Back in the day, ‘Swamp Thing’ originator Len Wein was working with Alan Moore as an editor on the comic book classic ’Watchmen’. However, a disagreement between the two over Ozymandias’ plan to bring about world peace led Wein to exit the project. Fast forward to the present day where the former editor is now writing the ‘Before Watchmen’ title for the highly intelligent hero and he’s taking the opportunity to rectify the discrepancies that resulted in his departure.
According to Bleeding Cool, Wein quit because was unhappy about Adrian Veidt initiating a false alien invasion to scare the world into peace. He claimed that it was very similar to an episode of ‘The Outer Limits’ called ‘The Architects of Fear’ and that the team should come up with a better ending. In his own words, here’s how Wein described the situation:
“I kept telling him, ‘Be more original, Alan, you’ve got the capability, do something different, not something that’s already been done!’ And he didn’t seem to care enough to do that.”
After years of letting that gestate, the writer is presenting a remedy to the problem in issue five of his Ozymandias book for DC’s ‘Before Watchmen’ series. Check out the preview pages below to see just how he changes things around:
As you can see, Wein pretty much stuck it to Moore and made it so that Veidt stole his master plan from that ‘Outer Limits’ episode, except he’s smart enough to make it work since it doesn’t actually work in the episode.
It’s not exactly a huge change to the ‘Watchmen’ mythos, but it’s a change nonetheless. Do you like this new information about the classic tale’s ending? Do you think Len Wein was being petty by making this change? Are you not fazed either way? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
