Is any good story safe?!

[Austin316]

I can open up my Watchmen book and have no different experience to what I would have had a month ago. If they incorporate and write great stories, then fantastic, I'm over the moon... if not then I'll just ignore them and be satisfied in the knowledge Watchmen is still there. I really see these types of stories no differently to any other character in that an abysmal Batman story has never affected my enjoyment of the good ones, so why should Watchmen be any different?

[Inhuman X]

The real question is, should any good story be excluded from what is meant to be a big interconnected universe when it can be used for more good stories? Or should it by right be incorporated for the greater good? Watchmen is a comic book. Not a sacred religious relic. And it's story and characters have life left in them for DC and for us readers.

[C_Miller]

The real question is, should any good story be excluded from what is meant to be a big interconnected universe when it can be used for more good stories? Or should it by right be incorporated for the greater good? Watchmen is a comic book. Not a sacred religious relic. And it's story and characters have life left in them for DC and for us readers.

But this is an argument that's totally unique to comics. The shared universe is a comics thing and doesn't really exist anywhere else. And truthfully, it's an American Comic Book thing. Work should be allowed to stand on its own. Not everything needs to be a part of a universe. Hell, that's one of the reasons I love Image so much. The characters are allowed to exist independently.

[Carabas]

But this is an argument that's totally unique to comics. The shared universe is a comics thing and doesn't really exist anywhere else. And truthfully, it's an American Comic Book thing. Work should be allowed to stand on its own. Not everything needs to be a part of a universe. Hell, that's one of the reasons I love Image so much. The characters are allowed to exist independently.

It's an argument that's unique to American superhero comics. These shared universes are almost alien to comics from other countries or in different genres.
Which is because outside of Marvel and DC, practicaly nobody uses the insane anti creator-ownership set-up the Big Two are built on.

[Jim Kelly]

I'm not surprised there's a push to flog every horse to death. But I am surprised that no one is making a plea for good taste.

I'd think there would be some people at DC who could point out that it's good taste to leave this story or that one out of the big multi-universe. And that good taste is a valuable commodity to the company. People will buy stuff that's in good taste. So it suits DC's bottom line to let some properties be those good taste oddments that persist in discreet bubbles of fiction. Because the rubes out there like that stuff.

[Johnny Thunders!]

It makes the Watchmen characters seem a bit silly putting them in the DCU. I don't think Wildstorm benefited. Why not use the Captain Atom and Charlton characters from Multiversity?

[bat39]

The DC and Marvel universes as we know them have always been built on derivation from and reinvention of old stories, to varying degrees. The Justice League, and pretty much the entire Silver Age DCU which still serves as the template for the DCU we see today across all media, were reinventions of the JSA and other Golden Age characters and concepts.

Watchmen was based on the characters of the Charlton Comics. Year One was a gritty retelling of Batman's early years. New Frontier was a re-imagining of the origins of DC's Silver Age. Dark Knight Returns, Kingdom Come etc. are just the few gems among hundreds of 'dystopian future' stories for superheroes and various other characters.

So these greats are themselves derivative. There can't really be some overriding moral clause dictating that they themselves can't serve as inspiration for further derivation.

Now I agree, that its not always done well. But the notion that it can't be done at all, that classic comics should be 'protected' (as if one were planning to set fire to every existing copy of Watchmen) is patently absurd beyond a point.

[Austin316]

It makes the Watchmen characters seem a bit silly putting them in the DCU. I don't think Wildstorm benefited. Why not use the Captain Atom and Charlton characters from Multiversity?

Because they won't pique people's interest, the Watchmen characters will.

[Jim Kelly]

Well also both WATCHMEN and V FOR VENDETTA are of their time. They're both reacting to Thatcher and Reagan conservatism. As my Prime Minister is fond of saying, "It's 2016."

[Carabas]

It makes the Watchmen characters seem a bit silly putting them in the DCU. I don't think Wildstorm benefited. Why not use the Captain Atom and Charlton characters from Multiversity?

Because those characters are a) alraedy part of the DCU and b) don't really have all that much in common at all with the Watchmen.
Comedian is based on a character called the Peacemaker.

And c), they gave it a few goes, and outside of The Question being a minor succes, nobody was interested.

[colonyofcells]

Dc does not seem to own Peter Cannon Thunderbolt anymore so Ozymandias is a good substitute to use.

[Johnny Thunders!]

I get it, nobody Cares about the Charlton Universe, but people did like Morrisons Multiversity. Why not us that version of the Charlton Charcters? Oh wait, nobody cares about the Charlton universe.

[Carabas]

I get it, nobody Cares about the Charlton Universe, but people did like Morrisons Multiversity. Why not us that version of the Charlton Charcters? Oh wait, nobody cares about the Charlton universe.

People like Morrison, not the no-name characters he happens to be using in a story.

Anyway, what is wrong with using the most popular versions of those characters?

[Jim Kelly]

It seems strange to me that Captain Atom--and any ersatz version of him--is always made to carry the can for everything wrong in the world. I'll have to go back and read the original Charltons. Was that built into the character? I thought Captain Atom was supposed to be a happy, fun character.

[Johnny Thunders!]

One of the big deals about Watchmen was the idea that the world was mundane before the Watchmen arrived. It answered the question, "Whar would happen if Superheroes were real?" This answers the question, "What happens when Superhero Universes collide?" Same thing that always happens. Nothing's special, I get it, throw Sandman and Preacher in this crossover too. They can have Swamp Thing gumbo with Y the Last Man.