It is news that will delight comic book fans across the world - DC Comics are planning to release a series of prequels to Watchmen.
One of the most influential titles in comic book history, Watchmen is set to be revived for the first time since 1987 – though not with the blessing of its creator Alan Moore.
The writer described the announcement as ‘shameless’ in an interview with the New York Times, adding that he sees it as “eager confirmation that they are still apparently dependent on ideas that I had 25 years ago.”
Nevertheless, the seven instalments of Before Watchmen promise to be highly lucrative for DC Comics as the popularity of the series remains huge.
It remains a bestseller, and has sold over two million copies, and was adapted into a film starring Billy Crudup in 2009.
DC Entertainment co-publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee released a statement that said: “It’s our responsibility as publishers to find new ways to keep all of our characters relevant.
“After 25 years, the Watchmen are classic characters whose time has come for new stories to be told. We sought out the best writers and artists in the industry to build on the complex mythology of the original.”
A number of noted writers and artists have been brought on board for the project, including John Higgins, who worked on the original series.
Higgins told the Washington Post: “The challenge is to make the stories modern and relevant to 2012 and to show what can be done with respect and consideration for the source material that has inspired so many people over the years.”
The original Watchmen series tells the story of a group of superheroes pulled out of retirement as a potential nuclear war begins to surface between America and the Soviet Union.
Few graphic novels have been so critically feted as Watchmen, which was ranked 91 in a list of the top 100 English Language Comics of the 20th Century by The Comics Journal in 1999, and was the only graphic novel to make Time’s "All-TIME 100 Greatest Novels" list in 2005.
More recently in 2008, Entertainment Weekly ranked it the 13th best novel of the past 25 years, and called it: "The greatest superhero story ever told”.