Watchmen
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[edit] Introduction
Watchmen began as a twelve-issue comic book limited series created by writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colorist John Higgins. The series was published by DC Comics during 1986 and 1987, and was later re-published in collected form. It is considered a groundbreaking comic book series for the way it critiqued and re-imagined the super-hero concept, while dealing with the rampant anxieties of the 1980s, specifically related to the Cold War. Influential and highly regarded by many, numerous attempts to turn the series in to a movie were planned through the years but failed until director Zack Snyder released his version in March of 2009.
With the release of the film, the fandom has grown significantly and widely crossed over into media/fan-fiction producing fandom. It is a fandom, however, not free of kerfluffles and issues, ranging from conflicts between new fans of the movie and old fans of the comics, those who object to certain gender and sexual issues in both versions of the canon, and those who support and object to certain "ships" within the fandom.
[edit] The Canon
Watchmen is set in an alternative reality where superheroes--or "costumed heroes" as they are more specifically referred to--are part of history and have had influence on the shape of modern events, including the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon's presidency, and the Cold War. In the comic's universe, the only character who has true "superpowers" is Doctor Manhattan, and due to social unrest costumed heroes have become unpopular and in fact outlawed in 1977. The story picks up in 1985 after the murder of Edward Blake, otherwise known as The Comedian. He, along with Doctor Manhattan, are the only heroes working with U.S. government support at the time. Rorschach, a costumed hero who has continued his vigilante ways despite the laws, suspects that Blake's murder is part of a plot or conspiracy to kill off all remaining heroes, even if no longer active. He sets out to warn his former associates, thereby leading the reader (or viewer) into the world of the former costumed heroes, their stories, and how they eventually rally together once more to fight a global threat which could lead to the destruction of the human race.
[edit] Characters
The main characters in Watchmen are:
- The Comedian (aka Edward Blake)
- Doctor Manhattan (aka Dr. Jon Osterman)
- Nite Owl II (aka Daniel Dreiberg)
- Ozymandias (aka Adrian Veidt)
- Rorschach (aka Walter Kovacs)
- Silk Spectre II (aka Laurie Juspeczyk)
Other featured characters in Watchmen are:
- Nite Owl (aka Hollis Mason)
- Silk Spectre (aka Sally Jupiter)
- Silhouette
[edit] Terminology
Below is a list of terms and their definitions that are used in this fan community.
This section needs more information.
[edit] Timeline
Below is a partial timeline of events that took place in this fan community.
[edit] 1986
- In 1986 and 1987, DC Comics published a twelve-issue original monthly limited series, called the Watchmen. [1]
[edit] 1987
[edit] 1989
- In or around 1989 (Terry Gilliam, in The Comics Journal #182, on page 88, said that it was "right after [1989's The Adventures of Baron] Munchausen") that Joel Silver, who had produced Die Hard and Lethal Weapon, talked to director Terry Gilliam (Brazil, Twelve Monkeys) about directing a Watchmen film. [3]
[edit] 2000
- On November 29, 2000, the Spanish language mailing list wewatchthewatchmen was created. [4]
[edit] 2001
- On April 4, 2001, the LiveJournal community watchmen was created. [5]
[edit] 2002
- On March 24, 2002, the Portuguese language mailing list AlanMooreBigNumbersWatchmen was created. [6]
[edit] 2004
- On April 16, 2004, the article about the Watchmen on the comic book site, Sequential Tart, was last updated. [7]
[edit] 2007
- In April 2007, the bebo group MinutemanHQ was created. [8]
- On August 16, 2007, the InsaneJournal asylum quis_custodiet was created. [9]
- In September 2007, the bebo group comicbookfans was created. [10]
- On October 8, 2007, the LiveJournal fan fiction community watchmenfic was created. [11]
- On November 4, 2007, the LiveJournal community watchmenmovie was created. [12]
- On November 7, 2007, the LiveJournal community we_watch was created. [13]
[edit] 2008
- On March 5, 2008, The Annotated Watchmen was updated. [14]
- On May 24, 2008, the MySpace group watchmencomics was created. [15]
- On July 19, 2008, the MySpace group watchmenmoviegroup was created. [16]
- On July 25, 2008, there was a panel about the Watchmen at the Comicon in San Diego. [17]
- On July 26, 2008, the LiveJournal slash community watchmen_slash was created. [18]
- In August 2008, "Twentieth Century Fox's war with Warner Bros. over rights to Watchmen has sparked fan outrage across the Web following a published report that Fox is seeking to prevent Zack Snyder's $100 million-plus comic book adaptation from ever being released, a report that most reasonable people and several informed sources believe just isn't accurate." [19]
- On August 9, 2008, the MySpace group whowatches was created. [20]
- On August 12, 2008, the LiveJournal community movie_watchmen was created. [21]
- On August 17, 2008, the LiveJournal community fuckyouwatchmen was created. [22]
- On August 21, 2008, the LiveJournal icon community minutemenicons was created. [23]
- On December 9, 2008, the LiveJournal community watchdom was created. [24]
[edit] 2009
- Watchmen became a very popular fandom on lol_meme in March of 2009, especially the character Ozymandias. There was also a large quantity of secrets related to Watchmen posted to fandomsecrets during March and April of this year.
[edit] Kerfluffles
[edit] Release kerfluffle
On August 20, 2008, Entertainment Weekly published an article about battle between fans, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Brothers. [25]
On August 31, 2008, SocialMedian linked to the Entertainmet Weekly article on their site and on Twitter. [26]
[edit] Fan fiction
Compared to other comic book fandoms, the fan fiction community for the Watchmen is really small and only started to actively organize when news of the movie came out.
As of September 2009, there are over 1,000 fan fics archived at watchfic_dir on Livejournal.
[edit] Influential fanworks
This section needs more information.
[edit] Fandom members
This section needs more information.
[edit] Fandom size
This section needs more information.
[edit] External links
[edit] Sources
Below is a partial list of articles and academic sources to help you continue to learn about this community.
This section needs more information.
