Category: Watchmen
-
Where to start… when Wein brings up Rorschach in 1960 but then later says he doesn’t show up until a few years later? I hope the editors didn’t get paid for this one in particular. The only distinct thing in the comic is Wein’s handling of the Kennedys. Adrian’s very judgmental of them, but then…
-
Len Wein has been writing comics for decades. He’s definitely an adult. Why does he write dialogue Yogi Bear would find infantile? Except the stuff with the Comedian making gay jokes about Adrian. Those comments read a little meta given Wein’s awkward handling of Adrian’s sex life. Though Wein does write Eddie’s double entendres like…
-
Wein seems to think giving Adrian very purple narration suggests intelligence. It doesn’t. Adrian’s of “sleek” as an adjective is laughable. Then there’s the problem of the thugs oscillating between ostentatious dialogue and traditional moronic thug dialogue. Wein is trying really hard; it kills any chance the series has–which isn’t much, given Lee’s painfully static…
-
I don’t know what’s more amusing in Len Wein’s wordy exposé of Ozymandias–the idea of majoring in Alexander the Great in post-graduate work (seriously, did no editor explain to Wein how higher education functions) or Adrian being ashamed of his homosexual dalliances. Wein has Adrian recording his memoirs during the final events of the original…
-
Once again, I’m left wondering if there’s some intentional misogyny in these Before Watchmen series just because it would horrify Alan Moore. This issue we learn Nite Owl has this costumed madam–something Straczynski never makes feasible–in love with him and he’s in love with her but he later mocks her in Watchmen to Laurie. I’d…
-
Well, Straczynski doesn’t spend too much time with Rorschach this issue, just enough to remind everyone he’s around. He also doesn’t continue the narration from Dan. Why? Because Straczynski doesn’t go for any kind of narrative continuity; Nite Owl’s an editorial disaster. I guess no one told Straczynski to at least be consistent in his…
-
Why didn’t they just combine this series with the Rorschach one? Straczynski probably gives Rorschach a third of the issue anyway. He’s juxtaposing Dan and Rorschach’s differing Mommy complexes, which would work for a combined book. But for one called Nite Owl? Doesn’t make any sense. There’s not a lot of callbacks to the original…
-
Given the problems, Nite Owl is a lot better than it should be. Straczynski writes Rorschach and Nite Owl well together. The humor of a gentler Rorschach helps it. Now for the problems. It’s trite and obvious; no surprise from Straczynski. He’s got Dan blathering about his fate with Laurie. Then there’s a line to…
-
Looks like Conner rushed a bit with the art. The issue opens fine and closes okay, but there are some definite rough patches. The ending is atrocious, when Cooke and Conner tie it directly into a scene from Watchmen, only now we get to hear Laurie’s take on the scene. Guess what? Neither Cooke nor…
-
The mystery of the smiley face button is solved! Finally, now everyone can sleep at night. The addition of said button does make one wonder if Cooke’s flipping off Moore a little (as the button is what started Moore’s disputes with DC). This issue features a lot of things Cooke and Conner should have covered…
-
Cooke and Conner set up Laurie as a hippie superhero; it’s kind of cool and definitely a decent look at sixties San Francisco. What’s interesting–and something I don’t think the original series ever established–is Laurie goes the “with great power” route. She turns into Silk Spectre because she can help people if she does. It…
-
For Silk Spectre, Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner go the romance comic route. Or at least closer to it than I was expecting, but it makes sense given Laurie’s age during the high adventuring days of Watchmen. She’s got her teen story going while Sally deals with aging and raising a kid to be a…
-
Cooke plays both Hollis and the reader. We all find out at the same time–maybe Cooke’s trying to show Hollis made the same negative assumptions the reader does, but I don’t think so. Cooke’s been intentionally fooling the reader for at least three issues and in ways he doesn’t fool Hollis. The comic still somewhat…
-
Yeah, Cooke goes exactly where I expected him to go. I suppose one could say there’s a balance to how he treats gays, but there’s not. He turns one group into martyrs and demonizes the other. It’d probably make Alan Moore ralph; one’s got to wonder if it’s there as a middle finger to Moore,…
-
On one hand, this issue is the most how I’d expect a Watchmen prequel from Cooke to read (if it weren’t four issues in). There’s back story on the Minutemen after the war, including when Sally and the Comedian reunite. Cooke humanizes him quite a bit… even if he does rip off Full Metal Jacket…
-
Poor Hollis, in love with a girl who doesn’t know he exists. Strangely, Cooke doesn’t narrate the book well when Hollis–in the sixties–is commenting directly on his younger self’s actions. The narration does work otherwise though. The charm of Minutemen is gone. Once again, there’s a meta reference to it in Hollis’s opening narration. What…
-
And now I’m not sure with where Cooke takes things. He turns Minutemen, in its conclusion this issue, into a really tough, uncomfortable book. It’s like I can’t decide if it’s homophobic, if Cooke’s just using the material or if he’s just being straightforward about it. There’s probably no comfortable way to handle it. I’m…
-
I’m a little surprised, but I only have one problem with Minutemen (at least the Darwyn Cooke material). Who the hell is Hollis Mason talking to? He’s basically summarizing his book, right? It doesn’t make any sense. The only surprises are Silk Spectre and the Comedian–she’s a model faking being an adventurer and he’s already…
-
Moore finishes Watchmen with two obvious questions. There’s the big one the final panel closes on and a smaller, cuter one from a couple pages before. But there are a couple other questions he raises this issue. Two people, who have no reason to lie to anyone, lie. It’s as though Moore gives the more…
-
Adrian revealing his master plan, or just rambling on about himself, takes up most of the issue. At first, the amount of ego Moore gives him is a little jarring, but it soon becomes almost soothing, all because Moore understands the importance of a great final gag. Even when it’s about the end of the…
-
Moore wastes no time investigating the series’ mystery and resolving most of its questions. He took two issues to set up the conspiracy and less than one to resolve it. There’s a lot with Nixon and “The Black Freighter” here, so Rorschach and Dan’s investigation isn’t even the issue’s focus. The character stuff sells this…
-
It’s the Laurie issue, finally, and guess what? The Laurie issue doesn’t work. Moore opens the issue with some more of the layered, simultaneous present action between issues, moving Laurie and Jon to Mars–and the issue does have the wonderful moment of “Oh shit, I’m on Mars,” but Moore doesn’t do anything with it. In…
-
This issue is mostly action. Or the Rorschach jailbreak makes it feel more like action than any other issue so far. There’s still a lot of content, with Moore playing around with the issues’ present actions, overlapping them. As a narrative move, it isn’t exactly profound but it creates a sense of events jumbling. Events…
-
And here’s the Dan and Laurie–sorry, Nite Owl and Silk Spectre–issue. It’s an exceptionally strong aside from the rest of the comic. Moore sticks to only the two characters. The rest of the cast is either on TV (Rorschach and Adrian) or just present in the air (Jon). It’s a gentle issue, full of humor–and…
-
And now the Rorschach issue. Even though Moore borrows the hacksaw from Mad Max, a lot of people have borrowed the vicious vigilante in jail from him so it evens out. It’s an excellent issue with one little problem. Moore’s too hard on the psychiatrist. He’s supposed to be this goofy happy guy–one’s got to…
-
Given how much effort Moore puts into giving away Rorschach’s identity before the final page’s unmasking, it’s embarrassing I didn’t know the last time I read Watchmen. Or, more to the point, the first time. Any twelve issue series, even Watchmen, is going to have a bridging issue or two. This issue is the first…
-
This issue of Watchmen, with Dr. Manhattan heading to Mars, giving up on the human experience, has always been my favorite. Moore does a bunch with it–he uses Jon, who’s deliberating on how little people matter to him, to better introduce the cast and their histories. But Moore also brings in watches. Watchmen is a…
-
There’s a lot this issue, a whole lot. Moore introduces some characters and implies some back story, but he really is just bringing the world powers situation into focus. While there was talk of the Soviets before, this issue–especially the ending–finally establishes the ground situation. Moore had been keeping it a little bit of a…
-
I found another issue with rereading Watchmen after knowing so much about Moore’s writing process on the series. I keep thinking about the structure, particularly this issue, since it has flashbacks and Moore added those later. Rorschach’s investigation closes the issue, but lots of flashbacks open it. Laurie goes to visit her mother, giving Gibbons…
-
I found another issue with rereading Watchmen after knowing so much about Moore’s writing process on the series. I keep thinking about the structure, particularly this issue, since it has flashbacks and Moore added those later. Rorschach’s investigation closes the issue, but lots of flashbacks open it. Laurie goes to visit her mother, giving Gibbons…
The Stop Button 