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4.3 AVERAGE
4.3 AVERAGE
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Set in an alternative universe America where people used to commit vigilante justice while dressed in masks in the 1940s, eventually collecting together into a group called the Minutemen. This graphic novel follows the characters from the second wave of Minutemen into a 1985 gripped by the Cold War, following the outlawing of "superheroes" in the late 70s. One member of the team genuinely has immeasurable superpowers due to a freak radiation accident and the fear of Dr Manhattan's retaliation is potentially the only thing keeping the Russians (and nuclear war) at bay.
Superheroes are always somehow compelling, despite Moore's best efforts to make every single character in this book utterly abhorrent. The psychology involved in people wanting to wear a mask and anonymously dish out justice is briefly touched on, and I was glad to see a broad range of characters, not just cookie-cutter “good guys”, but people motivated by fame and money also. Rorschach definitely isn't the good guy throughout this novel due to his proclivity for extreme violence, murder, sexism, racism and batshit conspiracy theories and yet he somehow comes out the other end of the book with the most admirable moral code. At least he stood for something unlike the rest of these self-centred wishy-washy pushover costumed morons. I really, really hated Rorschach though. He deserved a good slap. I do have to admit that he was a lot more memorable than the other two not-powered members of the team, who decided to take a time-out during all the action to fuck for seemingly no reason other than to piss off the most powerful guy in the universe, Dr Manhattan. They certainly didn't have the chemistry to imply they were doing it for lust/love reasons.
The incredibly dark themes came across so well in the art, but it wasn't so utterly bleak that it lost all of the inherent silliness of a graphic novel about superhero nonsense. I was kinda baffled by the authors choosing to include a weird side-plot about a kid reading a grim-dark comic book series about a pirate who creates a raft out of bloated corpses, and I’m not sure how it tied in to the overarching storyline, but eh. That whole part probably just went over my head, because I didn’t enjoy it all.
medium-paced
Incredible story with fantastic art that future stories can only hope to emulate
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Read this comic as part of @fjaksland’s book club, and at the start of the month I was beginning to wonder whether comics just weren’t for me. The last two had suffered, in my view, significant limitations due to the format and storytelling conventions of the medium. Watchmen is a very famous story, and so I went in hoping that this could be the story that helped me appreciate what this genre can offer.
Watchmen, thankfully, answered my prayers. It tells the story of a fictionalised NYC and a fictionalised America populated by a new and uniquely human set of caped heroes who find their origins in World War 1 and trace through two generations to this point in 1986, when they have been banned. However, they live within the context of terror over potential Cold War nuclear destruction, spiralling social decline, and a mysterious figure who is reaching from the shadows to try to kill them in retirement.
What helps this comic work for me where others didn’t is its vivid sense of place and time. The particular type of doomsday clock paranoia, amplified and put into context by the excellent realisation of newspaper buskers talking of Soviets invading Afghanistan and the cynical seediness that flows through all the scenes, helps the whole story feel contained and tightly directed in a way that materiel with a bigger, less manageable defined scope of didn’t. I never felt like I was lost in a blank soup of a world; each background was very clear in terms of what part of NYC we were in, what the situation was, and how the mood was progressing due to almost erotic levels of background detail. In a nice touch, Richard Nixon has just been elected for his fourth term as US President.
The Characters are also fantastic explorations of this theme of decline and the seizing up of fictional society. The best parts of The Sopranos came when the characters were trying and failing to reckon with the fact that the world they lived in was had passed them by, that their age had ended and they were left trying to divide the glory and fit in now in spite of how much that glorious past had defined who they thought they were. There is so much of that here, with much of the narrative concerning flashes back to the past and trying to litigate it now that everyone’s over the hill. Some, like the main character Rorschach (ginger icon) take to the end of their time with a reactive violence, others like Ozymandias use it as an opportunity to pivot, but after the arrival of Dr Manhattan and the eruption of counter protests, they each know their influence has waned. It’s so well realised.
The panelling is also incredible. Chapters often have at least two threads moving in parallel, like panels of the inciting murder happening parallel with panels of Rorschach investigating it, or panels of a funeral running parallel to panels that show events from their life. This balancing act is sublime and, far from causing confusion, it elevates each scene as they bleed into and inform each other in a way that is a true strength of this medium. I was genuinely blown away.
I finally get why you would do a story this way if you wanted to tell a rich, detailed story that took its time and had something to say. Watchmen was a great time, lived up to the hype, and I’m glad I read it.
Watchmen, thankfully, answered my prayers. It tells the story of a fictionalised NYC and a fictionalised America populated by a new and uniquely human set of caped heroes who find their origins in World War 1 and trace through two generations to this point in 1986, when they have been banned. However, they live within the context of terror over potential Cold War nuclear destruction, spiralling social decline, and a mysterious figure who is reaching from the shadows to try to kill them in retirement.
What helps this comic work for me where others didn’t is its vivid sense of place and time. The particular type of doomsday clock paranoia, amplified and put into context by the excellent realisation of newspaper buskers talking of Soviets invading Afghanistan and the cynical seediness that flows through all the scenes, helps the whole story feel contained and tightly directed in a way that materiel with a bigger, less manageable defined scope of didn’t. I never felt like I was lost in a blank soup of a world; each background was very clear in terms of what part of NYC we were in, what the situation was, and how the mood was progressing due to almost erotic levels of background detail. In a nice touch, Richard Nixon has just been elected for his fourth term as US President.
The Characters are also fantastic explorations of this theme of decline and the seizing up of fictional society. The best parts of The Sopranos came when the characters were trying and failing to reckon with the fact that the world they lived in was had passed them by, that their age had ended and they were left trying to divide the glory and fit in now in spite of how much that glorious past had defined who they thought they were. There is so much of that here, with much of the narrative concerning flashes back to the past and trying to litigate it now that everyone’s over the hill. Some, like the main character Rorschach (ginger icon) take to the end of their time with a reactive violence, others like Ozymandias use it as an opportunity to pivot, but after the arrival of Dr Manhattan and the eruption of counter protests, they each know their influence has waned. It’s so well realised.
The panelling is also incredible. Chapters often have at least two threads moving in parallel, like panels of the inciting murder happening parallel with panels of Rorschach investigating it, or panels of a funeral running parallel to panels that show events from their life. This balancing act is sublime and, far from causing confusion, it elevates each scene as they bleed into and inform each other in a way that is a true strength of this medium. I was genuinely blown away.
I finally get why you would do a story this way if you wanted to tell a rich, detailed story that took its time and had something to say. Watchmen was a great time, lived up to the hype, and I’m glad I read it.
No matter how many times I reread it, I always find something new to focus on, overlooked treasures in the artwork, themes and ideas to consider. This book is timeless and brilliant and perfect.
Wow, Watchmen is just a masterpiece. Such a good story, the art is beautiful, and the characters are fantastic. I love Rorschach so much! Full review to come later.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes