(You can see all the covers here.)

Gibbons’s response was … guarded, at best: “The original series of Watchmen is the complete story that Alan Moore and I wanted to tell. However, I appreciate DC’s reasons for this initiative and the wish of the artists and writers involved to pay tribute to our work. May these new additions have the success they desire.”

(“Desire,” not “deserve.” Interesting.)

Moore, however, didn’t pull any punches. He told The New York Times that DC’s plans to continue his work are “completely shameless,” adding, “As far as I know, there weren’t that many prequels or sequels to Moby-Dick.”

And it’s not about the cash: “I don’t want money. What I want is for this not to happen.”

Instead, he says, it’s about the principle: “I tend to take this latest development as a kind of eager confirmation that they are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago.”

And that’s where I think Mr. Moore needs to take a serious “Wait a goddamn minute, pal” pill.

How exactly can Moore take DC to task for mining his ideas from 25 years ago when he himself raided British literature and used other writers’ characters and stories as the basis for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen?

Worse still, Moore wrote the graphic novel series Lost Girls, in which he took the young female characters of L. Frank Baum (Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz), Lewis Carroll (Alice from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), and J.M. Barrie (Wendy from Peter Pan) and put them in graphic sexual situations including rape, incest, and sexual humiliation.

How can he invoke the sanctity of Moby-Dick when he himself has made a lot of money from using other writers’ characters in ways the original writers never intended and most certainly wouldn’t appreciate? Because the content makes a difference, too. The creative teams DC has assembled for these Watchmen prequels will do their best to honor the voices and actions of the Watchmen characters. Was Moore honoring Mr. Hyde by having him rape the Invisible Man to death in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Was he honoring Dorothy or Alice or Wendy by making them victims of sexual depravity?

For me, Watchmen was never a “world” (in the sense that the Marvel Universe is a world or the DC Universe is a world) but rather one big story. It’s all there, it all exists in the confines of itself, it gets richer and deeper and more revealing every time I read it, and there’s no need to explore it further. Moore and Gibbons created a very complete world and presented it on various literary, narrative, and character levels that seamlessly incorporated every different time, voice, and style necessary to tell the tale. It’s a masterpiece of modern literature in that regard, and I’ve never had the slightest interest in reading further adventures of its characters because everything I need has always been in the original text.

On the other hand, the creative teams here have been very carefully chosen to best represent the particular characters they’ll be expanding upon. In the end, I guess the thing that surprises me most about all of this is that DC didn’t do it sooner.

I’m not judging Alan Moore here, and I’m not taking sides, but the whole situation is just brimming with talking points that I’m still mulling over.

In the end, I’d rather see all of these creators simply telling new stories rather than going back to the Watchmen well, but I’ll be keeping a close eye on how all of this develops, and I certainly have a lot of interest in the prequels based solely on the talent involved.

That’s been my issue with DC’s “New 52″ from the start. Why restart everything? Why come up with an event and assign good writers and good artists to it? How about assigning good writers and good artists to your characters and letting their good work be the event?

Oh, well.

What do you think?

(And please be sure to check out the thoughts my friend Mark Hughes posted on his blog at Forbes. Thanks for the mention, Mark!)

(Photo credit: Just Jared)

And please read my review at Modern Myth Media!

With Christopher Meloni (IMDB) and Harry Lennix (IMDB) previously cast as Colonel Hardy and General Swanwick, respectively, we know the movie’s going to have a military element.

Schiff’s casting promises a science angle, too, which is entirely welcome, along with adding yet another familiar face from Superman mythology to one of the most amazing casts we’ve ever seen for a superhero movie.

Jami Philbrick from I Am Rogue recently interviewed Mr. Schiff, who says he’s filmed scenes with Meloni and our new Lois Lane, Amy Adams (IMDB). He’ll also share a scene with Superman himself, Henry Cavill (IMDB).

Thanks to my fellow Modern Myth Media Gentleman Josh Costella for passing this along!

Man of Steel soars on June 14, 2013! And that’s entirely too far away.

(Thanks for doing all the footwork, Kareem. You’ve basically made it so that all I have to do is show up, enjoy wonderful hospitality from you and your family and friends, feast like a king on delicious California burgers and sushi, and watch Batman battle the forces of Bane for the soul of Gotham and its people on a screen as big as a planet.)

Entertainment Weekly has posted their cover for this week’s issue …

… featuring a Batman’d up Christian Bale, who says of his final adventure as Bruce Wayne, “I can tell you the truth because I’m done with it: I felt immense pressure, and I think it’s a good pressure, because you owe it to the films — and the people’s expectations — to make great work.”

As if he’s ever given anything less than above and beyond his best.

The magazine has also shared three exclusive photos depicting Tom Hardy’s Bane, Bane and Batman grappling in sunny, snowy daylight, and Gary Oldman’s Commissioner Gordon:

I feel bad that I’ve basically abandoned this website and even worse that I’m so far behind (to the point of never catching up) on Batman and Man of Steel news.

But I am writing.

I’m working hard on two projects I can’t talk about until contracts have been signed, and once I can talk about them, I’ll probably never shut up.

More on those things when I can.

In the meantime, for all your Batman movie news needs, there’s only one place to go: Bill “Jett” Ramey’s Batman on Film.

And for superhero movie news, head on over to Sean Gerber’s amazing Modern Myth Media.

I am honored to be able to write for both sites, and I appear most weeks on MMM’s podcast!

Get ready to rumble, folks. The Dark Knight Rises rocks the theater near YOU on July 20, 2012!