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By Jason Bourgeois
Okay, fine, I've ignored DC long enough. I've been sitting on this one for awhile now, mainly because I wanted to have the actual comics in my hands before making any opinions on them. Because that makes, y'know, sense? In fact, a lot of that is the point of this month's column.
Back in the spring, DC announced they had finally decided to dip back into the well of Watchmen. And the internet exploded. Sacrilege, they said! Blasphemy! DC has lost their minds! This is going too far!
Well, uh, okay...I get the rage, really I do. Watchmen is one of the highest selling comics and/or trades of all time. Alan Moore is indeed a pretty amazing writer. The book, whether you like it or not (And yes, there are people who do not like Watchmen), changed storytelling and redefined structure for the entire genre. You can argue whether that's good or bad, but either way, the book had impact on the entire industry.
So yeah, the comicbook bible was miraculously never mined for more gospel. Frankly, that's more surprising than anything else. 25ish years, and nothing more was done? I give DC credit for waiting this long!
But even if you were against the decision, didn't you think, maybe even just a little, "Gosh, I would love to just read one more story with Silk Spectre in it..."? Or whatever character. Probably Rorschach. Everyone loves Rorschach. But you get the idea, and you know you thought it.
Admit it! It will set you free!
Anyways, yes. The internet was pissed. I can understand it, but still I rolled my eyes. The project was months away from release, all we knew was that they were doing it. That is just damned silly to get upset over. And surprise! When they announced the creators involved, such people as Brian Azzarello, Adam Hughes, Amanda Connor, J. Michael Straczynski, Darwyn Cooke, and so many others...well, these are all generally respected artists and writers, aren't they? In fact, some of them are the best the industry has to offer. If ANYone is going to be doing this thing, isn't it reassuring to know that it is being done by such amazing creators?
NO cried the internet. Blasphemy! Geeze guys. At least they didn't get Rob Liefeld to work on them.
The creators did a decent enough job defending the idea, as they should. It would be dumb to take the job and say things like, "Naw, this'll suck, you're right." Even if it would be true. But the fans were unrelenting, and just drove into these guys, particularly JMS, and nitpicked every little thing. I'm not going to get into who's right and who was wrong in all this, but it just felt silly and petty half the time.
And yes, Alan Moore disapproved. But if we stopped doing things Alan Moore disapproved of, we'd probably still be living in the trees, and not shaving.
It seemed like so few people were willing to wait and judge the books on their own merits, but that's fandom, half the time, isn't it? I've come to call this 'yellow spandex syndrome' after the X-Men's first movie. I remember when those first few images came out, and the collective call of fandom went out when they saw Wolverine wearing...BLACK LEATHER! Surely the movie will suck and be the worst thing ever!! But it came out, and we all loved it. LOVED IT. And this happens again, and again, and again. Prejudge something, think it sucks based on very little evidence, and when you finally have the finished product, oh wait, I was mind numbingly wrong!
But does fandom ever learn? Not as a whole, it seems. I, personally, have taken to waiting until I actually see the thing to judge it. I may have reservations based on what we may know going in, but I'd never judge a work in its entirely with nothing to go on. Isn't that silly?
Granted, the prejudging gets it right sometimes. But throw enough darts at a board, you'll eventually kill SOMEone, right? But for the most part, the sturm und drang is for naught, and in hindsight, people just come off as being crazies.
So, just how are those comics? you may be asking. Which is a good question. We're only two issues in on the titles, leaving plenty of time for things to go off the rails. But considering that preceeding rant, it is probably no surprise that I am liking Before Watchmen.
Doing prequels was smart. There is a lot of time before the 12 issue miniseries we all know where stuff was going on. We know they all had these pre-series careers. That is plenty of room to tell some fun stories, and revisit this world, and not muck up the ending of the actual work.
I'm not going to get into each book, but they are all well written and drawn. I have no major complaints anywhere. Except for the two page pirate backup story in each comic. I was never a fan of the Black Freighter bits in the original book either, so that's no surprise, really.
The biggest stumbling block was the first issue of Minutemen. A lot of that read off like it was trying to recap all the characters in too dry of a fashion, almost like reading bios online. Which in a way makes sense for the first comic to come out, catching people up, but at the same time, is that really necessary? I guess someone out there not that familiar with the Watchmen universe might have picked the comic up, but it was rather dry.
Now, the comics are not the Next Big Thing. Nor do they need to be. They just need to be good, fun, solid entertainment. At the very, very least. And they are! They're good, they're readable, they're fun. Some of them even do come wicked close to that important feel of the original. Some of them use the same style to great effect, and one stand out with Ozymandias drawn by Jae Lee... That title just looks...amazing. That is art, plain and simple. Wow, just wow.
I would say that if this is the result, and things don't implode over the next four issues each, then this was a successful experiment from DC. They really have delivered, at least so far.
But, I won't judge the final product until I have them all in my hands.
Jason M. Bourgeois
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