Watchmen Colorist John Higgins Not A Fan Of DC Rebirth

At a recent convention appearance, Watchmen Colorist John Higgins was asked what he thought of the big plot twist in DC Rebirth. He’s Isn’t a fan.

Warning! This articles contains SPOILERS for DC Universe: Rebirth #1. If you haven’t read the issue, I don’t know what you’re waiting for, but be forewarned.

For the most part, the creative minds behind the classic miniseries Watchmen have remained quiet about the huge plot twist the is at the center of DC Universe: Rebirth #1. Namely, that Dr. Manhattan was the cause of the issues that have plagued the DC Universe since Flashpoint and, more importantly, the fact that Watchmen is now a part of the larger DC Universe continuity.

It should come as no surprise that writer Alan Moore has said nothing about it seeing as how he rarely talks about the work he has done for DC. And as reported by Newsarama, other than saying he wasn’t informed of the plot twist, artist Dave Gibbons has had no comment.

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Colorist John Higgins, on the other had, had plenty to say and none of it good.

In addition to coloring Watchmen, Higgins is also a respected writer and artist in his own right, working on numerous projects over the course of his 40 year career in the industry. He is also one of the only members of the Watchmen creative team who also worked on Before Watchmen, the prelude event DC published in 2012.

This past weekend Higgins was attending Moscow Comic Con and was asked by Bleeding Cool’s Kirill Sukhov about DC Universe: Rebirth and the huge plot twist.

"“I’ve heard rumors that it was going to happen. But I can’t believe that they would do it. I can’t believe that they would strangle the Golden Goose. Because you can only make money go so far. When we did “Before Watchmen” we weren’t merging any universes or messing around with the characters outside of their own universe, because everything had already been established. The idea of having the Watchmen characters playing within the DC Universe I think is one of the biggest mistakes that they could make. I know why they’re doing it and I don’t blame the business minds for doing it, but it’s a silly thing to do. You know, they’ve made some decisions over the last few years that really make you wonder about who’s actually running the place now – is it the accountants or the creative people? And it seems more like the accountants are. So I completely disagree with it, if that’s what they’re going to do.”"

You can be fairly sure that wasn’t the reaction DC or Geoff Johns was hoping for.

That said, both Johns and DC had to know going in that the decision to integrate Watchmen into the DC Universe and make Dr. Manhattan the “villain” of the book wasn’t going to please everyone. When I read the book my first thought was that I can’t wait to read Alan Moore’s reaction because that should be a pretty entertaining read.

And to a certain degree, Higgins is right. Part of the reason readers have seen sequels or spinoffs to The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen and Sandman recently is because DC was looking for proven properties that can make money. Why create a new idea when you can rehash one that has already made you a truckload of cash and has a built-in readership?

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Hell, there are rumors they even approached Garth Ennis about a Preacher sequel.

Time will tell if the decision to use the characters of Watchmen in DC continuity will be the right one. But at least fans will always have the original miniseries to go back to.

No one can take that from them.