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Before Watchmen Omnibus by Brian Azzarello, Len Wein, Darwyn Cooke, Jae Lee, J. Michael Straczynski
rhsc's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
tense
medium-paced
3.0
Ultimately, it’s unnecessary. It has some good moments like the Minutemen arc, but other stories like Silk Spectre bring up neat ideas only to resolve them too quickly. Just reread Watchmen if you really enjoy the characters.
nathanaracena's review against another edition
3.0
Difficult one to review as there’s such a collection of varying comics covering origin stories of different characters and with different penmanship and lettering to each, it is certainly a varied read. Below reviews for each. Overall a 3 star due to the weaker editions but would have been 4 had it not been for the weaker ones.
⭐️⭐️ Comedian - Dull read to be honest. Not an interesting story
⭐️⭐️ Rorschach - likewise, definitely the two weakest stories of the series
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Minutemen - enjoyable enough back story of the minute men but wasn’t super in love with the artwork
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Silk Spectre - a little bit teen love/discovers lsd in san fran cringe but still quite a fun read
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Nite Owl - I enjoyed this one and seeing some light shed on Night Owl
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Dr Manhattan - although the story got a little diluted, the panelling and use of inverted pages is great. Really enjoyed the way this one was done
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Moloch - artwork cool and nice to see Moloch get a story
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Ozymandias - a bit wordy as would expect from Oz but the comic strips are brilliant, with the use of circles for panels visually stunning
⭐️⭐️ Crimson Corsair - bored bored bored. Great artwork but it’s more a book than a comic and the plot not original by any stretch
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Dollar Bill - fun and easy but doesn’t add an awful lot to the series
⭐️⭐️ Comedian - Dull read to be honest. Not an interesting story
⭐️⭐️ Rorschach - likewise, definitely the two weakest stories of the series
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Minutemen - enjoyable enough back story of the minute men but wasn’t super in love with the artwork
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Silk Spectre - a little bit teen love/discovers lsd in san fran cringe but still quite a fun read
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Nite Owl - I enjoyed this one and seeing some light shed on Night Owl
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Dr Manhattan - although the story got a little diluted, the panelling and use of inverted pages is great. Really enjoyed the way this one was done
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Moloch - artwork cool and nice to see Moloch get a story
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Ozymandias - a bit wordy as would expect from Oz but the comic strips are brilliant, with the use of circles for panels visually stunning
⭐️⭐️ Crimson Corsair - bored bored bored. Great artwork but it’s more a book than a comic and the plot not original by any stretch
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Dollar Bill - fun and easy but doesn’t add an awful lot to the series
lanternatomika's review against another edition
3.0
I first read the Before Watchmen event as it was coming out like a decade ago. Of course, I don't remember much about it from the time, and reading it all together is a lot different from reading the monthlies.
Before (Watchmen) I dive into the individual series, I think it's worth pointing out two things. The first is that all of these books definitely assume you've read Watchmen - and if you're a fan of comics, I think that's a safe assumption to make regardless! The second thing to point out is that, while these stories are sold in pairs of two in trades and hardcovers, the omnibus doesn't collect them that way. It instead orders the issues by release order. That might sound dumb - it did to me - but it actually really works to tell this epic story of the bygone age of heroes. There's some slight interconnectedness between the different series storylines, too. Oh, and it's a lot easier to get through the rougher ones when you have to encounter one issue after a few good issues.
That brings me to the storylines themselves, and for anyone who's looking to buy the trades, I'll structure this review as a review of those trades (the omni itself, I can only really recommend to crazy Watchmen fans like yours truly).
Before Watchmen: Minutemen/Silk Spectre:
If you were only going to buy one of these trades, it really has to be this one!
I don't know why more Watchmen spinoff content doesn't focus on the Minutemen era, there's a lot of room to work with there. Darwyn Cooke's story and artwork here is simply captivating! It's pretty much a portrait of all the sordid drama that Hollis Mason wrote about in Under the Hood - and a lot of the drama he left out! You'll surprised to find that The Silhouette is the heart and soul of the group, and the Watchmen universe really didn't deserve her. His artwork captures the optimism that used to exist in the golden age of comics, contrasting it sharply with the ugliness that the public never saw.
Btw, this book's Hooded Justice is very different from HBO's. I liked this book's Hooded Justice, but I doubt even Alan Moore could've outdone the HBO version, tbh.
The Silk Spectre mini is an unexpected delight. I don't think anyone was asking for a coming of age story about probably the least compelling character in the main cast of the original book, but this one works really well. It's far outshone by the other mini in this pair, but Cooke and artist Amanda Conner have come up with a fun story for Laurie that packs an emotional punch. As it happens, Laurie's story is now the only one that I'd want a second prequel for, imagine that.
4.5/5
Before Watchmen: Comedian/Rorschach:
From the best set of stories, we unfortunately come close to the bottom of the barrel.
If I was the editor in charge of this event and I had to come up with the writer for Comedian and Rorschach's books, I'd pick Brian Azzarello, too. But I'd also force him to actually read Watchmen, because his characterizations of these two characters is kinda off.
Comedian is a relatively fine book. I don't understand why he'd be such close friends with the Kennedy brothers, but this story offers an explanation for how Eddie Blake really became the nihilistic psycho that we all know and...hate, I guess. But his character development in Vietnam feels murky, and I think it relies a lot on history about the Vietnam War that a lot of people wouldn't know about.
The Rorschach mini, on the other hand, is comfortably the worst and least essential one. Not only does it do nothing for his character, we mostly see him being pummeled in this book as he starts off completely out of character and works his way into a more familiar Rorschach.
At least the former story is backed by killer art from J.G Jones. As for the latter, I was not a fan of Lee Bermejo's work, but I can recognize that it's really well done. The artists were clearly the stars of the show in this one.
3/5
Before Watchmen: Nite Owl/Dr. Manhattan (and Moloch):
J. Michael Straczynski is a legend in the comic industry, and with good reason. I mean, this trio of stories isn't going in his hall of fame, but I did enjoy reading them.
Dan Dreiberg was a reasonably interesting character who just didn't merit enough attention in the story of Watchmen. Well, he gets his due here. This book explores his background and his burgeoning obsession with the OG Nite Owl, before flashing closer to the present to explore his relationship with women. JMS didn't pass up the opportunity to tell a story about Dan's relationship with a pre-insane Rorschach, who already harbored some extreme views about sex and women. Giving Rorshy a whole subplot was not a great idea - though this was a way better story than the one Rorschach got all to himself - but overall, I dig this!
As for Dr Manhattan...look, he's a tough character to write, and JMS definitely fell short of the mark here. After using the word quantum a million times, we launch into a story in which Dr Manhattan uses his omniscience to try and visit a time before the accident that created him, and this apparently creates some kind of a universe branching crisis. This book also implies that now, in the middle of the events of Watchmen, is when M realized that he can see across time but he can't change it. Oh well, at least the last issue explores his relationship with Ozymandias in a compelling way.
Finally, I wasn't asking for a Moloch series, but at two issues long, I can't say that I regret having it. This brief story does give us an inside look at Watchmen events that existed outside our perspective.
Once again, the art is killer! Art is the one thing that's almost consistently great throughout Before Watchmen. I wanna give a special shout to Adam Hughes' work on Dr Manhattan, which manages to follow JMS' twisty ideas better than JMS himself can.
3.5/5
Before Watchmen: Ozymandias/Crimson Corsair (and Dollar Bill):
Len Wein was the editor of Watchmen, and he was credited with a lot of what made that comic so great. I was frankly surprised that his writing was not as great as you'd expect with that pedigree.
Ozymandias is an alright story that's largely carried by Jae Lee's painterly gothic art. We kinda learned the broad strokes of Adrian Veidt's origins in the original series, and this elaboration on it doesn't really tell us anything that made this worth the read. I think the best thing for DC to have done was to pair it with one of the more interesting minis when collecting the event.
As it is, this set really is the worst of what this event had to offer.
Why on Earth did Dollar Bill need a one shot? He's clearly the least interesting one of the Minutemen, and the story that's told in this issue could've easily fit into their story. I would've preferred a one shot about literally any of the other Minutemen era characters. Don't bother looking for a cool twist on the Dollar Bill story that could elevate him to new levels of interestingness, it ain't here.
And finally, Curse of the Crimson Corsair. Look, I'm not the first to say that this was a pointless drag throughout these series. Though I've often defended Tales of the Black Freighter from people who don't get why it's important, even I have to concede that Crimson Corsair does nothing to accentuate the themes of Before Watchmen. On top of that, it isn't even independently a good story! This is also literally the one exception to the exceptional artwork throughout Before Watchmen - it's so dark and gloomy and grimy that I couldn't tell what was going on. I'm not entirely sure how it even ended! All I know is I don't much care.
If you aren't buying this omnibus, you might think it weird to skip the Ozymandias book of all books, but trust me, there's very little of value to be found here.
2.5/5
Overall: 3.37/5, rounded off to 3/5
Before (Watchmen) I dive into the individual series, I think it's worth pointing out two things. The first is that all of these books definitely assume you've read Watchmen - and if you're a fan of comics, I think that's a safe assumption to make regardless! The second thing to point out is that, while these stories are sold in pairs of two in trades and hardcovers, the omnibus doesn't collect them that way. It instead orders the issues by release order. That might sound dumb - it did to me - but it actually really works to tell this epic story of the bygone age of heroes. There's some slight interconnectedness between the different series storylines, too. Oh, and it's a lot easier to get through the rougher ones when you have to encounter one issue after a few good issues.
That brings me to the storylines themselves, and for anyone who's looking to buy the trades, I'll structure this review as a review of those trades (the omni itself, I can only really recommend to crazy Watchmen fans like yours truly).
Before Watchmen: Minutemen/Silk Spectre:
If you were only going to buy one of these trades, it really has to be this one!
I don't know why more Watchmen spinoff content doesn't focus on the Minutemen era, there's a lot of room to work with there. Darwyn Cooke's story and artwork here is simply captivating! It's pretty much a portrait of all the sordid drama that Hollis Mason wrote about in Under the Hood - and a lot of the drama he left out! You'll surprised to find that The Silhouette is the heart and soul of the group, and the Watchmen universe really didn't deserve her. His artwork captures the optimism that used to exist in the golden age of comics, contrasting it sharply with the ugliness that the public never saw.
Btw, this book's Hooded Justice is very different from HBO's. I liked this book's Hooded Justice, but I doubt even Alan Moore could've outdone the HBO version, tbh.
The Silk Spectre mini is an unexpected delight. I don't think anyone was asking for a coming of age story about probably the least compelling character in the main cast of the original book, but this one works really well. It's far outshone by the other mini in this pair, but Cooke and artist Amanda Conner have come up with a fun story for Laurie that packs an emotional punch. As it happens, Laurie's story is now the only one that I'd want a second prequel for, imagine that.
4.5/5
Before Watchmen: Comedian/Rorschach:
From the best set of stories, we unfortunately come close to the bottom of the barrel.
If I was the editor in charge of this event and I had to come up with the writer for Comedian and Rorschach's books, I'd pick Brian Azzarello, too. But I'd also force him to actually read Watchmen, because his characterizations of these two characters is kinda off.
Comedian is a relatively fine book. I don't understand why he'd be such close friends with the Kennedy brothers, but this story offers an explanation for how Eddie Blake really became the nihilistic psycho that we all know and...hate, I guess. But his character development in Vietnam feels murky, and I think it relies a lot on history about the Vietnam War that a lot of people wouldn't know about.
The Rorschach mini, on the other hand, is comfortably the worst and least essential one. Not only does it do nothing for his character, we mostly see him being pummeled in this book as he starts off completely out of character and works his way into a more familiar Rorschach.
At least the former story is backed by killer art from J.G Jones. As for the latter, I was not a fan of Lee Bermejo's work, but I can recognize that it's really well done. The artists were clearly the stars of the show in this one.
3/5
Before Watchmen: Nite Owl/Dr. Manhattan (and Moloch):
J. Michael Straczynski is a legend in the comic industry, and with good reason. I mean, this trio of stories isn't going in his hall of fame, but I did enjoy reading them.
Dan Dreiberg was a reasonably interesting character who just didn't merit enough attention in the story of Watchmen. Well, he gets his due here. This book explores his background and his burgeoning obsession with the OG Nite Owl, before flashing closer to the present to explore his relationship with women. JMS didn't pass up the opportunity to tell a story about Dan's relationship with a pre-insane Rorschach, who already harbored some extreme views about sex and women. Giving Rorshy a whole subplot was not a great idea - though this was a way better story than the one Rorschach got all to himself - but overall, I dig this!
As for Dr Manhattan...look, he's a tough character to write, and JMS definitely fell short of the mark here. After using the word quantum a million times, we launch into a story in which Dr Manhattan uses his omniscience to try and visit a time before the accident that created him, and this apparently creates some kind of a universe branching crisis. This book also implies that now, in the middle of the events of Watchmen, is when M realized that he can see across time but he can't change it. Oh well, at least the last issue explores his relationship with Ozymandias in a compelling way.
Finally, I wasn't asking for a Moloch series, but at two issues long, I can't say that I regret having it. This brief story does give us an inside look at Watchmen events that existed outside our perspective.
Once again, the art is killer! Art is the one thing that's almost consistently great throughout Before Watchmen. I wanna give a special shout to Adam Hughes' work on Dr Manhattan, which manages to follow JMS' twisty ideas better than JMS himself can.
3.5/5
Before Watchmen: Ozymandias/Crimson Corsair (and Dollar Bill):
Len Wein was the editor of Watchmen, and he was credited with a lot of what made that comic so great. I was frankly surprised that his writing was not as great as you'd expect with that pedigree.
Ozymandias is an alright story that's largely carried by Jae Lee's painterly gothic art. We kinda learned the broad strokes of Adrian Veidt's origins in the original series, and this elaboration on it doesn't really tell us anything that made this worth the read. I think the best thing for DC to have done was to pair it with one of the more interesting minis when collecting the event.
As it is, this set really is the worst of what this event had to offer.
Why on Earth did Dollar Bill need a one shot? He's clearly the least interesting one of the Minutemen, and the story that's told in this issue could've easily fit into their story. I would've preferred a one shot about literally any of the other Minutemen era characters. Don't bother looking for a cool twist on the Dollar Bill story that could elevate him to new levels of interestingness, it ain't here.
And finally, Curse of the Crimson Corsair. Look, I'm not the first to say that this was a pointless drag throughout these series. Though I've often defended Tales of the Black Freighter from people who don't get why it's important, even I have to concede that Crimson Corsair does nothing to accentuate the themes of Before Watchmen. On top of that, it isn't even independently a good story! This is also literally the one exception to the exceptional artwork throughout Before Watchmen - it's so dark and gloomy and grimy that I couldn't tell what was going on. I'm not entirely sure how it even ended! All I know is I don't much care.
If you aren't buying this omnibus, you might think it weird to skip the Ozymandias book of all books, but trust me, there's very little of value to be found here.
2.5/5
Overall: 3.37/5, rounded off to 3/5
adamskiboy528491's review against another edition
3.0
Before Watchmen by Various is a 2012-13 comics miniseries set in the world of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's Watchmen. The event was launched in celebration of Watchmen's 25th anniversary. Both Moore and Dave Gibbons insist that the prequels are not canonical. Each of the miniseries involves some of the best talents in the comics industry to date. This event's purpose is to explore the backstory, characters and setting of Watchmen (comics continuity only), as any previous history not shown in the original series is in hard-to-find RPGs and supplementary materials.
The individual miniseries are:
* Comedian, six issues by Brian Azzarello and J.G. Jones.
* Dr Manhattan, four issues, by J. Michael Straczynski and Adam Hughes.
* Minutemen, six issues by Darwyn Cooke.
* Nite Owl II, four issues by J. Michael Straczynski and Andy and Joe Kubert.
* Ozymandias, six issues by Len Wein and Jae Lee.
* Rorschach, four issues by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo.
* Silk Spectre II, four issues by Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner.
* Moloch, two issues by J. Michael Straczynski and Eduardo Risso.
* Dollar Bill, one issue by Len Wein and Steve Rude.
* Curse of the Crimson Corsair, two-page backup in most Before Watchmen issues, by Len Wein & John Higgins.
Due to its nature exploring periods in the original merely glimpsed and not fully witnessed, many plot threads hinted at in Watchmen are brought out more fully for this series. Each miniseries has a different art style from each of the others, as well as from the detailed but utilitarian art of the original Watchmen. It all depends on the artist because the art styles and ideas differ in some designs. Moloch looks like a regular person in Comedian. Still, in his series, he looks like Count Orlok, and Silhouette has a redesign in Minutemen and Dollar Bill, but her single-panel appearance in Moloch has her design from Watchmen. The arrangements can be interesting, but sometimes the layout of several issues can be a bit off. The 9-panel grid that the original Watchmen used was significant because it could draw the viewer's eye to the world. However, sometimes the author/illustrators like to experiment with the panels; often, they can be distracting.
Alan Moore has expressed dictate with the existence of the series Dave Gibbons, however, is more supportive, if not slightly ambivalent, since he stated that he considers the prequel "subsidiary but not Watchmen and does not consider it canon. The basic idea of a Watchmen prequel dates as far back as Alan Moore came up with ideas for one during the Minutemen days and said had he not been stiffed by DC, he would have worked on Minutemen. The story we got about them here was vastly different from what Alan Moore originally planned. In an interview around the time of Watchmen being published and before DC stiffed him (i.e. the honeymoon period), Moore suggested that Minuteman would have been a huge stylistic shift, recapturing the innocent and childlike attitude of the Golden Age. Dave Gibbons confirmed this, "In fact, the next thing we would've done after Watchmen would've been something like Captain Marvel, you know, something really light and mythical."
The individual miniseries are:
* Comedian, six issues by Brian Azzarello and J.G. Jones.
* Dr Manhattan, four issues, by J. Michael Straczynski and Adam Hughes.
* Minutemen, six issues by Darwyn Cooke.
* Nite Owl II, four issues by J. Michael Straczynski and Andy and Joe Kubert.
* Ozymandias, six issues by Len Wein and Jae Lee.
* Rorschach, four issues by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo.
* Silk Spectre II, four issues by Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner.
* Moloch, two issues by J. Michael Straczynski and Eduardo Risso.
* Dollar Bill, one issue by Len Wein and Steve Rude.
* Curse of the Crimson Corsair, two-page backup in most Before Watchmen issues, by Len Wein & John Higgins.
Due to its nature exploring periods in the original merely glimpsed and not fully witnessed, many plot threads hinted at in Watchmen are brought out more fully for this series. Each miniseries has a different art style from each of the others, as well as from the detailed but utilitarian art of the original Watchmen. It all depends on the artist because the art styles and ideas differ in some designs. Moloch looks like a regular person in Comedian. Still, in his series, he looks like Count Orlok, and Silhouette has a redesign in Minutemen and Dollar Bill, but her single-panel appearance in Moloch has her design from Watchmen. The arrangements can be interesting, but sometimes the layout of several issues can be a bit off. The 9-panel grid that the original Watchmen used was significant because it could draw the viewer's eye to the world. However, sometimes the author/illustrators like to experiment with the panels; often, they can be distracting.
Alan Moore has expressed dictate with the existence of the series Dave Gibbons, however, is more supportive, if not slightly ambivalent, since he stated that he considers the prequel "subsidiary but not Watchmen and does not consider it canon. The basic idea of a Watchmen prequel dates as far back as Alan Moore came up with ideas for one during the Minutemen days and said had he not been stiffed by DC, he would have worked on Minutemen. The story we got about them here was vastly different from what Alan Moore originally planned. In an interview around the time of Watchmen being published and before DC stiffed him (i.e. the honeymoon period), Moore suggested that Minuteman would have been a huge stylistic shift, recapturing the innocent and childlike attitude of the Golden Age. Dave Gibbons confirmed this, "In fact, the next thing we would've done after Watchmen would've been something like Captain Marvel, you know, something really light and mythical."
siadmander's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
jedi_indyjones's review against another edition
3.0
Alan Moore wrote some of the best characters in Watchmen. These stories pale in comparison to the original novel, that much perhaps is expected. However, I think that these stories were really good for the most part. I don't think that it were ever necessary to do these, but we got some great artwork and many great stories that happen to tie things together in a creative way. There are plenty of great writers and artists that contributed to this series. If you are a fan of Watchmen, you may really enjoy these. However, I could see purists taking offense. I just wanted to see what this series delivered and I was overall pretty satisfied, especially since I went in with somewhat realistic expectations for it.
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