Reviews

Before Watchmen: Minutemen/Silk Spectre by Darwyn Cooke

ansl's review against another edition

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2.0

Aangezien ze in België apart zijn uitgebracht heb ik nu enkel 'The Silk Spectre' gelezen, dus daar gaat deze beoordeling dan ook over :).

jclermont's review against another edition

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3.0

The backstory was alright and I liked when things subtly connected with the original story. Overall, this book had no impact on me at all, unlike the original story which absolutely astounded me.

eliathereader's review against another edition

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3.0

Bu cilt watchmen başlangıç kitapları arasında en az merak ettiğim ciltti ancak beklediğimden daha iyi çıktı. Dadikadamlar kısmını oldukça beğendim. Karakterler ve olaylar iyi aktarılmıştı ayrıca çizimleri iyiydi. Ancak ipek hayalet kısmını sevemedim

erincataldi's review against another edition

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5.0

Soo glad that I found this gem at Half Price Books! It's been a few years since I read Watchmen and this prequel really got me in the mood to re-read it. There are several prequels but this one focuses on the Minutemen and Silk Spectre. The firdt half of the graphic novel is told from the viewpoint of an elderly Hollis (Nite Owl) as he writes his tell all book about his time in the Minutemen. He recalls the history of each of his masked friends and some of the major crimes that they solved. It was really nice getting more of a back story on Ursula (the silhouette) and some of the other characters. The second part of the graphic novel focuses on Silk Spectre's beginnings. It starts in her adolescence and follows though her teenage years. She becomes a hippie, meets a boy, and runs away from her mom's imposing nature. It's a fantastic book and one I will definitely come back to and reread.

librarimans's review against another edition

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5.0

It's Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner, this could have been about watching paint dry and it would be at least 4 stars.

christajls's review against another edition

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4.0

This review originally posted at The Improbable Chuck: Canucks on Comics

3.5 stars

I was wary of reading any of the Before Watchmen comics after hearing how strongly Alan Moore was opposed to them. I love the original and I wanted to respect the creator’s wishes. But ultimately curiosity got the better of me and I decided to check out at least one volume. I chose this one because I always wanted to know more about Silk Spectre (since it seemed like she got a raw deal overall) and I enjoy Amanda Conner’s artwork.

The first half of this collection is the story of the Minutemen – the group of heroes that proceeded the Watchmen. It’s narrated by Hollis Mason, who has decided to write a first hand account of their adventures and wants to make sure it’s ok with the rest of them. I found it a bit hard to follow at first but before long I was caught up in all the twists and turns and scandals. Seriously so much scandal.

The Silk Spectre half is significantly less dark and is really more of a coming of age story than a superhero tale. We watch her grow from just another flower child to the hero she was trained to be. It’s a interesting story, though a times a bit fluffy and the secondary characters are a tad forgettable. The artwork is fantastic thought – bright and energetic and it makes up for the weak spots in the story telling.

If you enjoyed Watchmen and aren’t ready to leave the world and the characters behind this collection is worth a shot. It’s not as brilliant as the original but it is a compelling and fun read, and much better than I expected it to be.

mazer_nickham's review against another edition

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3.0

I've read Watchmen enough times to feel that I could be some sort of nerd scholar or at least qualified to be on a panel about it at a really small time convention. It's my favorite book to break down and tear apart because it was built that way. That said, my opinion on Watchmen spin-offs and adaptations is that of indifference. Zak Snyder's film adaptation was fine, but ultimately superfluous. Did it need to exist? No. Is it a serviceable adaptation of the work? Sure.

That's the same attitude I'm adopting with the Before Watchmen books. It's fine that they exist, but they ultimately don't need to because Watchmen is still such a full experience.

That said, I enjoyed the Minutemen half of this book. The Minutemen were perhaps the most ripe to be fleshed out, their moments in Watchmen were quick flashbacks or covered in the in-between chapters. The art is properly retro, the mystery is satisfying, and it all being through the lens of Nite Owl's tell-all book was clever.

Silk Spectre was my least favorite character in Watchmen and remains as such in the prequel series. The issues are more than inessential, chronicling Silk Spectre's teenage struggles and Mommy issues. Later, a psychedelic plot is introduced that is so overwrought that I'm almost positive it was just an excuse for the artist to draw some cool layouts. Hopefully the worst of the bunch.

mash1138's review against another edition

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4.0

This is a tough one..."Minutemen" was excellent, but I read "Silk Spectre" last, which is fresh in my mind, and wasn't nearly as compelling. Darwyn Cooke is fantastic, and I love how his somewhat cartoony artwork manages to still effectively convey the frequent brutality and violence of the world of Watchmen. As a writer/artist, he is a master craftsman of a storyteller, with pitch-perfect scripting and stunning artwork and compositions. He is also a master of "less-is-more," effectively conveying off-screen violence and tragedy in a way much more haunting and compelling than actually showing us. As far as characters are concerned, having the original Nite Owl narrate works very well, as the story is told alternately in the 60's, as he is approaching his fellow Minutemen about his soon-to-be-published memoir, Under the Hood," and then in the 40's and 50's, recounting the events which will appear in the aforementioned memoir. Captain Metropolis, Hooded Justice, and others are finally given rich, compelling, and often sinister background tales, all of which are full of satisfying depth. Themes of violence, sexuality, and what it means to be a hero are all examined quite effectively, making The Minutemen by far the best of these prequel stories (though I have yet to read Oyzmandias/Crimson Corsair). That being said, Silk Spectre is a disappointing mess. Amanda Connor, whose art is gorgeous, is also the cowriter of this tale, and I am guessing that this somehow explains the mediocrity of this story. Silk Spectre is a tale of a horrible mother (Sally Jupiter) a rebellious teenage girl (yawn), drugs, hippies, and big black hooker boots. I dunno...it just didn't work for me, and is the worst of Before Watchmen, in my opinion.

jasmiinaf's review against another edition

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4.0

I think these two stories were really wonderful. Ok, there were some not so interesting moments but most of the time the stories were touching. And now I really hate The Comedian. I didn't like him much before but now I really hate him and I don't usually hate fictional characters this much.

tasharobinson's review against another edition

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4.0

I've been working my way through the Before Watchmen compilations lately, inspired by the HBO Watchmen show, and this is probably the best of them. They're unnecessary by definition, and too many of them just spell out in vast detail the things that Moore already told us in a few spare panels in his original book, or try to build out characters that already felt perfectly well defined. This collection, though, comes the closest to actually feeling vital. The Minutemen adds a lot to the old group's mythos, filling in some of the group's adventures, finally giving Silhouette a backstory and personality, and complicating the relationships between the team members. Darwyn Cooke's art seems particularly appropriate at this point to any story about a kind of alt-mythos of a famous team. The Silk Spectre half of the book similarly gives a lot more color and depth to Laurie Jane, with a story where she runs off to San Francisco with a boyfriend in order to escape her controlling mom, and has adventures of her own. Amanda Conner's art is lovely, very rich and detailed, and it gives Laurie more life and warmth than she had in the original Watchmen.