Watchmen

Rating:
Summary: Possibly the finest book ever written.
Review: The title of my review is presumptuous and probably unwarrented, but I feel that every person on earth should read this book and then... then all the false, callow, poor authors who look down at illustrated writing can go hang themselves in shame.

The Watchmen is a Novel in 12 parts. It is a mystery, a story within a story and so many more things than I can say... From the murder of a murderer to the zen realization that their are no happy endings because nothing ends...

If you find the idea even mildly intriguing, buy this book... now... today... read and re-read it till the pages fall apart. Graciously give it to everyone you know... and the tell them to buy a copy and do the same.

That's what books are for afterall.

Rating:
Summary: Perfection
Review: When men first started drawing on caves, they might not have realized it, but they began the path that would eventually lead to Watchmen. Some may rave about how Watchmen is the greatest piece of "sequential art" on the market, but I prefer to think of it as the best damn "comic book" ever written.

Make no mistake, Watchmen is about Superheroes. Crazy guys in tights who, for many reasons, get off on beating the crap out of bad guys. Moore dissects them, puts them back together and breathes a new life into them that would make Frankenstein proud. Somewhere along the way, the story ceases to be about guys in tights, and starts to be a story about all of us. How there are little pieces of us in all of these weird, tragic and ultimately human characters. Some of them are truly twisted, but all of them possess something redeemable, something that makes them difficult to hate. It's this level of human complexity, boiling beneath that colorful surface that makes Watchmen great.

The plot is huge and epic. To me, there's nothing better than a story that starts small and ends somewhere so huge, so far away from the beginning that we have to look back and marvel at the beginning. Watchmen is that kind of story. Moore adds layer after layer, some of which seem strange and out of place at first, and weaves them all together into a seamless tapestry.

If this were only a novel, the plot and characterization would be enough to make Watchmen timeless, but the collaboration between Moore and Dave Gibbons is unparalleled. Gibbons uses the art to layer another story, sometimes several stories on top of the original. I've read this book hundreds of times and I can still find little pieces of the puzzle that I never noticed before. Gibbons style is what makes the Watchmen world so different from the ones we've seen before. A place out of synch with our own time, yet undeniably connected. Many artists have tried this and failed.

So yes, Watchmen is a story about superheroes, but in the same way that Citizen Kane is about a sled. It's only skimming the surface of what is ultimately a masterpiece of storytelling.

Rating:
Summary: Watchmen
Review: Rorshach is quite a character. And Night Owl, and the others make you wonder... what do 'super' heros do when they get old. How do the adjust to being mere mortals when youth abandons them? Wonderful book. 5 out of 5. No hesitations. BUY THIS, because you do want to know who killed the Comedian... don't you?

Rating:
Summary: Important
Review: If any one book can destroy the inherent prejudice against comics storytelling, this is the one. A serious, beautifully written story that just happens to be a graphic novel - and one that takes advantage of the form to the utmost. Moore actually clothes his literary ambitions in the costume of the super-hero genre, and then like all important Modernists he rewrites that genre from the inside-out.

This is a serious, speculative look at what society would be like if there were costumed adventurers fighting crime and the countries enemies, including one who does have super-powers. The 'heroes' are people though, with faults that veer, dangerously, towards the narcissistic, the cynical, and the psychotic. The graphic nature allows the story to be told within the context of a finely detailed and solid alternate world, with a social and political situation that has been created by the presence of the 'heroes.' It also allows some tour-de-force storytelling, as a comic within the book parrallels the unfolding story, and is itself a masteful comic book narrative! Also, a city intersection where much of the storytelling takes place is exacly placed, so that the visual narrative through time and space can be sighted along its different axes. Brilliant craftsmanship.

The only flaw is that the conclusion lets some steam out of the tremendous suspense that has been built up, but it is apt within the world of the story. This is a great choice for anyone curious about how high, and successful, a reach graphic storytelling can have.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: If you only read one graphic novel, make it The Watchmen. Great example of the New Wave of Comics - dark, psychological storyline, humanly flawed superhuman characters, and some great plot twists that take you on a great ride as the chapters tick down to the ending.

The artwork is stylishly done, not too experimental, but the real star here is the story of how several over-the-hill superheroes don their uniforms to discover the murderer of a fallen comrade. The subsequent discoveries about themselves and their former allies makes great drama, and the pacing is great.

If you're REALLY not interested in comics, you should try it anyway. If you hate superheroes, that's okay, it's not about that. And if you like graphic novels, superheroes, and a great story, then what are you waiting for? You've probably already read it. Read it again.

Rating:
Summary: Superhero Redux
Review: This seminal work of graphic literature is the "War and Peace" of superheroic fiction. While it would qualify for this distinction in length alone (338 pages of comic book story plus 46 pages of supplemental text material interspersed between its 12 chapters), the sweeping scope of this Wagnerian epic and the ironic interplay of words and pictures that fills every page, combined with its unflinching examination of human violence-both on a personal and political scale-make this a truly momentous literary achievement, graphic or otherwise.

This work was principally responsible for a fundamental change in the in the way superhero stories have been presented since the mid 1980s. Deconstructing the traditional "comic book" conventions of the "men in tights" genre, Moore treated the seemingly absurd notion of costumed crimefighting with a depth and seriousness that leant it a newfound credibility. Rather than populating his fictional world with the types of demigods that fill more traditional superhero universes, Moore created a brand new pantheon of all too human mystery men and women, almost all of whom were merely eccentric but well-meaning citizens trying to make their communities a little safer. These heroes include the scientific wizard and avian aficionado, Nite Owl; the daughter and namesake of the 1940s heroine, Silk Spectre; the paragon of human mental and physical perfection, Ozymandius; and the brutal trench coat-wearing psychopath, Rorshach, who conceals his identity behind a white cloth (pulled over his face like a stocking mask) that contains a constantly shifting pattern of black blotches.

And what was America's reaction to these quirky costumed do-gooders? In the 1970s Congress passed the Keane Act, a law banning costumed vigilantism and forcing most of them into retirement. The only official exceptions to this ban was the nearly omnipotent being, Dr. Manhattan (capable of anything but remembering what it was like to be human), and the gun-toting misanthrope paradoxically known as the Comedian, both of whom operated as US government agents. It is only when the Comedian is discovered murdered by Rorshach, who has continued his crime fighting career in defiance of the Keane Act, that this cast of former heroes is reunited and forced to deal with the unresolved conflicts of their convoluted pasts.

Written during the Cold War (which, unbeknownst to Moore, or practically anyone else, was actually in its death throes at the time) the threat of nuclear Armageddon constantly looms over the characters in this story, lending an even greater urgency to their personal struggles and unfulfilled dreams. This saga is so complex and enthralling that I have made new discoveries each of the nearly half dozen times I have read it. Along with Moore's "V for Vendetta," this is perhaps the most masterfully crafted work of graphic literature ever written.

Note: Having deconstructed superheroes in "Watchmen," Moore is know reinventing them in his own line of titles under the imprint of America's Best Comics. Collected volumes of "Promethea," "Tom Strong," "Top 10," and his Victorian science/fiction adventure tale, "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," are all available from Amazon.com.

Rating:
Summary: Nauseatingly overrated
Review: Let me just start by saying that I think I can appreciate why this book was so groundbreaking when it came out in the mid-eighties: the innovative moral ambiguity of its heroes, the epic scope, the highbrow epigraphs (Ooo, Nietzsche! Dylan! This must be some of that real art!), the looming menace of nuclear apocalypse endowing the story with a sort of anxious fever-dream quality, and so on. But I have to admit that I found it a singularly annoying read in 2001. I think Alan Moore's most irritating and overused device throughout this series is the heavyhanded juxtaposition between caption and image. If your idea of great and subtle artistry is one homicide detective saying to another, "Well, what say we let this one drop out of sight?" in a panel depicting a flashback of a murder victim plunging to his death, this book is for you--there is panel after panel of this sort of obvious layering straining for cleverness. But if you're someone who gets annoyed at having your face repeatedly rubbed into the writer's overwrought stabs at significance, look elsewhere. The melodramatic plot was interesting enough that I made it all the way through, but I have to say I'm happy it's over. Check out "From Hell" for a more mature example of Moore's work.

Rating:
Summary: best book ever written
Review: this will be the greatest thing you ever read!

Rating:
Summary: the best of the best
Review: Think you're a hardcore comic book fan? not until you pick this up. A work of genius, this tells a story how a comic book has never been told before. The plotline is the best that has ever been told, with emotion that has never been seen in a "funny" book before. The artwork is just as good. So detailed its scary. No comic book fan should go with out it.

Rating:
Summary: Perfection.
Review: I'm not a long-time fan of comics- I got into the medium when a friend loaned me some _Sandman_ books. So I can't say whether it's true that Watchmen redefined the industry when it came out. I can say that it changed my expectation of what can be done in a comic book.

Unlike every other superhero book I've read, this one starts from the highly logical premise that it's not *normal* to be a costumed crimefighter. These people must have issues. Then we throw in the stunned reactions of the costumed heros when the first SUPERheroes show up, an interpretation of how they could have changed history, and one of the most morally ambiguous endings ever, and you have one excellent plot.

There's more than plot to look at, though. The art is quite well done, and the writing is richly textured. Moore obviously had the entire story well planned before he started writing it, as bits at the beginning that seem inconsequential become resonant with the broader themes of the story when the punch line hits issues later. No other comic does so well upon repeated readings.

Not everyone will like the bleak tone of _Watchmen_, but if you're a fan of comics, you owe it to yourself to read it.