Watchmen

What's all the fuss about? This may be a landmark among comic books, but as far as stories go it's pretty unremarkable--not to mention its 1980's cold war story is quite dated. Since most of the book is taken up by cartoonish drawings there's little room for things like character development or depth. If you like comic books, by all means pick this one up. But if you like reading novels don't bother.

As my title suggests, I found the book to be a gripping page-turner. For that reason I with-held a five-star rating - only because I found this book to be hard to put down, until the last chapter, when everything is wrapped up with a fairly deflated climax. Anyone who's studied composition knows the climax should occur a wee bit before the finale, but in this case everything just sort of shuts down right at the end. Other than that, one of the most gripping pieces of illustrated fiction I've ever seen!

One thing I really, truly like about Watchmen, that sets it apart from other works of superhero fiction, is the way it treats its heroes. They, on the most part, are fully aware of how silly dressing up in a theatrical costume and running around fighting crime is, and the more sane amongst them treat the enterprise as very tongue-in-cheek. With the exception of one hero they have no powers, and thus distinguishing between one hero or heroine and the next becomes highly character-driven rather than "oh he's the guy with the claws" or "oh he has the eye lasers".

Speaking of characters, the characters here are extremely well-written. Two examples:
- Rorschach is a vigilante detective with a sordid past and a rapidly deteriorating psyche. By the opening of the story he considers his Rorschach persona to take presidence over his alter ego, and refers to his mask as his "face".
- Doctor Manhattan, the only superhero with any real powers, is rapidly and dramatically losing his feelings of being human to the point of self-imposed exile from Earth. Described as a walking H-bomb, his withdrawal from Earth violently upsets the balance of power between the US and Russia, and threatens to start World War Three.

My only real beef with this novel, and the reason it only got 4/5 stars, is the ending. Though brilliantly orchestrated, it has a critical flaw in relation to real-world events, and you should stop reading now if you don't like spoilers.

The "villain", if he can even be called that, aims to stop WWIII by staging a massive attack on New York city that wipes out half the population, and makes it seem as if other attacks are imminent and that the world needs to ally against this new, perceived, and potentially permanent threat - and it works. My problem with this is that something to this effect actually happened, what with 9/11 and all, and the world sympathy only lasted for a period of a month or so, and then everyone went back to hating who they hated before. It's not really the fault of the authors that they mis-judged humanity's capacity for caring about each other, but it does kind of lessen the impact of the novel in this day and time.

I will be honest and say here that I read this graphic novel because of the upcoming movie and sudden hype. I can almost hear the old-school fans cursing me right now.
So I read this, and I truly, absolutely enjoyed. I remembered reading something about the ending and the general, uh, emotion it brings, but it still wasn't what I expected at all. The ending was a total shock, and I'm amazed at how genius it was.
The characters had great depth, it was interesting to read about people that lived in the type of world they did. As with other graphic novels, I love it when the idea of a downside to having heroes, or superheroes around is explored.
I enjoyed the character, I enjoyed the plot, I enjoyed the entire thing and I hope very much that the film won't be a let down.

There's not much more one can say about this comic that hasn't already been said. Let me give a warning about this series, at least. It's not for everybody. Some people may think comics are just about mindless action and silly plot. This comic is very captivating. Alan Moore attempts to deconstruct the superhero, laying its soul bare for the reader. Alan himself said the comic was meant to be read very slowly, with the reader constantly referencing previous pages in order to fully understand how the plot will unfold. Readint this requires a lot of effort on the part of the reader.

But if you do put in the effort, you will experience the single greatest comic story ever. Ethics and morality within the superhero universe is put in a new light when the greatest single evil act in comic book history becomes, quite possibly, the greatest good act ever. Only someone with the genius of Alan Moore can do that.

It is easy to go on and on about this comic, but many others have already put it far better than I. Please, give this comic a chance. You will not regret it.