Buzzfeed landed a sneak peek of Before Watchmen at DC Comics headquarters. This prequel to Watchmen includes 36 issues total of 7 different series written and drawn by an impressive roster of talent. It's also the series original Watchmen writer Alan Moore called "completely shameless" and people on Twitter snarked all the way to Snarktown about.
Well, it's happening whether we like it or not. In comics, nothing ever ends. Even J. Michael Straczynski is finishing this one, it seems. You may also not be particularly surprised to hear the series already contains a probable continuity error, so this is off to a smashing start. At least the art looks good; some of Buzzfeed's Watchmen preview photos are below.
I'd still rather have a Ronsworschach series.
"Before Watchmen: Rorschach." Written by Brian Azzarello, illustrated by Lee Bermejo.
"Before Watchmen: Rorschach." Written by Brian Azzarello, illustrated by Lee Bermejo.
"Before Watchmen: Rorschach." Written by Brian Azzarello, illustrated by Lee Bermejo.
"Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre." Written by Darwyn Cooke, illustrated by Amanda Connor.
"Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre." Written by Darwyn Cooke, illustrated by Amanda Connor.
"Before Watchmen: Ozymandius." Written by Len Wein, illustrated by Jae Lee.
"Before Watchmen: Nite Owl." Writen by J. Michael Straczynski, illustrated by Andy and Joe Kubert.
"Before Watchmen: Curse of the Crimson Corsair." Written by Len Wein, illustrated by John Higgins.
"Before Watchmen: Minutemen." Written and illustrated by Darwyn Cooke.
"Before Watchmen: Minutemen." Written and illustrated by Darwyn Cooke.
"Before Watchmen: Minutemen." Written and illustrated by Darwyn Cooke.
Full-sized versions and the rest of the photos available at Buzzfeed.
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but Mothman can’t fly, what’s all this?
Actually in the original graphic novel there’s a throwaway line in Hollis’ book that his wings were somewhat functional and could glide.
Azz and Bermejo’s Joker book was a good read. I’ll be checking out Rorschach for sure.
i will bet you a crisp sawbuck that JMS runs late on at least one issue.
i like how you mention “continuity errors” and DC Comics together like those things mean anything to each other anymore.
if they can shit-can all their other continuity in favor of the new 52, the what makes you think they even think about continuity anymore?
All of these look great. Definitely going to snag Minutemen and Rorshach. While this whole project opens a can of worms and I have mixed feelings about it. It looks good. I don’t care much for continuity errors in this. I’m not saying it should be a reboot, just that doing new stories with these characters might benefit from not being tied to it directly.
And more importantly: “All worthy work is open to interpretation the author didn’t intend. Art isn’t your pet– it’s your kid. It grows up and talks back to you.” -Joss Whedon.
I think they look fantastic, but the nerd in me says the story will make me cry.
“Every time a young punk buys one of these books, I’ll eat a live kitten.”
-Alan Moore
4 Things:
1) No way any of these are gonna do worse to the property than Zach Snyder.
2) Calling any comic launch “unnecessary” is absurd for a medium that currently features roughly 12 concurrent Batman series’.
3)Why do people still pay attention to Alan Moore. Didn’t anyone read “The Dark Knight Strikes Again”? His biggest dig at this was calling out DC for having no original ideas and one of his most popular works co-opts a bunch of characters from classic literature.
4)I might’ve been cynical about this in 2008, but since the movie already came out and fizzled with the public at large, this is a pretty ballsy move.
I know this is a few days old but I’m just sitting here trying to figure out what Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Strikes Again” has to do with Alan Moore. Did… uh… did YOU read it? Becauuuuuse… it kinda doesn’t sound like you did.
Hand banana, noooo!!!