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Before Watchmen: Nite Owl/Dr. Manhattan
by J. Michael Straczynski
Like everybody who is alive and who has given it a fair shot, I love Watchmen. Moore and Gibbons wanted Watchmen to prove that comic books can tell a powerful story in a way that cannot be achieved through any other medium and they succeeded. Exceptionally.
Before Watchmen, like many prequels or sequels, especially those that are only related to their inspiration by brand rather than creators, sucked. And I hate to use such a boring, overused word for how awful this book is, but that's all it deserves.
Watchmen ushered in a new kind of comics. It was serious, political, and very adult. Before Watchmen took memorable images and events from Watchmen and explained them with stories that we have seen many, many times before. And have seen done better before. Rorschach, for instance, evidently got is "The End is Nigh" sign from his maniac preacher who was trying to "cleanse the city" by sleeping with, killing and then stockpiling prostitutes in his church's basement, with the plan of burning the pile of corpses (and his church with it) once the pile got big enough. I mean seriously, how many TIMES have we seen the corrupt preacher trope at this point? And how many times has it been at least a little bit more elegant than "homophobe preacher who likes paying cheap prostitutes for sex kills one, finds out he likes it and then FILLS HIS BASEMENT WITH PROSTITUTES WITH THE INTENTION OF BURNING HIS CHURCH DOWN FOR THE GOOD OF THE CITY?!?! Rorschach did not need that back story.
Watchmen did not shy away from adult themes, but Before Watchmen relied on them. Moore and Gibbons made superheroes people by showing us every facet of their lives, including their awkward or violent sex lives. The crew of idiots (sorry, but seriously) who who put together Before Watchmen fanboyed their way through every scene that involved a female, even if only peripherally, by drawing the biggest boobs and most scanty, tight or see-through clothing. Sex and nudity is a thing in graphic novels, I get that. Everyone who reads graphic novels gets that. But there is sex and nudity that makes sense and there is sex and nudity that is there because either the artist feels like drawing a naked woman or because DC decided that the comic will sell better if there are lots and lots of naked ladies in it.
Now, I understand that the exploration of the Rorschach/Nite Owl partnership was also supposed to be used as a vehicle to discuss violence against women. But it was so clumsily done (the discussion essentially boiled down to the very offensive questions of 1) if crimes against prostitutes should even be investigated because they're "just whores" and 2) if, indeed, "real men" beat women. (Spoiler, our heroes don't think so, but everyone else does.) Rather than pointing out that women have independent worth as human beings, the story focuses on how different men see women. Not only that, but that section in particular was so full of picture after picture of objectified women that any pro-woman message was swallowed up by very objectified bodies. It also doesn't help that the only woman with a voice in this section, Twilight Lady, is introduced to us naked and throws out such inspired gems as "When women do it for free, they're called sluts. When they do it for money, they're called whores."
There are so many other things that are wrong with Before Watchmen, but it seems silly to waste my time talking about all of it. The creators insert klutzy plot points to the story we already know, the art sometimes verges on cartoony (check out the page where the Nite Owl is recognized by Twilight Lady), the dialogue is repetitive (humph) and "self-aware" in completely ridiculous moments (why does Ozymandias criticize his own use of intelligent sounding words?), they completely hijack successful scenes from Watchmen (Dr. Manhattan experiencing time with his old photo on Mars, for instance) and, worst of all, their super clumsy use of Schrodinger's cat leading to Dr. Manhattan destroying hundreds if not thousands if not MILLIONS of other realities. I'm sorry. Dude would impassively think that was an interesting phenomenon, and be intrigued by his sudden access to new viewpoints. FOR SERIOUS.
I honestly have a hard time believing that the people who made Before Watchmen even LIKED Watchmen.
Edit(Oh, also, from a nitpicky and aesthetic point of view, I really missed the gorgeous scene changes and the way that the text would line up perfectly with the images in the original. That was breathtaking.)
Before Watchmen, like many prequels or sequels, especially those that are only related to their inspiration by brand rather than creators, sucked. And I hate to use such a boring, overused word for how awful this book is, but that's all it deserves.
Watchmen ushered in a new kind of comics. It was serious, political, and very adult. Before Watchmen took memorable images and events from Watchmen and explained them with stories that we have seen many, many times before. And have seen done better before. Rorschach, for instance, evidently got is "The End is Nigh" sign from his maniac preacher who was trying to "cleanse the city" by sleeping with, killing and then stockpiling prostitutes in his church's basement, with the plan of burning the pile of corpses (and his church with it) once the pile got big enough. I mean seriously, how many TIMES have we seen the corrupt preacher trope at this point? And how many times has it been at least a little bit more elegant than "homophobe preacher who likes paying cheap prostitutes for sex kills one, finds out he likes it and then FILLS HIS BASEMENT WITH PROSTITUTES WITH THE INTENTION OF BURNING HIS CHURCH DOWN FOR THE GOOD OF THE CITY?!?! Rorschach did not need that back story.
Watchmen did not shy away from adult themes, but Before Watchmen relied on them. Moore and Gibbons made superheroes people by showing us every facet of their lives, including their awkward or violent sex lives. The crew of idiots (sorry, but seriously) who who put together Before Watchmen fanboyed their way through every scene that involved a female, even if only peripherally, by drawing the biggest boobs and most scanty, tight or see-through clothing. Sex and nudity is a thing in graphic novels, I get that. Everyone who reads graphic novels gets that. But there is sex and nudity that makes sense and there is sex and nudity that is there because either the artist feels like drawing a naked woman or because DC decided that the comic will sell better if there are lots and lots of naked ladies in it.
Now, I understand that the exploration of the Rorschach/Nite Owl partnership was also supposed to be used as a vehicle to discuss violence against women. But it was so clumsily done (the discussion essentially boiled down to the very offensive questions of 1) if crimes against prostitutes should even be investigated because they're "just whores" and 2) if, indeed, "real men" beat women. (Spoiler, our heroes don't think so, but everyone else does.) Rather than pointing out that women have independent worth as human beings, the story focuses on how different men see women. Not only that, but that section in particular was so full of picture after picture of objectified women that any pro-woman message was swallowed up by very objectified bodies. It also doesn't help that the only woman with a voice in this section, Twilight Lady, is introduced to us naked and throws out such inspired gems as "When women do it for free, they're called sluts. When they do it for money, they're called whores."
There are so many other things that are wrong with Before Watchmen, but it seems silly to waste my time talking about all of it. The creators insert klutzy plot points to the story we already know, the art sometimes verges on cartoony (check out the page where the Nite Owl is recognized by Twilight Lady), the dialogue is repetitive (humph) and "self-aware" in completely ridiculous moments (why does Ozymandias criticize his own use of intelligent sounding words?), they completely hijack successful scenes from Watchmen (Dr. Manhattan experiencing time with his old photo on Mars, for instance) and, worst of all, their super clumsy use of Schrodinger's cat leading to Dr. Manhattan destroying hundreds if not thousands if not MILLIONS of other realities. I'm sorry. Dude would impassively think that was an interesting phenomenon, and be intrigued by his sudden access to new viewpoints. FOR SERIOUS.
I honestly have a hard time believing that the people who made Before Watchmen even LIKED Watchmen.
Edit(Oh, also, from a nitpicky and aesthetic point of view, I really missed the gorgeous scene changes and the way that the text would line up perfectly with the images in the original. That was breathtaking.)