One of the most famous graphic novels in the world might not stand alone much longer.
Bleeding Cool seems to have stumbled on DC’s plans to get some use out of its long-dormant Watchmen franchise.
The story begins at New York Comic-con, where one of their reporters overheard there was some actually some movement on the long-planned prequel project.
There was also mention of a project codename: “Panic Room,” and some names of potential participants in the project: JG Jones, Andy Kubert and Brian Azzarello.
Later, the reporter confirmed a source had disclosed that there would be four miniseries in the project, with a over-arching plot written by Darwyn Cooke.
This claim seems to be supported by mysterious comments from the Eisner Award-winning comics creator.
“I have something coming up with DC, but I’m sworn to secrecy,” Cooke told an MTV Geek reporter earlier this year.
“There is a very big project on the horizon with DC, which we’re probably going to announce in October, as far as I understand. And that should be exciting, and infuriating, and all kinds of things to people. It should be quite a shock when they hear what we’re doing.”
That certainly sounds like it could be a Watchmen project, which is likely to anger just as many fans as it would excite.
The story comes together as Bleeding Cool said it had received a late-night phone call from “a DC editorial type,” who seemingly confirmed the project was indeed underway, and wanted to understand how Bleeding Cool knew about it.
DC has not officially commented on any of this, while Bleeding Cool hasn’t disclosed any of its sources, so the level of confirmation here is nil. Still, is is cool to think a new Watchmen project might be true, and even cooler to think that it could mean a film adaptation of the prequels.
I would personally welcome more Watchmen material of any kind, and it’s not like they can go back and mess up the book we already love. As long as they bring on a good writer, it would be difficult to make a book I wouldn’t read. I think the only way they could really screw up the story is if they try to merge the canon into the DC Universe. That would definitely be a travesty.
