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A review by michaelchurch
Watchmen by Alan Moore
4.0
For anyone unaware, this is about as classic as it gets for contemporary comic books, and this is a pretty solid edition. Honestly, the only reason I docked the book a star is because it's not my cup of tea. I recognize that it's an incredibly well done book, and I enjoyed reading it, I just found it to be a bit of a drudging journey.
The art is fantastic, and the characters are deftly defined. Everyone from Dr. Manhattan to Captain Metropolis has a distinct personality and identity. Characters who were only even featured in a handful of panels gave a resonating performance that established some of their key traits. What's really incredible is the way that characters who, at first, seem random and are only passersby in the broader superhero story wind up being the characters that I felt most connected to and invested in. Granted, I think this was in part due to the fact that I have already seen the movie which didn't give away their stories.
Something that I found set the series apart was the way that every story was presented in a different fashion. The opening book was pretty standard fare with narration and dialogue and a creepy situation and mystery, but it changes from there. One issue focused on Dr. Manhattan has him constantly jumping around in time, referencing how he's going to drop a picture in 90 seconds and then referring back to that moment because "matter does not exist only in space, but in time as well." He's demonstrating that at that fixed point in time, matter was also in a fixed state of being. It sets up his later communications and the way that he's awkwardly looking at the whole time continuum (do the distress of those around him, at times). It gave the issue an entirely different feeling that made it one of my favorites.
Another tactic that started early and was really highlighted in a couple of issues was the "comic within a comic" that dovetailed with several of the themes of Watchmen. There's a pirate comic that one of the civilians is reading. The narration for the pirate book is interspersed with Watchmen panels, and the text for each always relates to both in some way. It's a pretty interesting gimmick once I got used to it. At first, I admit, I was just distracted by how much I didn't want to be reading a pirate story, but by the end I was excited to reach its end within the overall book (even if it was a bit easy to see coming).
The last little highlight I want to point out came at the end of issue eleven and beginning of twelve. There's a climactic and catastrophic event that takes place and involves all of the civilian characters coming together to face their fate. One of them, seeing the catastrophe coming, throws himself in front of another. Then the final issue opens with 6 full-page spreads of the aftermath. It's amazing and emotive.
Overall, it's an ambitious book that takes a hard look at society and what's happening and the role of heroes in varying senses. With themes around rape and morality and war and weapons and humanity, it's a very grand scope - the type of thing you'd expect from Alan Moore. For my two cents, it seems to hit on most of those themes. The rape story was a little...odd in that it included a lot of "survivor's guilt" type emotions. The morality in general also seemed considerably more conservative, but that was part of the characters - there was a clear difference between Rorschach's views and Ozymandius' and others. In the end, the reason it didn't wholly resonate with me was because, like so many books that try this hard to have a deep message, it just felt forced and it was really beating you over the head with the morality lessons by the end.
The art is solid and moody and sufficiently detailed. Honestly, if I had any issue with the look of the book it was with the colors. It just seemed like they never quite matched what they should be. I really enjoyed the panels and layouts, though. There were several sequences where there was some fast-paced action in 4-6 panels up top with a larger panel at the bottom providing a more general or slow-paced sequence.
The add on with this version was that you get little extras with each issue. From Hollis Mason's autobiography to a board of Sally Jupiter's memorabilia and Rorschach's school assignments from childhood. There was just so much detail and thought put into this book that I have to give it a positive score. Unfortunately, it just wasn't perfect. This was another book I got from the library because...well...it's Watchmen. That said, I'm glad I've read it, but I also feel no need to go buy it to keep it on my shelf.
The art is fantastic, and the characters are deftly defined. Everyone from Dr. Manhattan to Captain Metropolis has a distinct personality and identity. Characters who were only even featured in a handful of panels gave a resonating performance that established some of their key traits. What's really incredible is the way that characters who, at first, seem random and are only passersby in the broader superhero story wind up being the characters that I felt most connected to and invested in. Granted, I think this was in part due to the fact that I have already seen the movie which didn't give away their stories.
Something that I found set the series apart was the way that every story was presented in a different fashion. The opening book was pretty standard fare with narration and dialogue and a creepy situation and mystery, but it changes from there. One issue focused on Dr. Manhattan has him constantly jumping around in time, referencing how he's going to drop a picture in 90 seconds and then referring back to that moment because "matter does not exist only in space, but in time as well." He's demonstrating that at that fixed point in time, matter was also in a fixed state of being. It sets up his later communications and the way that he's awkwardly looking at the whole time continuum (do the distress of those around him, at times). It gave the issue an entirely different feeling that made it one of my favorites.
Another tactic that started early and was really highlighted in a couple of issues was the "comic within a comic" that dovetailed with several of the themes of Watchmen. There's a pirate comic that one of the civilians is reading. The narration for the pirate book is interspersed with Watchmen panels, and the text for each always relates to both in some way. It's a pretty interesting gimmick once I got used to it. At first, I admit, I was just distracted by how much I didn't want to be reading a pirate story, but by the end I was excited to reach its end within the overall book (even if it was a bit easy to see coming).
The last little highlight I want to point out came at the end of issue eleven and beginning of twelve. There's a climactic and catastrophic event that takes place and involves all of the civilian characters coming together to face their fate. One of them, seeing the catastrophe coming, throws himself in front of another. Then the final issue opens with 6 full-page spreads of the aftermath. It's amazing and emotive.
Overall, it's an ambitious book that takes a hard look at society and what's happening and the role of heroes in varying senses. With themes around rape and morality and war and weapons and humanity, it's a very grand scope - the type of thing you'd expect from Alan Moore. For my two cents, it seems to hit on most of those themes. The rape story was a little...odd in that it included a lot of "survivor's guilt" type emotions. The morality in general also seemed considerably more conservative, but that was part of the characters - there was a clear difference between Rorschach's views and Ozymandius' and others. In the end, the reason it didn't wholly resonate with me was because, like so many books that try this hard to have a deep message, it just felt forced and it was really beating you over the head with the morality lessons by the end.
The art is solid and moody and sufficiently detailed. Honestly, if I had any issue with the look of the book it was with the colors. It just seemed like they never quite matched what they should be. I really enjoyed the panels and layouts, though. There were several sequences where there was some fast-paced action in 4-6 panels up top with a larger panel at the bottom providing a more general or slow-paced sequence.
The add on with this version was that you get little extras with each issue. From Hollis Mason's autobiography to a board of Sally Jupiter's memorabilia and Rorschach's school assignments from childhood. There was just so much detail and thought put into this book that I have to give it a positive score. Unfortunately, it just wasn't perfect. This was another book I got from the library because...well...it's Watchmen. That said, I'm glad I've read it, but I also feel no need to go buy it to keep it on my shelf.