Rorshach as the Question and a Pitch for the Inevitable Watchmen Revival
DC’s attempts to restart the Watchmen franchise over the past 20 years, not to mention their general dry-humping ceremonies to resurrect what was never intended to be a larger franchise, has been well documented. By keeping Watchmen in print, they kept the rights to the series and its characters (who we will get into momentarily) out of Moore and artist Dave Gibbons control. DC (from reports mainly Dan Didio) went as far as to offer Alan Moore the rights to these concepts in he would simply endorse a Watchmen revival. Dave Gibbons has be less apprehensive about the ordeal, artists are probably much more used to losing control of their work. Alan Moore used DC’s offer as a jumping point to further embarrass the publishing house as a desperate, idea-thirsty mausoleum of what used to be.
It is well known that Alan Moore’s original outlines for Watchmen used the recently acquired Charleton Comics characters which included The Question, Captain Atom and The Blue Beetle. Right around this time, DC was preparing for Crisis on Infinite Earths, which was going to fold these characters into DCU proper continuity and Moore was forced to alter the characters in Rorschach, Dr. Manhattan and Nite Owl, which in the end helped establish Watchmen as it’s own monster.
This year, as part of the DC New 52 relaunch Captain Atom was given a reboot along with his own monthly comic, the first in years outside of a backup feature in Action Comics. He has been taken back to his roots as a far more powerful and uneasy quasi-God, not unsimiliar to Dr. Manhattan. It is not too outside of the box to think that the new Dan Didio led DCnU is trying to take advantage of these mild character similarities to reclaim the Watchmen as their own in a round about way. The fact that Grant Morrison is going to be launching his long-awaited Multiversity which will feature a Watchmen-esque 48 page one shot with the Charleton character only backs up this idea.
The Question has a long history in the DCU, including his own solo series launched after Crisis on Infinite Earth. He has been featured on several DC cartoon shows, including: Justice League Unlimited and Batman: Brave and the Bold. Most recently, Vic Sage, the original Question, was featured as a prime player in DC’s big weekly event 52, training Renee Montoya to be the next Question. In the new Batwoman #1 they spend an adequate amount of time focusing on Renee Montoya’s picture in what appears to be a fallen officer memorial. It is not explained if she is actually dead in this new universe or if she has fallen off the face of the Earth to be the Question full time, but this makes me wonder if DC is done with the character.
Renee as the Question has been all over the DCU since 52. She was a vital part of Final Crisis, had a backup feature in the Batwoman-led Detective Comics, had her own Blackest Night tie-in, and has made appearances in most very Batman title or anthology special. DC has the opportunity to use this strong, Hispanic LBGT character as a stand in for the hard as nails, never compromising, feared and hated Rorschach. Renee definitely has a skip in her step that Rorschach is missing, but in this new universe character changes aren’t anything new (*ahem* Starfire).
If DC can combine the Charleton legacy characters (Captain Atom, Blue Beetle) and other largely unused Charleton throwbacks (Nightshade, Thunderbolt, Peacemaker) and new DCnU minor-celebrities Hawk and Dove, with a combined Watchmen/DCnU continuity I think there is a real possibility of capturing a new line of comics for the market.
Superman/Batman or World’s Finest
Superman and Batman are the kings of the DC Universe. People throw Wonder Woman and Green Lantern as the swappable #3, but we all know the truth: we all want that Batman PEZ dispenser. With roots in the Golden Age “World’s Finest Comics" Superman/Batman originally launched in 2003 it featured the creating team of Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness. It was in loose continuity with the rest of the DCU (it would feature the origin of the new Supergirl), depicted large scale threats, and was generally helmed by well known industry talent.
Around the time of Final Crisis, the quality of the series took a sharp downward trend. Instead of following through with Bruce Wayne’s apparent death and featuring adventures of Dick Grayson as a new Batman with longtime friend Superman DC opted to go “back in time” to retell unknown events from larger crises storylines such as 2001's Our Worlds At War. Spoiler Alert: this lasted for one unrelated storyline from Joe Casey.
At it’s best Superman/Batman was epic, action packed, character driven tales of two best friends helping and protecting each other. Towards the end it became two characters trapped in a box punching throwaway enemies. This is no slam to the writers of those later issues, editorial was very strict those days and led to the late Dwayne McDuffy resigning from writing duties on the Justice League because he couldn’t use any of the big Justice League characters due to other story line constraints.
With the DCnU Reboot we have the opportunity to launch a new Superman/Batman with a new Superman and Batman. So far, Superman and Batman have not created the bond they had in the old DCU, these are stories people my age never had the chance to read. I’ve always known them as best pals outside of little flashbacks in All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, and as ridiculous as that portrayal was even then you could see the little inklings of respect between them at that early stage in their careers.
I would read a well made Superman/Batman title. Let down the editorial walls; let time move fluidly; bring on well-known, all star writing and art teams--make this a good book. Don’t treat it as a cash cow that you don’t have to milk.
Come back tomorrow for two new entries...
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