Review by rainemar14 - Watchmen

rainemar14 's review for:

Watchmen by Alan Moore

4.25

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I think that this was masterfully crafted with beautiful artwork and genius character design. I do enjoy the political commentary and subversion of the superhero trope. American culture especially views superheros as godlike beings with complete moral purity, and making them be very complicated, and sometimes downright detestable was incredibly interesting to explore. As dismal and nihilistic as the majority of this comic was, the ending was somewhat hopeful.

Though, there are some lingering questions regarding Ozymandias' future plans.

My main gripe is with some of the tropes regarding sexual assault

(Sally and Ed having a consensual affair years after he attemped to rape her). I don't like this trope and honestly feel like it could have been scrapped and replaced with something better for Laurie's character.

Also as important as the pirate comic was to the story, it was very jarring to keep going back and forth from the actual plot to the pirate comic. Though I really enjoyed its aesthetics, the constant flip flopping made the meaning behind it hard to follow.

Overall super enjoyed this and understand completely why its a beloved classic.

Content Warnings