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SF-LIT  June 2012

SF-LIT June 2012

Subject:

Who Watches the Watchman's Watchers

From:

Dennis Fischer <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Science Fiction and Fantasy Listserv <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Thu, 31 May 2012 11:05:14 -0700

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (115 lines)

Who Watches the Watchmen’s Watchers?
Alan Moore is angry about DC Comics’ Watchmen prequels. He’s right.
By Noah Berlatsky|
 
Before Watchmen.DC Comics.
Even by the wretched standards of the entertainment industry, superhero comics 
are known for their dreadful labor practices. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the 
creators of Superman, famously sold the rights to the character to DC Comics for 
$130, and spent the latter part of their lives, and virtually all their money, 
fighting unsuccessfully to regain control of him. Similarly, Jack Kirby, the 
artist who co-created almost the entire roster of Marvel characters, was 
systematically stiffed by the company whose fortunes he made. Though most of the 
heroes in the Avengers film were Kirby creations, for example, his estate won’t 
receive a dime of the film’s $1 billion (and counting) in box office earnings.
In keeping with this depressing tradition, DC will, next week, begin releasing 
new comics based on Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's seminal 1986-87 
series. Before Watchmen will include not one, not two, but seven new limited 
series, written and drawn by some of DC's most popular creators, including Brian 
Azzarello, Darwyn Cooke, Amanda Conner, and Joe Kubert. Watchmen demonstrated to 
a mainstream audience that comics could be art, and became one of the most 
popular and critically acclaimed comics of the last 25 years. Up to now, it had 
also been one of the most sacrosanct. For over two decades, DC has resisted the 
urge to publish new material featuring Rorschach, Dr. Manhattan, or the 
Comedian. 
You'll notice the list of writers and artists involved with Before Watchmen 
includes neither Moore nor Gibbons. This is not unusual in superhero comics. 
Most work for DC and Marvel is created on a work-for-hire basis. Thus, the 
original creator of, say, Walrus Man will usually go into a deal with one of the 
big two comics publishers knowing that the Titan of Tusk will become the 
company's property—his aquatic adventures to be written and drawn by whomever 
the corporate overlords deem fit.
Advertisement

 
What is unusual, though, is the vehemence with which the original creator has 
denounced Before Watchmen. It's true that back in the ’80s, DC tried to get 
Moore and Gibbons on board for a sequel. That didn't pan out, though, and in the 
ensuing decades, Moore's relationship with DC has soured, to put it mildly. 
Among (many) other things, Moore became increasingly angry with the company over 
the handling of the rights to Watchmen itself. In the original contract, DC had 
written a provision stating that the comic and the characters would revert to 
Moore and Gibbons once the series went out of print. Moore had assumed that, as 
with all comics in those pre-“graphic novel” days, this would happen within a 
few years. Instead, of course, Watchmen was a massive hit—so massive that the 
trade paperback collection of Watchmen has been in constant publication, and 
probably always will be.
Gibbons has largely seemed content with DC's perpetual ownership of Watchmen. 
Moore, though, is a different story. He refused to accept recompense for the 
2009 Watchmen film, which he referred to (sight unseen) as "more regurgitated 
worms." As for Before Watchmen, he made his position painfully clear in an 
interview: "I don't want money. What I want is for this not to happen."
Watchmen's canonical status, combined with Moore's dissent, has led to an 
unusually vocal backlash against DC. Chris Roberson, a sometime DC writer, 
decided to stop accepting work from the company because of its record on 
creator's rights. Cartoonist Roger Langridge, who wrote the acclaimed series 
Thor: The Mighty Avenger for Marvel, followed suit, explaining that "Marvel and 
DC are turning out to be quite problematic from an ethical point of view to 
continue working with." And Bergen Street Comics in Brooklyn will not be 
carrying the Before Watchmen titles; in explanation, Bergen Street's manager, 
the comics critic Tucker Stone, said, "This is just gross, and we don’t want to 
be part of this one."
It would be nice to say that Roberson, Langridge, and Stone are at the forefront 
of an all-out revolt against DC and Marvel's business practices. That's not 
really the case, though. For the most part, DC and Marvel's writers and artists 
are still writing and arting as they always have; comics stores are still 
carrying the comics; and fans are still buying. Yes, if you go stumbling about 
in the comments of mainstream comics blogs (here for instance), you'll find some 
outrage on Moore's behalf. But you'll also find a significant number of folks 
who don't care, and who are actively irritated that anyone thinks that maybe 
they should care: As one fan said, "Alan Moore is a very arrogant guy that 
really hasn't done anything relevant in a very long time and should really spend 
more time creating and less being a cranky old guy in a pub.”
J. Michael Straczynski, one of the writers on Before Watchmen, summed things up 
for many when he asked rhetorically, “Did Alan Moore get screwed on his 
contract? Of course. Lots of people get screwed, but we still have Spider-Man 
and lots of other heroes."
 
Before Watchmen. DC Comics. 
Straczynski's contrast between Alan Moore (screwed!) and Spider-Man (still 
ours!) nicely sums up the fandom dynamics of superhero comics. Creators are 
there to churn out marketable, exploitable properties … and then disappear. And 
because the comics companies own the characters, and because they have 
substantial marketing departments, they're in a position to make that 
disappearance stick. Who knows who created all those different Avengers? Who 
knows who created Wonder Woman? Who cares? We want our modern myths packaged and 
available at our corner store and on our movie screens. Also … toasters.
Why is Moore complaining? It’s not about the money, as he’s said. (That’s 
probably a big part of the reason people call him a crank.) But Moore created a 
group of characters and the world they live in; those characters still mean 
something to him. Now a company he believes has screwed him over gets to 
colonize and even define that world. For example: Moore’s comics have often been 
concerned with feminism, and one theme of Watchmen is that the superhero genre 
is built in part on retrograde sexual politics and thuggish rape fantasies.
And how does Before Watchmen address these issues? Like so.
If this were some piece of fan fiction detritus—naked Dr. Manhattan, porn-faced 
Silk Spectre!—it would be funny. But given that this is an "official" product, 
it starts to be harder to laugh it off.
Of course, this is one of the things that always happens with art. If you create 
a beloved character or story, others are going to honor it, parody it, use it, 
and abuse it. That’s why there’s fan fiction. Indeed, Moore and artist Melinda 
Gebbie literally defiled Dorothy Gale, Alice (of Wonderland), and Wendy Darling 
in their exuberantly pornographic Lost Girls. Given that, what does Moore have 
to complain about exactly?
What he has to complain about is that he doesn't own his own characters ... and 
the company that does own them is free to pursue any version of the characters 
it likes, whether honoring Moore’s original vision (as DC has been careful to 
assert) or turning it into bland, infinitely reproducible genre product (as many 
suspect they will). And DC has the marketing might to ensure that, in the end, 
its version will be the one that’s remembered. After the third or fourth Before 
Watchmen movie, which iteration of the characters will be most familiar to the 
public? Rorschach and Nite Owl and Dr. Manhattan have been raised from their 
resting place, and Moore—and the rest of us—now get to watch them stagger 
around, dripping bits of themselves across the decades, until everyone has 
utterly forgotten that they ever had souls.

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