Award-winning creator brings talents to 'Before Watchmen'

“To me, the Minutemen, the appeal of them is their humanity, you know, how completely sort of human they are, and how they all had their own agenda, and how they put this thing together in an ad hoc fashion,” Cooke said.

He said Moore and Gibbons' “Watchmen” has left room for further exploration of these characters.

“They were simply placeholders, or archetypes meant to represent what had come before,” Cooke said. “So I had room to develop them as individuals, and that, I think, is working out as well.”

Cooke says he can understand why some people might not want a “Watchmen” prequel to be created, though he disagrees.

“For the most part, I try to have respect for the subjective nature of people's attachment. There are things I'm subjectively attached to ... I have to be able to respect the way they feel about it. I think that's important, whether I agree with them or not.”

But he said he thinks the “noise” around the project has in some ways been distracting.

“I'm just going to put my head down, do my best, and let everybody sort it out later.”

The first issues of “Before Watchmen: Minutemen” and “Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre” are on sale now, as is “Before Watchmen: Comedian” No. 1 by Brian Azzarello and J.G. Jones.