DC have made an official announcement on the prequels. It would be redundant to list the full titles and creative teams when blogs like the excellent dcwomenkickingass have already done so, but I’ll pop my head ‘round the door and voice my opinion regardless.

My knee-jerk reaction was to head to Twitter in a fit of outrage, denouncing the project as another Phantom Menace (check here if you don’t believe me). But after mulling it over, I think I was being unfair. We’ve got some excellent minds working on these books; Brian Azzarello, Straczynki, the Kuberts and so forth. To disregard their efforts entirely wouldn’t really be cricket. But the problem I have with these books is the inevitable stretching thin of the tightly contained story. Take issue #4, in which we find Dr Manhattan in self-imposed exile. We learn his background, his motivations, his philosophy, even (for those who read closely) how his future-sight powers work. The complex themes of disillusionment and physical determinism (“We’re all puppets, Laurie. I’m just a puppet who can see the strings”) were covered in a perfect thirty pages of story. To rehash and stretch that out over six issues (a further 180 pages) seems like a bad idea. It can probably be done, but the likelihood of it being done well is a different story altogether.

And therein lies my worry. The overarching, uber-complex themes are perfectly contained and woven in a tight, roller-coaster narrative. But six or seven extra miniseries is just asking for trouble. The stellar creative teams will probably give us a group of great superhero comics worthy of a place in the new 52. I have no doubt about that. But without the poignancy of their predecessor, they won’t really be Watchmen comics.