There's not much you can rely on in comics anymore these days.  Lois Lane and Clark Kent finally got married, Spider-Man unmasked in front of the world, Lex Luthor became President of the United States, and the Rawhide Kid turned gay.  But there's still two things you can count on:  the dead don't stay dead, and any comic that turns a profit is going to get a sequel.

One of the few exceptions to the latter rule has been DC's legendary mini-series, Watchmen.  Generally considered the most highly acclaimed superhero comic of all time, its critical reputation helped fight off the demand for a follow-up engendered by its relatively high sales figures.  (One might also argue that author Alan Moore's wishes, combined with a fiendishly ambiguous ending that seemed to disallow the very notion of a sequel, might have something to do with it.  But Moore doesn't own the property; DC does, and since his rancorous departure from the company, they've never been particularly interested in his opinion on the matter, as evidenced by the large number of movies and TV shows based on his stories, but without his name in the credits.)  But with interest in the upcoming movie version of the comic driving sales to a record high, and the motion picture industry in the habit of booking sequels years in advance to films they merely suspect are going to be hits, Comicscape takes up the question:  are we inevitably going to see a Watchmen sequel, either on screen or on the page?

The very idea is anathema to many fans of the comic, who agree with critics that Moore's perfectly planned, circular storytelling was deliberately constructed so as to ensure that only the reader could decide what happens next.  But if the movie makes enough money, a sequel could be unavoidable; Hollywood is a town that would let Jesus jump down off the cross and take his revenge on Pilate if it tested well with audiences.  Comicscape points out that the idea of a sequel is nothing new:  many such proposals have been floated over the years, including Rorschach's Journal and The Comedian's Vietnam War Diary (neither of which ever materialized).  Plans are also in the works for a Watchmen video game set in the early 1970s, following the prevailing 'wisdom' that a prequel is the only non-disastrous way to expand the story.  In the end, though, author Chad Derdowski echoes our own sentiments on the matter:  any Watchmen  sequel -- especially one without the participation of Alan Moore, which is virtually a guarantee -- will likely end up in the bargain bin next to old copies of Secret Wars II.  "Classics are classics and will remain so,", he says, "no matter how hard a crappy sequel tries to ruin its legacy."

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