Extrordinary Gentlemen is the perfect example of this and it was good reading.I would regard Watchmen as Moore's Magnum Opus.It is his crowning achievement in the world of comics.He's written good stuff before it and good stuff after it,but so have a lot of other creators with characters. Walt Simonson's run on Thor is considered the best on the character and Walt will always be associated with it,no matter what else he has done before or since.Frank Miller's Daredevil and Dark Knight Returns,Claremont and Byrne's X-Men,Byrne's Fantastic Four,etc.These are all the benchmark runs that defined these books and characters and it would be like saying that after they were done,noone else could touch them because of how good they were(and yes,some of the runs after these creators were gone were pretty stinky but there's been good stuff too).
Will the prequels be as good as the source book? Maybe,maybe not. I'm a firm believer in reading first,judge it later so I can't comment on it and I haven't read any scripts on-line that give me any real insight.Those that choose to stay away from the books out of lack of interest or fan protest are certainly entitled to do so and creators who think it's a bad idea and vehemently oppose it can do that as well.There's nothing wrong with differeing opinion.Dave Gibbons has said that Watchmen was his and Moore's complete story and to me that nails it right there....it was their story that DC let them tell,now DC wants others to tell other stories with the characters and Gibbons has no problem with it.Moore has his reasoning as to why he doesn't think it needs done and that's fine with me.
Most that dislike the idea are saying "Why not do new stuff instead of going back to this?" Well I can tell ya,thre's new stuff being done by good creators and guess what......it doesn't sell. Fan acclaim?....sure. Crtical Success?....yep. Cancelled?.....you betcha!!. DC wants to sell comics and make money and that's what they're doing and what they intend to do with the Watchmen prequels no more,no less on their part.At least,they tried to make sure that the creators attached to the titles are some of the best in the biz and ya know what? I'm excited and that's a good thing.
