More info on Watchmen misinformation

I apparently blundered on my post regarding Watchmen. I could have sworn that I read somewhere that Alan Moore did not like the way the book was going to end and wanted to pull out of it, allowing Dave Gibbons to bascially finish it. I think I was wrong, or just remembered the details incorrectly.

I posted the question on the message boards at Comicon.com. You can see the thread at http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=008354

I first found some information by myself regarding that it was a disagreement over the ending with then-editor Len Wein.

He was the original editor of the project but he didn't
like how Alan Moore planned to end it. They disagreed and rather than
overruling his writer, Wein stepped aside and let another editor finish
the series (you can check the credits).

*credit must go to Wizard Magazine for this information. It was
mentioned during an interview with Wolverine-creator Len Wein.

If you have alot of time, you can check out the superbly detailed
"Watchmen Annotated", here:
http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~wald/watchmen-index.html





Then I received some information regarding this via the Comicon.com message board:

1. This is the first that I've heard of this. If they were in conflict it doesn't show on any of the copies of Moore's Watchmen scripts that I've perused. As far as I could tell the ending that's in the comic is the same one that's in Moore's script. Of course this doesn't mean that those same scripts weren't rewritten later to reflect a new ending.

2. I believe it was in an issue of WIZARD (though I don't have it in front of me at the moment, that's a LOT of Wizard's to go through) where they talked with Mr. Wein and he said that he never agreed with the ending of "Watchmen", although he didn't say that he and Mr. Moore got into a fight over it, just that he didn't agree with how it ended.

3. Wein was annoyed because he believed Alan Moore was capable of better. Len Wein believed Alan Moore was simply using an ending ripped from 'The Outer Limits' and should have come up with something new.

4. I wonder what sort of ending Len Wein had in mind. Can anyone think of a different way they would have ended WATCHMEN? I've never heard of internal fights over WATCHMEN. I remember that DC boss Dick Giordano famously forbid Moore and Gibbons from using his "babies," the newly purchased Charlton Comics heroes, because he had plans for them. But Moore and Gibbons just created their own (better) versions, and Giordano seemed like a big fan of the project.

5. I can believe that. Wein had just a couple of years earlier edited All-Star Squadron, which used the same twist (but with added complications, such as the "invaders" being co-opted by an old foe). I imagine he would be pretty disappointed to see DC publishing that same twist as the climax of Watchmen, particularly considering the high level of attention to detail throughout the story.


I am still trying to find out more. I have been on an Alan Moore kick lately, so I am sure I will find something.