Bleeding Cool has released a rather disturbing report that DC Comics Senior Vice President / Executive Editor Dan DiDio is pushing for the company to put out some Watchmen prequel comics.

Yeah.

According to the article, former DC President Paul Levitz had protected the property pretty tightly, believing it to be the creators' (Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons) wishes that they wanted it to be left as-is, even though the rights belong to DC. Now that Levitz is out of the way (having moved up to DC Entertainment), the comic is open for the guys at DC comics to mess with essentially as they please. According to the article:

While some creators are reticent, the argument goes if there are a number of Watchmen spinoff projects, any blame or shame can be spread on many shoulders. The sales are expected to be massive, whatever the hardcore fanboy reaction and such expected sales benefits will be shared amongst the creative teams.

I'm not against prequels and sequels across the board - in fact I often welcome them - but strapping new stories onto the Watchmen mythology would be like making a sequel to Citizen Kane. The original work is so perfect, whole, and self-contained that it seems a follow-up could only dilute the property. Part of what makes Watchmen so enjoyable is the fact that there is a history (that of the Minute Men) that impacts the immediate story. To illuminate and showcase that history would be to damage its mythical nature by making it literal.

It is possible that a good story could be crafted using the elements of the events that precede the Watchmen story. But even a good story would detract from a comic as great as this.

My hope at this point is that this information is wrong. Though you gotta agree: it wouldn't really be surprising.