MATTEL: "Club Black Freighter" - WATCHMEN figures
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jjohnson77
Super Freak
As far as I know DC owns the rights to all characters published under their imprint, at least that's the way it was in the 80's & 90's.
DC owns the rights to Watchmen, not Moore. The rights to Watchmen revert back to Moore if Watchmen never goes out of print.
Naturally this will never happen. The book is the medium's definitive masterpiece and there will never be a time during any of our lifetimes when Watchmen is unavailable, but in Moore's mind DC keeps it in print year after year just to keep it out of his hands.
To be fair DC has always attempted to include Moore in their Watchmen projects even though they had no legal requirement to. Canceling Watchmen anniversary books and action figures was a small price to pay weighed against their hopes that Moore would someday get over his DC hatred.
It'll never happen. Moore is angrier than ever post-movie. He's even bashed on Dave Gibbons over his approval of Watchmen spinoffs.
Thanks to a regime change at DC their approach to Moore has changed. They tried to give him co-ownership and approval over Watchmen in exchange for approval and involvement in new Watchmen projects and of course Moore wouldn't budge.
So here we are a month into a 35-week comic prequel event and 6 months away from Watchmen action figures because after 20 years DC is no longer concerned with playing nice with Moore.
Naturally this will never happen. The book is the medium's definitive masterpiece and there will never be a time during any of our lifetimes when Watchmen is unavailable, but in Moore's mind DC keeps it in print year after year just to keep it out of his hands.
To be fair DC has always attempted to include Moore in their Watchmen projects even though they had no legal requirement to. Canceling Watchmen anniversary books and action figures was a small price to pay weighed against their hopes that Moore would someday get over his DC hatred.
It'll never happen. Moore is angrier than ever post-movie. He's even bashed on Dave Gibbons over his approval of Watchmen spinoffs.
Thanks to a regime change at DC their approach to Moore has changed. They tried to give him co-ownership and approval over Watchmen in exchange for approval and involvement in new Watchmen projects and of course Moore wouldn't budge.
So here we are a month into a 35-week comic prequel event and 6 months away from Watchmen action figures because after 20 years DC is no longer concerned with playing nice with Moore.
cokebabies
Super Freak
Which only seems to give credence to the fact that Moore's stubbornness (to put it nicely) in the past wasn't as crazy as a lot of people thought.
Ultimately Moore should know that it was a work-for-hire thing. He pitched the basic premise on spec but the plan was always to use established characters. The characters are all thinly-veiled Charleston character surrogates because DC had just acquired them but didn't want their new characters killed off/villainous/morally questionable so what Moore has been after all these years are still at their heart The Question, Captain Atom, Blue Beetle etc. Characters he has no claim to.
I think there's more than enough evidence that DC respects the franchise and wants Moore to approve what is done with it. Those unreleased DC Direct figures were above-averagr quality for their time and looked like the Gibbons art stepped off the page. Their Absolute Watchmen book is gorgeous. Before Watchmen is surprisingly great so far (I've read all 6 issues currently available) and even the movie was faithful to the book to a fault in most peoples eyes.
I get the vibe that DC doesn't have as much control over the movie stuff (the Watchmen toaster being the best evidence) but I have to say their handling of what has been released and their attempts to include Moore and seek his approval seems a lot more rational than Moore's side.
There's also the undeniable hypocrisy of Moore using other peoples characters for The League of Extraordinary Gentleman and that child pornography thing he did.
Mister D
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1. While the idea was to use Charlton's characters, the Watchmen went far beyond that (and is the better for using unique characters).
2. If it was just work for hire there wouldn't have been a rights clause in the contract. Such a thing was novel at the time; creators rights in the comic industry was only just becomming an issue. And at the time, there was no reason for anyone to believe that the Watchmen would be published continuously for the next 25 years.
3. Moore's LXG characters belonged to creators that are long dead, and AFAIK all belong in the public domain and most had been appropriated for other works for decades. If Moore was going to insist on retaining his rights for the next 200 years, you'd have better grounds for laying the charge of hypocrisy.
Don't get me wrong - Moore is a cranky, stubborn bastard and a bit of a crackpot. I do think he has a reason to feel slighted by DC (for multiple reasons), but eventually you have to let things go. DC has changed leadership multiple times, and there have been several attempts to come to an accord. There is no reason he had to hold onto his anger for so long.
Moore has been using thinly-veiled Harry Potter characters in the most recent League book so you can't really play the "public domain" card. He's also used Bond which is very much under copyright even though Ian Fleming is long-dead.
For all his brilliance Moore is hypocritical and selfish in regards to all things Watchmen.
For all his brilliance Moore is hypocritical and selfish in regards to all things Watchmen.
They're doing it this way because its the only way they can. They can't do a Watchmen line at retail. For one, it would tank. Two, its based off of a very adult graphic novel. Not something that would really fly at TRU. Still surprised TRU carreid the movie figures though. Plus I don't think many retailers want to try Watchmen again after the DCD figures failed. Heck, I think TRU still has them
They did Lobo as a SDCC for the same reason. If something isn't kid friendly, they're forced to take other avenues to make them available at all.
Hot Toys was going to.
Riiiight. They could even get Rorschach out the door before they gave up. Biggest fail that ever did fail.
Yeah, they totally bailed on the line. No doubt about that. A shame that Rorschach, Nite Owl and anatomically-correct Dr. Manhattan never materialized.
piccolodaimaoh
Super Freak
Yep. I would have loved a movie accurate Ozymandias figure with real save the world action feature. I loved his costume in the movie.
batfan08
Super Freak
Damn, suddenly I want these. It'd be cool if they did Ozy like Metron with his throne, and maybe throw in Bubastis for good measure.
Sachiel
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They won't. Mattel is cheap. Getting any new part, even a head is "too costly"
I have to admit that none of the pics of Rorschach wowed me, but in person he is great. One of my favorite DCUC figures now. Can't wait for the rest. About time we got to finish the group in form!
batfan08
Super Freak
I'm not even a 1/12th person, but these just seem incredibly unique in that they're probably the only figures we'll see from the comic (I'm lookin' at you, Sideshow).
I hadn't thought about that. I don't see any reason why Sideshow couldn't eventually do Watchmen figures unless its a separate license. I mean heck, if Mattel can do it, anybody with the DC licenses should be able to as well.
With the sudden appearence of so many new Watchmen lines and of course the Before Watchmen comics i think it could happen. I subscribed to Club Black Freighter and i am still waiting for my Rorschach figure. I mean even Funko Pop! vinyl has a line of Watchmen characters coming out i love these little guys and there are more to come.
banthafett
Super Freak
Love Funko Pop, they can even make lame characters/designs look pretty fun and cool.
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