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 - The Best Pop Culture PhenomenonMoore used the story as a means to reflect contemporary anxieties and to deconstruct the superhero concept. Watchmen takes place in an alternate history United States where the country is edging closer to a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. After government-sponsored superhero The Comedian is found murdered, the vigilante Rorschach warns his former colleagues of what he believes is a conspiracy to kill costumed heroes. As the story progresses, the protagonists discover that one of the heroes has devised a plan to stave off war between the United States and the USSR by carrying out a plan that will kill millions of innocent people. Creatively, the focus of Watchmen is on its structure. Gibbons used a nine-panel grid layout throughout the series and added recurring symbols such as a blood-stained smiley face. All but the last issue feature supplemental fictional documents that add to the series' backstory, and the narrative is intertwined with that of a another story, a fictional pirate comic titled Tales of the Black Freighter, which one of the characters is reading. WATCHMEN, Mickey Mouse and THE TWILIGHT ZONE are the three biggst pop culture phenomenons of the 20th Century. James Bond comes close, but the franchise has yet to reach maximum potential. Amazon.com does offer THE TWILIGHT ZONE: UNLOCKING THE DOOR TO A TELEVISION CLASSIC by Martin Grams Jnr. which covers the entire series with 800 plus pages of behind-the-scenes trivia, exclusive interviews with cast and crew and a detail level will exceed anyone's expectation. Amazon also offers KISS KISS, BANG BANG by Alan Barnes and Marcus Hearn, which is a geek's shrine to all things James Bond. Buy both books and THE WATCHMEN and you will see the world through another vision. Rating:  - WatchmenI used to collect comics all through the 80's and halfway through the 90's. My friends had raved about this comic, but I never bought the title. After hearing that the movie was going to be released soon, I got the graphic novel and was ready to get blown away. Well, I was underwhelmed. The art was good, but it seemed like I had seen it before even though the name didn't jump out at me. I took a look at his other titles but hadn't read any of the other comics. The story seemed to drag on for me and it took quite a while for me to finish because I felt bored. I couldn't associate with any of the characters and I wasn't rooting for anybody (hero or villain). It would be like meeting a group of people and knowing right away that you wouldn't get along with them. So you cut your losses and never see them again. But I had to unfortunately keep going so I could see how it ends. But not in the suspense type of feeling, but because I thought maybe their was a glimmer of hope. Nope, I got there and thought those are many hours I won't get back. I'll wait for the movie on DVD, hopefully Hollywood can at least make this movie palatable. They do have a knack to sensationalize things and this is one story that NEEDS it. Rating: - A psychological study of washed-up heroes in a world on the brink of destruction.Reading Alan Moore's WATCHMEN has long been on my to-do list, but with the new movie coming out in a few months, I decided to finally get the book and educate myself on what is often called the greatest graphic novel ever. The book takes place in an alternate reality in which masked crimefighters were a reality. The costumed heroes first appeared in the 1940s and a second generation showed up in the '60s. None of the heroes had "powers". That is, until Dr. Manhattan, a scientist transformed by radiation into a super-being, able to control atoms at will. The story takes place in 1985. The Cold War is still casting its shadow over everyday life. With the aid of Dr. Manhattan the U.S. was able to win the conflict in Vietnam and Richard Nixon was able to extend his Presidency into the mid-1980s. Masked vigilantism has been outlawed by the government and the former crimefighters have adjusted to normal lives. But global events keep the people uneasy. WATCHMEN is a mystery story. An ex-hero is murdered, but why? And by whom? As one crimefighter tries to find the answers, the plot thickens and a conspiracy unfolds. The story is presented in twelve chapters, each one bringing the world closer and closer to doomsday. WATCHMEN is acclaimed for its complex character psychologies and its philosophical undertones. In fact, I first learned about this book from another book, SUPERHEROES AND PHILOSOPHY. In WATCHMEN, we see how the world might react to costumed vigilantes and we get to see how such heroes think. Why do they choose that life? What motivates them? How do they see the world and what would they do to save it? Do they have the right to do anything? Dave Gibbons's art is very good, too. Many panels must be studied to find little details that add to the overall density of the story. Great work though it is, WATCHMEN is not for kids. There's some subject matter that would not be suitable for children. Plus the complex story and philosophy of it all would likely go over their heads. This may be a comic book, but it's made for adults. Don't be fooled and get this for a kid. And don't be fooled and skip over this because you think it is for kids. Rating: - Watchmen: The finest graphic novel you can findIf you have never read a graphic novel because you think they are nothing but comics, then you have never read the Watchmen. This is one of the best stories ever written... period. These are dark heroes with very personal motives. You need to put all your preconceived ideas regarding superheroes and how they operate in the dust bin. The story will completely surprise you with its depth and complexity. The artwork is fantastic and conveys the gritty nature of the story. If you like science fiction, alternate history, fantasy or crime novels, this is an excellent entry into a new reading medium. Rating:  - Revisiting the Breakthrough Graphic Novel 22 Years LaterWriter Alan Moore created "Watchmen" in 1986 because he wanted to push the comic book beyond adolescence into what he called "a superhero Moby Dick." The 12 edition comic book series - and later the compilation graphic novel - went on to win the Hugo Award and to be named one of TIME magazine's 100 Best Novels since 1923. There is little doubt that "Watchmen" blazed a new path for comics - especially superhero comics. But did it really have the impact of Art Spiegelman's "Maus," which was first published in 1973 or even Gil Kane and Archie Goodwin's "Blackmark" (1971), arguably the first "graphic novel" published in the U.S.? And did Moore succeed in creating a comic book "Moby Dick?" First let's explore the narrative. "Watchmen" is a dark story. It captures the pre-apocalyptic fears of modern American and Western Europe in the mid-to-late 1980s as the Cold War rhetoric between the Soviet Union and United States was at its highest since the Bay of Pigs. The novel is in its essence a questioning of authority - especially of government and traditional institutions. That's why the question: "Who watches the Watchmen?" appears throughout the novel. The story centers on a group of masked adventurers in an alternative universe to our own 1980s (one in which Nixon remains president). The "superheroes" are, in fact, regular human beings with no real powers - other than extraordinary physical conditioning and mental acumen. Doctor Manhattan is only character with superhuman skills as a result of a scientific experiment gone wrong. The novel opens with the murder of the Comedian (Edward Blake), one of the costumed avengers affiliated with the CIA and other secret government agencies. Rorschach, a second costumed hero, who refused to give up his vigilante lifestyle even after the U.S. government outlawed costumed heroes in 1977, investigates the murder. Through the investigation, the novel enters the lives of the various costumed heroes: Nite Owl (a first and a second version), Ozymandias, Captain Metropolis, Silk Spectre (first a mother, then her daughter), Doctor Manhattan, the Comedian, and Rorschach. The characters are all flawed - some of them grossly so. The Comedian, for example, is a misogynist and rapist and Rorschach is a sociopath. Rorschach thinks he has uncovered a plot to murder all of the costumed adventurers and enlists the help of his former partner, Nite Owl, to help him. Meanwhile, the super powerful Doctor Manhattan, who has the ability to restructure reality and to manipulate time and space, continues to struggle with relating to regular human beings. After rumors that being near him causes cancer, he banishes himself to Mars. The murders end up being the work of the genius Ozymandias, who has concocted an elaborate scheme to bring the world's nations together: a fake alien invasion that kills thousands of people. His costumed friend figure out his plot, but are unable to stop it. And, in the end, it turns out Ozymandias is right. The weakest part of "Watchmen" is the plot, especially the comic book ending. There are so many holes in the logic and execution of Ozymandias' scheme that it's difficult to follow or understand. But the plot isn't really the driver in "Watchmen" - it's the characters and Moore's success with deconstructing superhero mythos. Moore has taken stock superhero stereotypes and added depth and complexity. Rorschach, Doctor Manhattan, and the Comedian shine as the stand-outs - loners with a lot of psychological problems trying to cope in a world teeming with misery. Moore has less success with Ozymandias, Nite Owl, and Silk Spectre who don't have the depth or the conviction of the stand-out characters. The novel is heavy on symbolism (lots of watches and clocks, for example) and mood - but differs from comic books from the time period by providing a straight forward and objective point of view. It's up to the readers - not Moore as the author - to figure out how to react to the action on the page. Another interesting device is Moore's use of a "story within a story" by having a young boy read a comic book about pirates called "Tales of the Black Freighter." The pirate story - about a man escaping from a pirate ship filled with dead, doomed souls - echoes the action of "Watchmen" and acts as juxtaposition to the main story. The artwork in "Watchmen" feels like a throwback to the Golden Age of comics in the 1950s and 1960s (in fact, primary artist Dave Gibbons credits Norman Rockwell as an inspiration for "Watchmen"). There's a cinematic feel to the artwork - especially of noir films with the shadows and darkness. But there's surprising little movement to the graphics and sometimes the panels feel a bit inert. So how influential was "Watchmen"? It is generally credited with taking superhero comics from low-brow kid's entertainment and catapulting into high-brow art. That's no minor achievement. "Watchmen" also ushered in an era of dark and bleak story lines around comic book superheroes (can we blame "Watchmen" for the death of Superman and Captain America?). But Moore certainly didn't attain his goal of creating the "Moby-Dick" of comic books. "Maus," for example, is clearly a greater literary achievement than "Watchmen." Influential? Yes. But a hallmark of great literature? No. Read more "Literate Blather" at the Dark Party Review (http://darkpartyreview.blogspot.com/).
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