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A review by squidbag
Before Watchmen: Comedian/Rorschach by Lee Bermejo, Brian Azzarello, J.G. Jones
4.0
Mixed reactions on this: The Comedian story is gorgeous, like a finished jigsaw of a Rembrandt, lights and darks (literally and metaphorically) coming together to create an origin story for a completely unlikeable character. The dialogue is spot on (G. Gordon Liddy sounds just like G. Gordon Liddy) and the little moments will just kill you, while the big moments will stun you. Worth every bit of the read and pretty to look at. JFK looks exactly right, Vietnam will scare the hell out of you.
Rorschach, one of the most interesting characters ever created for comics (and arguably created by Steve Ditko when he was the Question, and not Mr. Moore) has always been fun to read, mostly due to his philosophy, reflected in his mask, of black and white which never meet, and Rorschach having a pretty good lock on where he sits in that pecking order. Again, here, the dialogue is perfect: "I realized there were victims, and then there was me." and the chaos of the story is right in line with Kovacs' nascent worldview: there's no meaning, there's simply action and reaction. The trouble is, narratively, there's no satisfaction in reading this, because it's randomly paced, there's no ending, and it seems somewhat pointless. I'm sure that's kind of the point, but it doesn't resonate. The art in this section - and I normally love Jones - didn't always work for me. And the tiger is a stupid, overblown metaphor/plot device.
Rorschach, one of the most interesting characters ever created for comics (and arguably created by Steve Ditko when he was the Question, and not Mr. Moore) has always been fun to read, mostly due to his philosophy, reflected in his mask, of black and white which never meet, and Rorschach having a pretty good lock on where he sits in that pecking order. Again, here, the dialogue is perfect: "I realized there were victims, and then there was me." and the chaos of the story is right in line with Kovacs' nascent worldview: there's no meaning, there's simply action and reaction. The trouble is, narratively, there's no satisfaction in reading this, because it's randomly paced, there's no ending, and it seems somewhat pointless. I'm sure that's kind of the point, but it doesn't resonate. The art in this section - and I normally love Jones - didn't always work for me. And the tiger is a stupid, overblown metaphor/plot device.