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Who Watched the Watchmen? Before Watchmen: Minutemen by Darwyn Cooke

June 16, 2022 by Dave Leave a Comment

It is often said that Watchmen is the most influential comic ever to be released. That comics wouldn’t be where they are without it, for good and for ill. But how did we get here, exactly? More to the point, just what influence did Watchmen provide to the larger world of comics? What, ultimately, is the legacy of Watchmen? Who watched the Watchmen?

Few creators agreeing to the Faustian Pact of DC’s 2013 “Before Watchmen” came out of the craven affair smelling particularly clean. In the aftermath of The New 52, DC was riding high on controversial yet conversation-dominating marketing, and before a book ever hit print, a series of prequels for Watchmen felt like a clear form of creative desecration in service of making a buck. This aura was cemented by a series of interviews with Watchmen co-creator Alan Moore, arguably the best comics writer of all time, in which Moore venomously denounced DC’s decision with scathing one-liners like, “I would hope that you wouldn’t want to buy a book knowing that its author actually had complete contempt for you.”

Nonetheless, celebrated writer and artist Darwyn Cooke signed up to write and draw Before Watchmen: Minutemen and co-write Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre with Amanda Conner. Although the experience and reaction was far from a party (Cooke described it as a “shit show”), Cooke’s legacy remains largely untarnished by his significant contributions to the debacle. At the time, I remember thinking of “Minutemen” as the series held in the highest regard (or at least as the one not held in contempt!). A near decade ago, I even spent an entire early Comic Book Herald review defending “Minutemen” as the lone success of “Before Watchmen,” but couldn’t muster much more passion than the repetition that the book’s “not a failure” (my highest praise!).

Looking back, I suppose that remains the question. Did “Minutemen” and Cooke succeed where the rest of “Before Watchmen” could not? [Read more…] about Who Watched the Watchmen? Before Watchmen: Minutemen by Darwyn Cooke

Batman vs Predator: Humanity’s Greatest Creation (Or At Least The Best Crossover Ever)

June 15, 2022 by Matt Draper Leave a Comment

It’s a hot night in Gotham City. The kind of night that brings out the darker side in a dark city. But there’s something out there that puts even the most dangerous Gotham citizens to shame.

It’s not Batman. It’s something much worse.

Published from 1991 through 1992 in 3 issues, Batman vs Predator saw Dark Horse and DC Comics come together for the first time for a story that sees Fox Studios’ alien hunter arrive in Gotham, pursuing dangerous game throughout the city until it encounters the most dangerous prize – The Dark Knight. With Batman trying to solve who is behind a string of grisly murders in his city, his search leads him directly to the Predator, only to be badly beaten and nearly killed in his first encounter. Now with Bruce Wayne physically broken and the Predator tearing through Gotham, Batman will have to find a way to beat an enemy unlike any he’s faced before for the sake of his city.

On the surface, a comic centered on slamming together two popular but dissimilar characters seems like a quick cash grab, and while Batman vs Predator is very much a blockbuster comic, it’s a crossover blockbuster comic done right. One that shows the potential of the high concept. It’s a silly idea. A fanboy dream match played to its full extent and given a dramatic heft that makes you buy into its conflict.

And what’s great about Batman vs Predator is that Batman fights the Predator in it. This is a scientific advantage over almost all other comic books.

From the stop and start history of inter-company crossovers to the thrills of a story created by Dave Gibbons, Andy Kubert, Adam Kubert, and Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh that weaponizes the concept of “Batman with prep time,” to its contribution to the crossover boom that followed, I simply have no other option than to declare Batman vs Predator as humanity’s greatest creation. Or at least the greatest comic book crossover ever.

ACTION COMICS by Grant Morrison | A New Future For The Man of Tomorrow

June 14, 2022 by Doug Smith Leave a Comment

For over 80 years and a thousand issues, Superman has held a titanic legacy in fiction, using his incredible powers to fight a never-ending battle for truth and justice. He’s been a champion of the oppressed, a reporter, an alien, an immigrant; countless forms that have coalesced over the years into an image that’s practically synonymous with the American myth itself. But what happens when someone takes this icon and its countless forms, and breaks it down to its base elements? And how do those base elements change when they collide with other conflicting plans?

In 2011, DC Comics announced The New 52, a publisher-wide initiative that reset its ongoing continuity and relaunched every title set in the fictional DC Universe. Spearheaded by then-Chief-Creative-Officer Geoff Johns and Co-Publishers Jim Lee and Dan DiDio, the initiative was meant to both streamline the company’s superhero line for new readers and give a roster of all-star creatives the opportunity to reshape and modernize the characters as they saw fit. It was here that superstar writer Grant Morrison–fresh off a 7-year run on Batman–and artist Rags Morales would collaborate to bring this new version of Superman to life, crafting a story that celebrates the character’s place in fiction while introducing a more modern, conflicted take on the hero. While the run was widely regarded as a misfire, characterized by the many production and creative struggles that would define the rest of The New 52, it’s also a coda to all of Morrison’s thoughts on Superman, pulling from every iteration of the character to forge an all-new future for the Man of Tomorrow.

Hickmania #6: The Manhattan Projects (W/ Celice B!)

June 14, 2022 by Dave Leave a Comment

Hello and welcome to Comic Book Herald’s Hickmania, a series running through 2022 where we’ll be reading and analyzing the creator-owned works of writer Jonathan Hickman, from his debut The Nightly News through to his most recent output. We’ll be reading one creator-owned work a month through 2022, and each month I’ll release a new analysis with a new guest discussing the comic!

Today we’re talking The Manhattan Projects and I’m joined by Celice B! We’ll analyze the work in depth, so expect spoilers!

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