Watchmen

Rating:
Summary: Possibly the best Graphic Novel ever assembled!
Review: I collected the limited series when it first printed and it stillblows me away today! Extrodinarily written, well illustrated and very different layout techniques. WARNING: NOT FOR CHILDREN! This is the apex of comics, and I have never seen anything as well assembled since! An Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons masterpiece!

Rating:
Summary: This is no kiddie book
Review: The comic book genre has never gotten much acceptance as a serious art medium, and it probably will not, seeing how it is associated with grown men in tights running around stopping "super villians." Enter Watchmen, and you'll see that this is a serious medium and Mr. Moore and Mr. Gibbons are very talented storytellers, not just by themselves, but together. Two people creating a good work of art is a lot tougher than one, and in my mind this is what comic books should be a about. I challenge any adult who appreciated this genre in their youth to read this story and let it sink in. I promise you that you won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: A MUST FOR ANY LOVER OF THE STORY
Review: I really can't add anything to what these other guys have said. This book has something for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best comic books of all time
Review: This is a masterpiece. Alan Moore proved to be a demigod after this work. The art is superb.

If you are interested in comics or just want to read one of the best stories of all time in any type of medium, you must read this book.

There are added extras in this trade paperback. After each issue, Alan Moore added information that helps you appreciate the Watchman universe even more.

This has to be one of the best comic series ever.

Rating:
Summary: Best comic book ever.
Review: The Watchmen is a tale of fear of technology as the world rapidly changes. It is brilliantly written by Alan Moore, the king of the "dark comic." As several "heroes" investigate the death of one of their own, the world is brought closer to the brink of nuclear holocaust as tensions rise between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. This book uses the comic book medium to weave a tale that is both disturbing and breathtaking. The use of "excerpts" from other sources at the end of each chapter as well as the comic inside of a comic show Moore to be the most innovative mind in Comics. The ending of this tale is perhaps the most disturbing in memory. This book seamlesly blends brilliant art and orginal storytelling to create the best comic story ever told.

Rating:
Summary: Marvelous!
Review: The Watchmen is quite simply the finest piece of comic-art ever done. 12 years after reading it for the first time, it is still the standard to which I hold all similar works, which inevitably fall short of it's brilliance.

Rating:
Summary: A fresh, new, and grim look at superheroes
Review: One of the greatest comics ever written this side of Blade of the Immortal. It features a interesting and gritty view of the decline of golden age-era superheroes in a world gone insane. If you're tired of standard, idealistic men in tights fighting for truth and justice, then Watchmen is the book for you.

Rating:
Summary: Literature at its most thought-provoking
Review: I just finished reading Watchmen for probably the seventh time. I have a few books I have read repeatedly ("The World According to Garp", Updike's "Rabbit Angstrom" series, "The Stand"). I revisit these stories because they touch some emotional chord. Watchmen still resonates that chord. All good literature (for that is what it truly is) challenges your perception of the world, and asks you to look at what your belief system entails. Beyond that, Watchmen challenges you to ask why YOU are the way YOU are today. The Dark Knight Returns has a similar feel, but is more one-dimensional (Batman) contrasted with the multiple character elements of Watchmen. If you enjoyed this book, there is an anime video tape you would also find appealing, "The Wings of Honnemaise". It, too, will evoke that feeling that you had when you were "into" the world of the Watchmen.

Rating:
Summary: A must for any intelligent comic addict!
Review: What can I say? This is a grand book, ranking up there with batman year one, arkham asylum, kingdom come, etc. The art isen't great but you have to remember that when this came out there wasen't as much money in the business as there is now. This is fine literay work that says much about the nature of humanity and I reccomend it even if you don't like "comic books".

Rating:
Summary: There's a reason everyone's giving it five stars.
Review: It seems pretty unanimous from the reviews here so far: this book is unbelievably good. I've been re-reading it every so often for 12 years now, and I still keep noticing things I hadn't noticed before. (Anyone else picked up on, for instance, what Walt Feinberg--who never actually appears on panel--is doing for a living in 1985? Gave me a jolt when I figured it out.) Really, just in terms of detail, orchestration, iconography and structure, the only other person who's pulled off anything like this in any medium is James Joyce with _Ulysses_.

It's also an extraordinary tribute to a degraded genre--the superhero comic--and to the comics medium's potential beyond it. It points up how dopey and stylized and crabbed superhero traditions have become, but it's also a story that _could not_ effectively be told in any medium _but_ comics. (Really. It was optioned for a movie, but fortunately that idea got dropped when they figured out that there was no way the story could survive the transition.)