DC Comics to Launch ‘Before Watchmen’ Series

DC Comics is going back into the past by launching a prequel to their popular Watchmen series, titled Before Watchmen.

Before Watchmen titles include Comedian, Dr. Manhattan, Minutemen, Nite Owl, Ozymandias, Rorschach and Silk Spectre. The writers and artists involved in the project include Amanda Conner, Darwyn Cooke, and J. Michael Straczynski.

It's our responsibility as publishers to find new ways to keep all of our characters relevant, DC Entertainment co-publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee said in a statement. After twenty five years, the Watchmen are classic characters whose time has come for new stories to be told. We sought out the best writers and artists in the industry to build on the complex mythology of the original.

The news has been met with mixed reactions on Twitter by Watchmen fans, comic critics and comic creators, several of whom lauded the creative teams behind the prequels, but doubted whether they would add anything substantial to the series.

Even Twitter user @DRUNKHULK noted the vehement reactions to the prequel news: WATCH PEOPLE REACT TO WATCHMEN PREQUEL LOT LIKE WATCH KRISTEN BELL MEET SLOTH!

It was also questioned whether Watchmen co-creator and comic guru Alan Moore approved of the idea.

He doesn't, by the way.

What I want is for this not to happen, he told The New York Times.

His Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons, however, doesn't seem to mind.

The original series of Watchmen is the complete story that Alan Moore and I wanted to tell, he said in the DC Comics' statement. However, I appreciate DC's reasons for this initiative and the wish of the artists and writers involved to pay tribute to our work. May these new additions have the success they desire.

DiDio and Lee defended the decision to create the prequel.

Comic books are perhaps the largest and longest running form of collaborative fiction, they said in a statement. Collaborative storytelling is what keeps these fictional universes current and relevant.

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