Ah ha, big plot twist this issue. Wonder if I should even mention it. No. The comic picks up from last issue with Doll running away from the mean lesbian (who doesn’t even have a name–her t-shirt says Tomboy so maybe it’s the most concise moniker) and getting beat up by protestors. People starving in […]
MoreSee, there you go, I had no idea the protagonist–her name’s Doll–worked at a nightclub. I thought she was working for the fashion guy, but no. Big fail from Johnston on that one. This issue is a lot better than the last one, with most of the issue having Moore dialogue. There’s a nice expository […]
MoreGiven how much effort Alan Moore puts into his comic scripts–instructions to the artist for each panel, for example–one can easily tell he’s not writing Fashion Beast. Antony Johnston is–I assume–using Moore’s dialogue, but who knows what kind of instruction he’s giving artist Facundo Percio. Did Johnston actually tell Percio to waste about a third […]
MoreMoore 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 […]
MoreAdrian 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 […]
MoreMoore 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 […]
MoreIt’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 […]
MoreThis 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 […]
MoreAnd 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 […]
MoreAnd 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 […]
MoreGiven 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 […]
MoreThis 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 […]
MoreThere’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 […]
MoreI 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 […]
MoreBefore starting Watchmen this time–at least my third time reading the series, if not fourth–I wondered how many times one can read it and still get something out of it. The second reading, of course, is to see how Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons layered it all, with Rorschach’s early appearance, and then the final […]
MoreMoore has a great time with this issue, featuring Tom Strong and his family on an intergalactic vacation. It also shows how much Moore’s willing to change Strong to keep himself engaged. The issue is split into three stories, all set during different points in the vacation. The first story, dedicated to a sick Tom […]
MoreWhile this issue features some incredibly cool writing from Moore (more on it in a bit), it also has amazing art. It’s a five-part story, with Sprouse and Gordon on for the prologue. Then it’s Russ Heath (doing a teenage Tom Strong), Kyle Baker (doing the bunny Tom Strong analogue) and, finally, Pete Poplaski doing […]
MoreMoore does a really nice job finishing up his Tom Strange two-parter, especially given how much material he brings into it. The issue opens with the two Toms unfreezing all of Terra Obscura’s heroes and introducing them. They aren’t quite analogs to popular superheroes, but it’s hard not to see Batman in the Terror, who […]
MoreMoore really brings in the weight this issue. Not emotionally, but in terms of complexity. He introduces Tom Strange and Tom Strange’s whole alternate Earth. The complexity comes in with the explanation it’s not really an alternate Earth but a duplicate one, albeit with some differences, elsewhere in the galaxy. It’s hard to comprehend, which […]
More“What about people who don’t read America’s Best Comics?” “They’re just scum.” Moore closes the issue with a joke ad for the comic line and it overshadows the rest of the issue. It’s just too funny. Once again, there are three stories. The first, illustrated by Gary Gianni, is sort of a period horror thing. […]
MoreThe issue’s a family affair, with Tom, Dhalua and Tesla each getting their own story. Paul Chadwick handles the art on Tom’s story. His style mimics Sprouse quite a bit. If I hadn’t seen Chadwick’s name, I’d have no idea. It’s a nice little story, with Moore mixing jungle adventure with positivist sci-fi. It ends […]
MoreThere’s no feature this issue, just three short stories. The first, with art by Alan Weiss, is a throwback to “The Twilight Zone” as Tom and Solomon find themselves in the Old West. All the residents have three eyes, eat weird things and no longer identify colors with the same words. It’s a fast little […]
MoreOne could, if so inclined, sit and try to figure out who drew what–Alcala’s such a unifying inker on Swamp Thing, it’s hard to tell Bissette and Veitch apart. Yeates I could easily identify, just because of the startling photorealism. For his last issue, Moore avoids sentimentality. His plotting is gradual, relaxed. Much of the […]
MorePoor Adam Strange… Moore closes the issue making a joke about him. I get the reasoning–it’s a heavy issue–and it does give Strange a momentary spotlight, which he surely desires–but it’s odd. This issue is partially about high sci-fi ideas–a planet where the plant life became sentient instead of the animals and what Swamp Thing’s […]
MoreUshering in its new format status (better paper), Moore and Totleben do something quite different for Swamp Thing. Forget the comic deviating away from Swampy’s perspective… Moore’s now just using it to experiment with the (comics, not new) format. It is a prose issue, the story boxes against Totleben’s mixed media prints. DC really should […]
MoreStephen R. Bissette comes back to Swamp Thing to script a fill-in. Well, maybe not a fill-in. I mean, I’m sure Moore was busy with something else, but the story itself isn’t disposable. It’s just an Abby issue when the series has become, for a while anyway, about Swamp Thing. The issue serves a couple […]
MoreMoore does eventually make this issue more of the traditional team-up. He also gives Swamp Thing some significant more page time, as he tries to figure out what’s up with the Rann’s ecosystem. It’s actually a somewhat tense scene, as it’s unclear if Swamp Thing can help. The issue opens with a lot of political […]
MoreWhile Moore is taking Swamp Thing on a trip through the post-Crisis DC Universe, he’s also reduced Swampy back to a supporting role. This issue is all about Adam Strange and the troubles on Rann. Swamp Thing’s just stopping over. And though it might be nice to see the titular character be the protagonist of […]
MoreMoore overwrites Swamp Thing’s first person narration quite a bit. The more obvious ties to the color blue–he’s stuck on an all-blue planet–aren’t as bothersome as a reference to tenement housing. It’s not in the character. There’s nothing to suggest he’d have that thought. Otherwise, it’s fine. Wordy, but fine. There’s no other way for […]
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