Before Watchmen

[IrishJedi]

Yeah, the art has been stellar on all of them, except perhaps The Comedian, which feels a few steps below Jones' potential. His covers have been awesome, though. In fact, the covers for ALL of these have absolutely been my favorite thing about this. Hell, there are several of them already that I'd probably get as prints.

 

[IrishJedi]

So... The latest issue (#3) jumps another Watchmen shark.

Sally can't locate Laurie (who, if you've been following this series has run away and started hanging out and drugging it up with other hippie kids). So, she calls Hollis, who basically tells her "Leave her alone. She'll come back." So, she gets pissed, tells Hollis off... and has The Comedian (yes, the Edward Blake Comedian) go and locate Laurie and take care of her boyfriend.

Think about this for a second... Sally Jupiter contacts Edward Blake to go find teenage Laurie.

Jesus , have these people even read the original work??



On second thought, perhaps Blake himself would love this Before Watchmen stuff. It is just a big joke, right?

 

[crows]

So... The latest issue (#3) jumps another Watchmen shark.

Sally can't locate Laurie (who, if you've been following this series has run away and started hanging out and drugging it up with other hippie kids). So, she calls Hollis, who basically tells her "Leave her alone. She'll come back." So, she gets pissed, tells Hollis off... and has The Comedian (yes, the Edward Blake Comedian) go and locate Laurie and take care of her boyfriend.

Think about this for a second... Sally Jupiter contacts Edward Blake to go find teenage Laurie.

Jesus , have these people even read the original work??



On second thought, perhaps Blake himself would love this Before Watchmen stuff. It is just a big joke, right?

what the F__k seriously? what the F__ are these people doing?

 

[Sweet Rabbit]

what the F__k seriously? what the F__ are these people doing?

blasphemy at it's finest

 

[IrishJedi]

Oh yeah... the whole thing is so stupid that I forgot to mention the silliest trivial (and laughably contrived part):

Those smiley face earrings & necklace that Laurie is inexplicably wearing in Before Watchmen? Blake steals one off of her nightstand as she sleeps... and it's what will eventually be THE smiley face button:

Seriously, they have to be trolling us with this stuff. I honestly couldn't have imagined anything as ridiculous.

 

[karamazov80]

Why do I feel extremely nauseous all of a sudden?

This series isn't far removed from this:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5jIUZuk0JQ[/ame]

 

[IrishJedi]

It really is mind-numbing, especially since they had to know this stuff would be under a microscope. But the problem is you don't even have to try to find major stupid problems in these books... they're right there on the surface and in your face, like a huge white-head on the nose of the person sitting across from you at the dinner table.

It's baffling that the writing has been this bad given the precarious situation they were in with this endeavor in the first place. We should be getting the best effort from everyone... writers, artists, editorial staff, etc. Instead, only the artists seem to give a crap at all. Then again, 2 of the artists are also responsible for some of the poop writing, so...

 

[Khev]

Oh yeah... the whole thing is so stupid that I forgot to mention the silliest trivial (and laughably contrived part):

Those smiley face earrings & necklace that Laurie is inexplicably wearing in Before Watchmen? Blake steals one off of her nightstand as she sleeps... and it's what will eventually be THE smiley face button:

Seriously, they have to be trolling us with this stuff. I honestly couldn't have imagined anything as ridiculous.

Just so I can get an idea of how clueless these writers are how did the Comedian get the smiley face in the original series?

 

[IrishJedi]

It was never explained. It doesn't need to be. But... it was part of his "Comedian" motif as far as back his initial 1940 costume, which had a jester-like smiley face on his belt. The button always seemed like a natural progression from that. He doesn't need to "find" it. He's already The Comedian for crissakes.

The biggest problem isn't that it's just contrived, unnecessary and silly... but the notion that Blake would get the smiley face button from Laurie, of all people. They are absolutely estranged in the original book. Only meet once or twice, and she doesn't know he's her father until after he's dead. He himself never even acknowledges it. Sally (the mother) doesn't want him to have ANYTHING to do with her whatsoever. She even jumps all in his **** for basically just saying "hi" to Laurie after the one and only Crimebusters meeting. So to think she'd call him to go find her is just so completely off-base and out of character it would be the equivalent of alternate-universe "What if?" stuff in a standard superhero comic. It doesn't jive with the original work and its characters AT ALL.

These are absolutely shaping up to be the comic book world's equivalent of the SW prequels, except maybe worse from a canon perspective. At least in the SW prequels the characters are basically who they should be and the plot makes sense in progression to the originals. In Before Watchmen, that stuff is nuttier than squirrel turds.

 

[crows]

oh, how cute, daddy Comedian....

if I remember correctly The Comedian had smiley looking face on his belt when he was with the Minutemen,
they even show it in the movie

I always figured the smiley face pin was just from that, just carrying the smiley motive to the new suit, didn't really need an explanation when you consider he had a smiley looking face as a buckle when he was younger

 

[IrishJedi]

Exactly.

 

[batfan08]

I give up, I'm throwing in the towel; you win, Irish.

 

[IrishJedi]

I don't blame you. This stuff is so bad it's indefensible.

Seriously, though, I'm actually surprised by the lack of effort on these (in the writing area, anyway... again, the art has been great). You'd have thought they'd have gone out of their way to deliver. Instead we're just getting what was some of our worst fears: official fan-fiction. Actually, that's not quite accurate. At least fans of WATCHMEN would have some knowledge of the original work and its characters.

That said, I still think Ozymandias has been pretty well-written so far. That's probably because, unlike the others, it's not trying so painfully hard to affect the original WATCHMEN with contrived & out-of-character "You think you know Watchmen? Think again!" bullcrap.

I'm still going to continue to read these. I feel somehow obligated. But about halfway through the naysayers have (to this point) been vindicated. DC and the writers aren't dotting I's and crossing T's here... they're pooping this stuff out of their asses. Unfathomable.

 

[crows]

I don't blame you. This stuff is so bad it's indefensible.

Seriously, though, I'm actually surprised by the lack of effort on these (in the writing area, anyway... again, the art has been great). You'd have thought they'd have gone out of their way to deliver. Instead we're just getting what was some of our worst fears: official fan-fiction. Actually, that's not quite accurate. At least fans of WATCHMEN would have some knowledge of the original work and its characters.

That said, I still think Ozymandias has been pretty well-written so far. That's probably because, unlike the others, it's not trying so painfully hard to affect the original WATCHMEN with contrived & out-of-character "You think you know Watchmen? Think again!" bullcrap.

I'm still going to continue to read these. I feel somehow obligated. But about halfway through the naysayers have (to this point) been vindicated. DC and the writers aren't dotting I's and crossing T's here... they're pooping this stuff out of their asses. Unfathomable.

from what I read from you guys and looking at what they are doing this is what is pissing me off the most, trying to change things for the sake of either shock or surprise,

at least fan fiction respects the original stories in most cases

 

[batfan08]

I don't blame you. This stuff is so bad it's indefensible.

Seriously, though, I'm actually surprised by the lack of effort on these (in the writing area, anyway... again, the art has been great). You'd have thought they'd have gone out of their way to deliver. Instead we're just getting what was some of our worst fears: official fan-fiction. Actually, that's not quite accurate. At least fans of WATCHMEN would have some knowledge of the original work and its characters.

That said, I still think Ozymandias has been pretty well-written so far. That's probably because, unlike the others, it's not trying so painfully hard to affect the original WATCHMEN with contrived & out-of-character "You think you know Watchmen? Think again!" bullcrap.

I'm still going to continue to read these. I feel somehow obligated. But about halfway through the naysayers have (to this point) been vindicated. DC and the writers aren't dotting I's and crossing T's here... they're pooping this stuff out of their asses. Unfathomable.

At this point, the art is mostly what draws me in. I try not to be too critical, but, like you, one of the few reasons I continue to get them is that I feel I might as well finish up. I'll probably get Moloch, too (just for the hell of it).

 

[IrishJedi]

Maybe I'll start enjoying them more if I just flip through the books and look at the art instead if actually reading them, too.

 

[IrishJedi]

Comedian #3 didn't sucker punch our balls too bad this week. Actually a pretty interesting read. And there was at least one clever bit: The Comedian goes to L.A. to squash the Watts Riots and he goes into the 'hood wearing Smiley Face makeup that basically is mocking blackface/whiteface just to needle the locals. Wow.

Azzarello pulls the punches from there, though, with Blake basically siding with the rioters (enticing them to loot) and his big "punchline" is throwing poop in the face of the police commissioner. Funny, but not quite Comedian, who'd be more keen to be out smashing skulls. Hell at one point he even gets hit in the face with a thrown brick and does... nothing. Yeah, right.

 

[karamazov80]

Actually, coming back to the thing with Sally sending the Comedian to find Laurie, it might make some sense if she doesn't have other contacts who she thinks could be as good at getting the job done. And knowing he is her father, you can assume he would take care to do the job as well as he could. Even if Sally didn't want him to have anything to really do with her, choosing him to find Laurie if she went missing might not be such a bad idea.

Not defending these prequels by any means, just thinking that that specific decision might not be as bizarre as it seems on its surface.

 

[IrishJedi]

Well, it's not like she got kidnapped or anything. She just ran away. And she's been in contact with "Uncle" Hollis, who knows she's okay. He even tells Sally to calm down and back off and eventually Laurie will come back home but she's actually pushing her away. So she basically tells Hollis to F off, hangs up and then calls Blake to go locate her. Sorry, not buying it. Not in a million years.

 

[batfan08]

I'm starting to like my idea more and more. If DC absolutely had to do something with the property, do a Watchmen "Redux" where you get some of the top artists in the industry to "cover" a few pages/chapters/whatever in a tribute to the original. You wouldn't piss the hardcore fans off as much, since it's still Moore's original work, but you'd still intrigue people enough to probably buy it.