Before Watchmen (No Spoilers)

DesertHermit

I'm holding 'Minutemen #1' in my hands and I must confess to an intense ambivalence over the fact.
I have not read it yet, and, sadly, I'm not sure if I'm going to. But make no mistake about my intentions; I really really want to. It's Darwyn Cooke! It's the 'Watchmen' universe! I don't need to tell you what's enticing about it.
The problem is whenever I try to open to the first page I'm experiencing some sort of psychological backlash.
I'll try and explain.
There is no question in my mind that 'Watchmen' is one of the most consequential reads of my adult life. I've read it many times; I've taught it in my literature classes, and I'll likely do both again for many years to come. It is a work of pure genius.
Additionally, 'V for Vendetta' has cemented itself in my my mind as arguably the most important work of the last century. It also is a work of undiluted brilliance. Every time I read it I'm awestruck all over again.
When a writer achieves such a level of artistic accomplishment my response is to venerate and honor them in as many ways as I can conceive of. I teach their work, I recommend their books whenever I can, I re-visit and re-explore their works with regularity, I try to treat them reverence, and I attempt as best I can, in my own small way as a low level academic, to protect what I would perceive to be their best interests.
I suspect you see the difficulty at this point.
When I pick up 'Minutemen #1' I feel like I'm betraying Alan Moore. I know he was (is) against this project, I know he's unhappy with the way he was (is) treated regarding the original work. I know DC has been less than kind to him in response to recent discussions over his past contracts with DC.
I realize it's idiotic and meaningless to balk at the prospect of reading the book now; I already paid for the thing. They have my money. It's a purposeless act to refuse to read it.
Isn't it?
I guess I'd just like Moore to know I respect and admire his accomplishments, and I feel badly doing something that clearly would piss him off. So, at the very least, I won't be reading the book anytime soon.
This stance is going to get a lot harder when 'Rorschach' arrives in my next shipment.

batlaw

You don't think you're overthonking this a little too much? What about your showing disrespect to Cooke by not reading it or granting him equal respect by giving his work the chance to be brilliant too. You don't owe Moore anything. He doesn't know or care about you or what you do / don't do. You've bought his work, sung his praises and shared his work with others. That's more than enough. technically any "damage" has already been done anyway by you having bought the book. You're only hurting yourself not reading it.

David_D

I can't wait to respect and read Cooke's work on the next Parker.

Unfortunately the release date of that keeps getting pushed back. I wonder why ;)

WetRats

You don't think you're overthonking this a little too much?

I generally refrain from typotaunting, but I really like "overthonking" and believe it needs to become a word in its own right.

"Thonk" is a sound effect I associate with being hit on the head.

So "Overthonking" would be being hit on the head repeatedly.

In this case, beating yourself up over a decision, "overthonking" is exactly the right word!



<----Overthonking

batlaw

That is cute.
(smart phones aint so smart)

QuinQuestion

I feel the same way to a certain extent. I don't want to buy any of the Before Watchmen titles because I see Watchmen as a stand alone story and adding anything else would be detrimental. I think Moore perfectly fleshed out the characters to the point that we understood there motives and reasoning and were left to interpret the rest. I feel that Before Watchmen- while it may be good- indirectly says that Moore didn't properly set up his characters and that the readers are not imaginative enough to interpret the characters for themselves. However if I do hear good things about the books and if it is respectful to the original work I will buy the trades. So my philosophy is to wait and see.

DesertHermit

As is probably obvious, I'm generally given to overthonking.
But, no, I don't think I'm overthonking in this instance. I'm really just trying to sort out my response to this work.
I think your stance is wise QuinQuestion. In the end the new work may add substance to the original work.
And, in keeping with my originally stated enthusiasm for Cooke (forgive me Batlaw if I was not forthcoming enough about that fact), if anyone can make that happen it's Cooke.