Watchmen

Rating:
Summary: The best book in the world. Period.
Review: Of all the books in my collection this ranks as my favourite. Yes, that's right, I said 'books'. The Watchmen, although released as a series of comic books, still tells one of the most inventive and intriguing stories of any I have ever read. To describe the plot completely would detract from the pleasure of reading it for oneself but, in a nutshell, it concerns the loves and lives of a group of non-superpowered superheroes struggling to come to terms with a world that no longer wants their help. This and other plot threads are told against a backdrop of one mans insane quest for world peace. The artwork and rhetoric blend together to form a seemless collage of story-telling genius and with characters that are so alive you'll want to start again from the beginning when you've finished, this is a book I defy you to dislike. I must have read The Watchmen over 10 times and still I find subtle nuances in the storyline and artwork that I hadn't noticed on previous readings. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Rating:
Summary: A deserved classic
Review: If you've ever read anything with the title "Comics aren't just for kids anymore", you've probably heard about Watchmen. So, is it really that good?

Oh god, yes.

It's hard to review the collection without resorting to cliches -- and I'll employ one now. It gets better everytime I read it. I see new layers and depth.

"God exists. And he's an American." Most superhero comics take place in a world almost the same as our own. But surely, people running around in tights, people with god-like powers would make an impact. In Watchmen, they do. America won Vietnam -- thanks to a god-like hero. Electric cars exist. Classic comic books got cancelled when the real superheroes came along. Oh, and Richard Nixon is still president into the 1980s. (Too bad about those dead reporters, isn't it?)
This is series a big ideas, human characters and personal moments. It looks at retired heroes (thanks to 1970s anti-superhero legislation) who investigate the death of one of their own. The book also features flashbacks, autobiography excerpts, comic book interludes and more.

Truly engrossing writing by Alan Moore and art by Dave Gibbons.
Oh, and comics aren't just for kids anymore. (g)

Rating:
Summary: Is this book dated? Not at all!
Review: Did anybody notice that the lion's share of really bad reviews were written after George Bush began his 'war on terror'?

I think this book is not dated at all, despite its a pre-2000 cold-war setting.

There are the parallels of 9/11 with the ending of a graphic novel that has been written many years before.

But even more important, one of its chapters (rorschach's story) ends with a quote:
"Battle not with monsters, lest you become a monster.
And as you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back to you!"
(The chapter before this quote makes you really understand its meaning.)

Comparing this quote with the 'arguments' used by the Neocons to justify the war in Iraq one might understand why some people are so desparate to bring down the user rating of this groundbreaking graphic novel. It's an election year, folks!

Rating:
Summary: An interesting, but overated saga
Review: First off, Watchmen isn't bad. But neither, I believe is it the stunning end-all achievement that it is made out to be. It's greatest strength, obviosly, is that it's a book of morally ambiguous ideas. The Watchmen are an assemblage of heroes who's actions are a critique of superhero culture and of the ideas that lie therein. It is a facinating look at an alternate future, shaped in small ways by the existance of super heroes for both good and evil.

Where it falls flat is that it simply feels like it's nothing but ideas. Consequently the book feels less like a coherant story and more like an aglomeration of ideas and visceral violence. To be sure, the themes are interesting, but the whole book starts to feel like one of those third rate Heinlein novels that degenerates from storytelling into expostulation about the morality of a world that doesn't exist.

Which I guess brings me to my main complaint. At their best, comic book heroes are a critique and a reflection of the complex morality and themes of the real world. Instead, Watchmen seems like a critique of a fake world of superheroes, examining a looking glass through another looking glass.

In a way, I actually found Moore's 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' to be a more interesting critique, if only because it seems that Moore actually likes the characters from 19th century British Literature, whereas it's pretty clear from his other writings that he doesn't really like or respect modern superheroes. The character's there have massive flaws, and exist in a complex, morally ambiguous world just like the Watchmen, but somehow feel more real in their anachronistic world than the Watchmen do.

Again, I should say that I did like Watchmen. I just didn't like it all that much. And even if I did, it really doesn't deserve to be diefied like it is. It's not peerless, and it does a disservice to other excellent graphic novels in the genre like 'Kingdom Come' and 'Dark Knight Returns' to simply assume it is.

Rating:
Summary: A classic that reads better at 16 than at 32.
Review: I originally read this story when I was sixteen, and to be honest, it blew me away. It affected me the way no other comic ever did, and only few literary works did (Atlas Shrugged, Farenheit 451, that kind of impact...).

But re-visiting the story as an adult, I see the story's flaws much more clearly. Don't get me wrong, because it's still an amazing comic book, but it's only a comic book. It doesn't rise to the level of true, internally-consistent literature (though the few comics that have since probably would never have been written had Watchmen never existed).

So, definitely read this book. Just don't expect perfection. Watchmen was instrumental in the growing up of comics, but it's not the adult. If anything is, that would be Sandman. And Watchmen is in some ways more interesting now because you can see, behind the story, the things that were conventions of the eighties that have died away and the things that were innovative then which are mundane now. It really does add to the experience, if you're interested in comics history at all.

Rating:
Summary: Worth the hype?
Review: Despite being a comic fan for many years, I had never read "The Watchmen" until recently. It's routinely called one of the best stories ever published in the comic book genre. For those of us who didn't fall in love with it all those years ago, does it live up to the hype? Not quite in my eyes, but it's an excellent story that is well worth buying, reading, and re-reading.

"The Watchmen" is set in a unique universe where superheroes have been banned and the world is on the brink of nuclear war. The story starts off as a murder mystery and grows into a tale of truly epic proportions. Alan Moore paints a largely dark picture of humanity and weaves a story that is so intricate it absolutely demands your full attention. The characters are far from stereotypical or shallow. Everyone from the heroes to a street vendor seems real and three-dimensional.

At the same time, what was very edgy and groundbreaking in the 80's isn't quite as revolutionary today. It's thought provoking and an excellent story that runs much deeper than almost anything else you can find in comics today. Just don't buy it thinking this is the ultimate thing you could ever read... it's "only" excellent.

Rating:
Summary: It depends on what your looking for
Review: This book has gotten raving reviews due to its orignal look into the mind of the caped crusaders, keeping in mind that non of these have any powers of any kind, and most are troubled people with diferent views on the world, im still facinated by this novel, along with kindgdom come..wich is a bit diferent, but i still think if you have never read a graphic novel before Watchmen is a great way to start, not to mention that my profesor at college used this book to have an in depth look at how we see our world and how many ways we can look at it.

Rating:
Summary: OTBE
Review: Science fiction is a chancy field to write in. You speculate on how things are going to develop in the near future, and you gamble on factors beyond comprehension. And sometimes your story is OTBE--OverTaken By Events. That's exactly what happened to this deserved classic. And now it's become old hat.

When it was new, it provided a new view of costumed superheroes. With their reliance on law and order, but their willingness to disregard the legitimate establishment in pursuit of their goals, they are deeply conflicted people. But Superman and Spider-Man had disregarded this reality up to that point. Alan Moore was the first person to investigate the flawed identities of comic-book heroes in light of how human beings relate in the real world.

Superheroes are seen as rapists, serial killers, men and women with vendettas. Or they're would-be actors looking to boost their profile. Old grudges and doubts fester under the surface for decades, unable to find release and healing. They suffer sexual dysfunction which affects their crime-fighting techniques. And their defense of the old order against reformers and non-conformists leads to the stifling of honest forward growth.

Now that Wolverine and Wonder Woman have to deal with existential dramas growing out of their vocations, this attitude isn't groundbreaking. A reader coming to this story from contemporary comic books will find the points, which had to be examined in detail when they were new and revolutionary, to be belabored now that they're commonplace.

There is supplementary prose material at the back of each chapter. Some of this is interesting, such as the attempted overview of the history of organized superhero behavior. Others, such as the lengthy history of comic books (supplementing a rather ho-hum pirate comic subplot), are easy to skip.

This comic series was groundbreaking when it came out, and it's worth reading for that. If you want to know how comics shifted from the flat-colored hero worship of the past to the dark, conflicted material of today, this is the turning point. No other work has been as influential in the art of comics. But if you're looking for timeless art or new insights into human nature, this book is no longer your starting point.

Rating:
Summary: Hn.
Review: I rather liked Ror Schach, but I think the whole thing was rather overrated. Or perhaps, as some readers say, it's a bit dated. It could easily have been much better when it was more current. It just didn't really 'click' with me.

I prefer The Sandman by Neil Gaiman or the JLA series.

Rating:
Summary: Fanatical reviewers
Review: One of the reviewers below has given this book three different four-star reviews! And then he claims all the opposing reviews are by one person!