A review by onceandfuturelaura
Before Watchmen: Minutemen/Silk Spectre by Darwyn Cooke

3.0

I might have been a LITTLE afraid I was going to be eaten by a snake god if I checked this out from the library. Thus far; no avenging snake god. Updates as they become available.

There’s a lot of love for Silhouette in this. She gets elevated above the attention seekers and paid costumed persons into someone who truly had a calling to help the helpless, and died for it. In this text, her death inspires Sally Jupiter to have one glorious moment of heroism, before she retires to a life of procrusteaning-up her daughter.

I can’t say there’s love for The Comedian, but he’s given his moments of . . . well, not grace. Of comparative beige in all the darkness. And way more interest in his daughter than I had any idea he had.

There is a great evil that Laurie Jupiter fights. Kicks its butt. That pleased me.

There is a single panel that seems utterly dedicated to Alan Moore. That pleased me.

Dan Dreiberg dog sits Hollis Mason’s dog. This pleased me a lot.

We get to see the death of Hooded Justice. I’ve always been unsettled by Hooded Justice. I appreciated his refusal to testify before HUAC or take the loyalty oath, and yet . . . well, as Hollis says, “What kind of stupid shit fight crimes with a noose around his neck?” What sort of hero dresses like a member of the Klan with a color sense? I want to believe he was African American as well as gay (this text fully embraces the latter), making the costume a dramatic reclaiming. This text does not satisfy that desire.

Most of this feels very much like loving fan fiction. There’s none of the moral scope of The Watchmen, none of the driving horrific purpose underlying that text. We get to see the moral failure of the first superheroes, and the text seems determined to make sure we know they are Just Folks. Some have moments of great heroism. Silhouette and her girlfriend are more heroic than I knew; Bluecoat and Scout more heroic than we deserve; Laurie Jupiter teeters right on the edge of greatness. But Hollis’s greatest moment is showing mercy, and worst is . . . well, that would be a spoiler.

The Watchmen is a dense, rich text. It is, at the deepest level I’ve penetrated, about the possible moral responses to living in the shadow of nuclear war. This, a loving homage, but without the density, the richness, nor the stakes. Not worth being eaten by a snake god, but I did enjoy the field trip to the shallow waters of The Watchmen’s universe.