The Watchmen
Written by Alan Moore, Art by Dave Gibbons
Comic Book Compilation
Read from 3/21/06 - 3/25/06
My grade: 7
About once a year or so I venture into a graphic novel. Last year it was Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, which was so sad I almost died. This year, inspired by V for Vendetta, I decided to give a more traditional comic book a shot. (Of course Moore doesn't write traditional comic books, and any Moore fan who stumbled here has already started an email to me entitled "Worst. Review. Ever." But on a spectrum between Spider-Man #262 and Jimmy Corrigan: Life Is Despair, The Watchmen is closer to Spider-Man.)
[Sidenote about Jimmy Corrigan: WHYYYYYY?]
Back to The Watchmen. This was, apparently, a run of comic books back in the 1980s. It was revolutionary for lots of reasons that I don't really understand. But I bet you $10 that Moore's bleak outlook and the dramatic personal lives of the "masked adventurers" topped the list.
Like V for Vendetta, it takes place in a sort of alternate time line. It's 1985 and Nixon is still president and Russia is about to invade Afghanistan and Pakistan. The crime-fighting fad really took hold in the 60s, but the practice was outlawed in 1977. Two generations of crime-fighters languish, and then they start dying. One of the great things about comic book format is the flexibility - Moore can have two characters talking over images from twenty years ago, or from events taking place elsewhere. The juxtapositions were excellent, and it's not something you can do effectively in a book. Moore really uses all the potential inherent in the form.
I had one minor and one major problem with the book, however. First, the coloring is awful. Purple hair? This comic was a huge step forward, but the coloring makes it look like any other (poorly colored) comic book. Second, it didn't live up to the potential of the first few chapters/issues. I was wild about it for the first half. I had no idea where it was headed, watching the backstory build was great, and it just kept getting more complex and layered. But the final act didn't quite work for me. I think I wanted more resolution, or a clearer indication of where this world was headed now, but Moore isn't that kind of writer.
