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Watchmen (Watchmen Complete)

by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons (Illustrator), John Higgins (Colorist), Len Wein (Editor)

4.31 of 5 stars 4.31 · rating details · 194,345 ratings · 7,350 reviews

This Hugo Award-winning graphic novel chronicles the fall from grace of a group of super-heroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the concept of the super-hero is dissected as the heroes are stalked by an unknown assassin.

One of the most influential graphic novels of all time and a perennial best-seller, Watchmen has been studied on college campuses across...more

Paperback, 408 pages

Published April 1st 1995 by DC Comics (first published 1986)

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Apr 21, 2009 Keely rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: comics, science-fiction, reviewed, capes

Since the movie came out, I've found myself having to explain why Watchmen is important and interesting. Despite being the most revered comic book of all time, it never really entered the mainstream until the film. Now, people are rushing to read it in droves, but approaching Watchmen without an understanding of its history and influences means missing most of what makes it truly special.

The entire work is an exploration of the history and purpose of the superhero genre: how readers connect to i...more

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Dec 09, 2007 Trish rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Aaron's been telling me for a long time that I should read a select few of his favorite comic books. And I haven't been avoiding them. But when I'm looking around the house for something to read, I forget to wander over to the comics section. So finally he just made a stack of books for me, and I started with Watchmen.

And within the first few pages I was testing his patience with questions/comments including:

"Why is Rorshach the hero when he's clearly insane?"
"None of these people are very pl...more

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Aug 11, 2008 Schmacko rated it 2 of 5 stars

I can understand why this is considered a holy tome in the field of graphic novels. The plot is complex, it’s unique, and it’s well drawn. Also, it’s got the Holy Grail of every geeky comic book fan's wetdreams – lots of cool gadgets and stuff.

I ain’t knocking that. Imagination abounds, and I am thoroughly impressed. I love that comic books and graphic novels create their entire world – but – BUT then again every piece of art creates it’s own world. And ALL OF THOSE OTHER ARTS MAKE EMOTIONALLY E...more I can understand why this is considered a holy tome in the field of graphic novels. The plot is complex, it’s unique, and it’s well drawn. Also, it’s got the Holy Grail of every geeky comic book fan's wetdreams – lots of cool gadgets and stuff.

I ain’t knocking that. Imagination abounds, and I am thoroughly impressed. I love that comic books and graphic novels create their entire world – but – BUT then again every piece of art creates it’s own world. And ALL OF THOSE OTHER ARTS MAKE EMOTIONALLY ENGAGING STORIES!

I get frustrated because my graphic-novel friends keep foisting these things on me. They love me, they see me as very imaginative and very supportive of their creativity, but they cannot seem to get why I go cold at graphic novels.

This one was thrust upon me, because I was affected by the movie The Dark Knight. I got emotionally engaged. I felt hopeless with Batman. I got a knot in my stomach when that horrible, unspeakable thing happened two-thirds of the way through the film. I was troubled by Joker’s logic, and I was frustrated with the people in the ferries. In other words, I WAS EMOTIONALLY ENGAGED!

A lot of these graphic novels and stuff seem to think that if they simply tickle your creative brain, they’ve succeeded. I want more – I want to laugh and cry and cheer and feel despair. I want a core of true human story. Gadgets and colors and costumes and superpowers don't make me weep or shout or ponder or giggle or sigh. Well, they make me sigh - with frustrationa nd boredom.

I know I sound angry at these things. I get frustrated, because I don’t think this is so hard to understand that I need emotional stimulation. And yet, my graphic-novel friends still press these books in my hand, hoping to unlock my wonder and amazement.

I was full of wonder and amazement at The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a novel about a superhero and the super-human who spawned him. I am not above the magical, mystical, and fantastic (I love Harry Potter), but there has to be more than just gadgetry and explosions. There has to be honesty and the courage to plumb the human experience. I felt terribly at Kavalier’s struggles with violence and anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe. Sam Clay’s secrets were heart-breaking. Kavalier’s search for revenge and Sam’s search for respect were emotionally engaging. In Harry Potter, I rallied behind Mrs. Weasley's maternal drive. I loved Harry's indignance at cruelty. I thought Hermione's concern for elves was sweet, and complicated (who know they wanted to be slaves). Chabon succeeded at making me feel, and so did Rowling. The Watchmen did not.

The Watchmen is about two generations of heroes. One was human – using costumes, strength, and cunning. The next was led bys a superhuman, Dr. Manhattan – they were both human and somewhat superhuman. Then a law was passed making their work illegal, and they went underground. It’s only when someone starts bumping off the old retired heroes that a mystery starts, a mystery that asks the esoteric and totally intellectual (read: unemotional) question of why humans can be drawn to the edge of doom, and what they need to do to stop just at the edge.

Oh - for the people who know and love The Watchmen - I felt bad for how Dr. Manhattan couldn’t have a human relationship. And I understood why Laurie got infuriated. The thrill of Laurie and Dan becoming superheroes again was honest and wonderful. But that was it – I didn’t feel the panic of the world ending (mostly because if it did happen, there’d be no story). I didn’t care for the casual use of rape as a plot point. None of the long-winded, theoretical discussion about whether humanity was worth saving had any emotional pull to me. I didn’t care. In all 413 pages, I had four honest emotional reactions. One of my reactions was anger at the tangential pirate story (don’t ask – it doesn’t have any emotional or thematic reason for being there – it was just added because someone thought it was cool).

Cool. There’s the problem. Cool things don’t make me feel. People can imagine and draw all the cool things in the world, and it won’t make me emotional engage. Cool things don’t make my heart race or break or pause. They leave me cold. Graphic novels are mostly cool.
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Dec 04, 2009 Brad rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novel, to-read-again, dystopian, political, sci-fi, the-best

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I've been in many discussions over the years -- some in classes I was teaching, some over pints in the bar, and still others late at night with people I love -- about what Alan Moore was trying to say with Watchmen, discussions about the meaning of his graphic novel, and I am convinced that the meaning is not what most people think.

Most people I have talked to look at Veidt's mini-Armageddon to bring peace as inherently evil -- and the most monstrous act in a book of monstrous acts. Veidt's act...more

56 likes · like · see review

Aug 24, 2007 Punk rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novel

Graphic Novel. It's 1985. We won the Vietnam War. Nixon is still president. Someone is killing off costumed superheroes, and the world is on the brink of nuclear war. I wasn't expecting to like this book. What, I wondered, did a comic from the late eighties have to offer me, a hip and happening girl in the oughts? You can practically see the dots in the color! I'd checked it out from the library on the advice of friends, and I'd tried to read it once before, but gave up before I got even five pa...more

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Mar 22, 2009 Ceridwen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: alternate-history, comics, cthulhu, america-and-environs, pomo-a-go-go

So, that blew my freaking mind. I actually feel sick to my stomach, and unable to come up with an intelligent review. I'm not sure I even want to bother.

Alan Moore hates people, but the alternatives are so much worse.

It's late, and I should be asleep, and Jack and Rexella Van Impe are muted on the tv quoting from the book of Daniel. Which is perfect. Moore owes something to Scorsese in this book, with all the endless intertwining of one event with another. So I type, and these late night tv ma...more So, that blew my freaking mind. I actually feel sick to my stomach, and unable to come up with an intelligent review. I'm not sure I even want to bother.

Alan Moore hates people, but the alternatives are so much worse.

It's late, and I should be asleep, and Jack and Rexella Van Impe are muted on the tv quoting from the book of Daniel. Which is perfect. Moore owes something to Scorsese in this book, with all the endless intertwining of one event with another. So I type, and these late night tv maniacs go one about the end of the world (also, send them money) and I type, and maybe I should go put on a suit and kick someones ass?

A friend's ditsy sister once went to see a production of Hamlet, and complained afterward, "It was good an all, but so much of it was cliche" There's a little of that here. Watchman came first, and covered a lot of ground in things I'd read before, but of course it came first. Watchmen hits on a lot of the themes that I've seen in other musings about superheroes (such as Chabon's excellent novel): sex, Nietzsche, death, Antisemitism, nationalism, humanity, blah blah blah.

Moore lines up the human and the inhuman, the superhero with the antihero, and they annihilate each other in a sort of nuclear fusion. Boom. And you, dear reader, get to be totally complicit. There's something deliberately off-putting about his style, like gothic or horror. One conversation, one timeline is always overlapping another, and it's hard to keep them straight. But boy, when he lets you feel something for our characters, when you're clearly supposed to identify with someone, that's when you should look the hell out.

Dan and Laurie are our emotional entrance points into the plot, and I really feel the rush of them reclaiming their alter egos, acting out their nostalgia for a fading youth and a more Manichean time. Their ultimate "well, whatever" (I'm trying not to get into spoilers too much) is the "well, whatever" of growing up and putting away childish things, and it's the fucking worst. They visit Laurie's mom, with new yuppie haircuts, and show off how they got theirs and what's done is done, and never has childhood's end seemed so final and unredeemed.

Rorschach is the perpetual child in this reading: traumatized by adult sexuality, completely dualistic and with poor violence control. (Hey man, I love my kids, but they're total savages in their sticky little hearts.) I'm certainly not saying that Rorschach is somehow the hero or something, with his "never compromise" deal. No way. Faulknerian idiot man-child with enormous sexual issues? Not model behavior.

He's ultimately what Dan and Laurie annihilate when they make their choice and put on this disguise of suburban normalcy, and it makes a kind of sense. Rorschach's finger breaking and flattened affect are no way to go about a life. Dan and Laurie choose membership in society over solitary righteousness, and it's an icky, horrible, unflattering compromise. They walk off in the sunset, like the surviving couple at the end of a horror film, and symbolize the middle-class dream of domesticity and heterosexual ideal. God help us all. (less)

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Jul 23, 2008 Nicole Prestin rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novels

I realize that what I'm about to say is as close as you can get to comic book blasphemy, but I think that 1) Alan Moore is the most overrated comic book writer ever and 2) this graphic novel is overblown, pretentious and most unforgivable of all, boring.

To be fair, I'm somewhat of a snob when it comes to my reading habits. First and foremost, I want to be entertained. If the story happens to be deep, thought provoking or groundbreaking as well, that's icing on the cake. And the bottom line is th...more

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view all 41 comments

Abe Sammy I really think you should stay away from comics. Anyone who thinks this book was boring or pretentious, then the comic book world is not for you. I ag...more
Mar 03, 2013 05:13pm

Andy Domonkos No identifiable characters? I would think the omniscient-twenty-something would almost certainly identify with Dr. Manhattan. I'm detecting an English...more
updated Mar 28, 2013 12:05am

Mar 18, 2013 John Wiswell rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fanatical comic book readers

I admire Alan Moore as a public figure and regard how much he apparently shook up superhero comics. That’s not going to make me like The Watchmen. Fundamentally, every character felt like the same uninspired shape, that jaded celebrity in search of catharsis at the expense of someone else. I held out hope for The Comedian to play a dynamic personality, for if ever a universe needed The Joker to kick it in the ass, it was this one. Instead, The Comedian turned out to be the apex cynic, and so I d...more I admire Alan Moore as a public figure and regard how much he apparently shook up superhero comics. That’s not going to make me like The Watchmen. Fundamentally, every character felt like the same uninspired shape, that jaded celebrity in search of catharsis at the expense of someone else. I held out hope for The Comedian to play a dynamic personality, for if ever a universe needed The Joker to kick it in the ass, it was this one. Instead, The Comedian turned out to be the apex cynic, and so I didn't care who killed him, I didn't care why Rorschach was torturing people, and I definitely didn't care about the world going to hell because it was so obviously not in contention. This was just more bleak fiction where, naturally, things go to hell. That's not conflict. That's as destined an ending as happiness at the end of an episode of Care Bears.

There's craft to this, and I won't pretend otherwise. Gibbons throws talent at the project, with striking angles on many panels, a strong sense of color, and moments of brilliance, like Rorschach's mask mimicking the clouds he watches. And Moore obviously wrote this as a dissection, with ample references to the American superhero comics he's critiquing by making people similar to them miserable. It was simply too dreary and monotonous an experience to feel worth it.

The Watchmen is considered one of the most important comic books in history, and I won't pretend its hype didn't hurt my experience of it. If not for so many people telling me to read it, I might have dismissed it as more violent maudlin SF. Hype and legacy are not its fault, and I regretted gritting my teeth against those elements.

Because man, the costumes are less spectacular, the origins more bleak, the heroes more despicable and/or self-loathing, the villains almost non-existent, the relationships more strained and the political overtones more blatant than were almost ever seen in mainstream comics before. The comic’s effects were massive: it ushered in a new wave of "cool," where Superman and Spider-Man were lame, and everyone wanted murderous and self-destructive anti-heroes. This movement spawned approximately ten good characters and millions of pages of worthless crap, so I'm still not sure why its existence as critique considered a good thing, but it's certainly a landmark in the history of comic book writers who were so self-loathing they had to call their work "graphic novels." I found it simply painful to read back then and not worth owning today. Behind what has fast become the cliché of comics (and popular film in general) are some slivers of real humanity and possible redemption or at least love, which are vital. Yet new readers who pick this up today are going to wonder what was so important about a slow, long, drawn-out murder mystery surrounding sociopaths, rapists and killers who call themselves superheroes, yet who only care about each other when they die, in a dated dystopia that isn't even half as self-aware, cynical or meaningful as what's being pumped out today.
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Jun 16, 2007 Brendan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Who’s watching Watchmen? Everybody apparently. This book—or comic book, or graphic novel, or whatever you want to call it—has been picked apart endlessly in the 20 years since it was first published, every frame microscopically studied, its plot, characters, and symbols charted out no less elaborately than Ulysses’. Its fans, like fans of everything else, are intensely protective and argumentative. Reading a book like this now, for the first time, is likely to result less in actual criticism tha...more

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Apr 16, 2009 Felicia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novels, faves

Hmm, what to say. I read this AFTER I saw the movie, which was sacrilege according to some fellow geeks on Twitter, but my definition of "Geek" is someone who doesn't do what people PRESSURE them to do :P They love what they love. So anyhoo I read this and I can summarize this way:

The Movie did a great summary of the plot while formulating a story that missed the subtext of the graphic novel entirely.

I enjoyed both, but after reading the graphic novel, it's almost sad how the impression you tak...more

55 likes · like · see review

Feb 26, 2009 Cathy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, graphic-novel, urban, read-in-2009

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Overall, these 2 quotes are the book in a nutshell:

Rorshack says in chapter 2, "Nothing is hopeless. Not while there's life." Extremely interesting considering the source.

Hollis Mason in his autobiography: "Real life is messy, inconsistent, and it's seldom when anything ever really gets resolved." So is this book!

One of the major themes is whether to act or be disengaged. A small subplot that demonstrates this is the story of Malcolm, Rorschach's prison psychiatrist, and his wife, Gloria. He get...more Overall, these 2 quotes are the book in a nutshell:

Rorshack says in chapter 2, "Nothing is hopeless. Not while there's life." Extremely interesting considering the source.

Hollis Mason in his autobiography: "Real life is messy, inconsistent, and it's seldom when anything ever really gets resolved." So is this book!

One of the major themes is whether to act or be disengaged. A small subplot that demonstrates this is the story of Malcolm, Rorschach's prison psychiatrist, and his wife, Gloria. He gets so involved with his patients that he ruins his marriage and ends up in a deep despair (prompted by Rorschach's poisonous mentality). Yet at the end, in Chapter 11, when he sees a woman being assaulted in the street he cannot walk away, even though Gloria demands it on pain of losing her forever. She tells him on page 20, "Don't you dare get involved..." and he replies, "...I have to. In a world like this... I mean, it's all we can do, try to help each other. It's all that means anything..."

This reflects back to Rorschach's remembrance of Kitty Genovese's story and it's impact on his becoming a masked vigilante. I identified with this because it's a story I never forgot. We learned about it in school as kids, the story of the woman brutally raped and murdered while more than 30 of her neighbors watched or listened from the safety of their homes and did nothing, not even calling the police. I think of it every time I hear a disturbance outside of my house, wondering if this is the time I need to get involved, if it's just kids horsing around or a serious problem and what I should do.

The other major theme I identified is whether it is ever possible to do good by doing evil. Hiroshima (questionable), the final reveal in this book (clear-cut to me). And Guantanamo (also clear-cut to me). I have to reject the idea that anything good can ever come from acts of torture or devastation. I think what's happened in this country with the election of President Obama shows that there is hope for a positive path forward, that the use of fear and hatred as a motivation isn't the only option. Despair can be contagious, but so can hope.

But what about the basic concept of vigilante justice? Is it ever ok to break the law? Doesn't that encourage the dissolution of the basic compact of law that holds society together? Yet is it right to sit back and not act if you see something that needs to be done? Are there ways to work within the system to improve things? What happens when the system fails?

A picky detail that bothered me throughout the book was the weird bolding of words. It often didn't seem to be for emphasis or make sense.

The discussion of costume issues by Nite Owl was interesting - armor safety vs. flexibility, how to use a mask without getting caught, capes can be dangerous, too. I've always wondered how each superhero makes their costume, how many they have, how they get the blood out, etc. Not everyone has a mom back in Iowa who can sew! I liked that Nite Owl doesn't take it too seriously, understood that guys in costumes look silly.

Overall, a very complex, fascinating and enjoyable book that I would wholeheartedly recommend.
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Jun 16, 2009 Mykle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Once upon a time I lent my first-edition of the Watchmen graphic novel to some friend of mine. I don't remember who. They still have it, I'm pretty sure. If you are that friend, please return my book because I've just seen the movie and now I'm ready to read the book again.

My friends and I were so damn obsessed when this series was first coming out. It was a monthly serial, of course, but the issues kept coming later and later. Fortunately there was so very much detail to obsess over in every si...more Once upon a time I lent my first-edition of the Watchmen graphic novel to some friend of mine. I don't remember who. They still have it, I'm pretty sure. If you are that friend, please return my book because I've just seen the movie and now I'm ready to read the book again.

My friends and I were so damn obsessed when this series was first coming out. It was a monthly serial, of course, but the issues kept coming later and later. Fortunately there was so very much detail to obsess over in every single issue. The symbols, the allusions, the fearful symmetry, the backstory, the subplots, etc, etc.

That experience -- having to wait a month for the next chapter of the book you're utterly consumed by -- is something I miss today. Certainly Dickens wrote that way, serialized as he was in the London newspapers. And I see attempts at serialization from time to time, in weekly entertainment magazines or online. But there's something juicier about a comic book, something easier to pick up in the middle and get excited about. Maybe it's the built-in expectation that there's been 300 past issues already, and 300 more to come, so you don't expect to understand everything right away. But also, each issue of Watchmen was a dense, beautiful read. Alan Moore is just brilliant.

It was interesting to see, in the film, just how much of Moore's dialogue works and doesn't work when actors have to say it. For the most part, it's genius. The whole section with Rorshach and the Big Figure in prison is filmed almost precisely word-for-word from what Moore wrote, and it absolutely kills. So hard-boiled!

I still suspect that there's a kind of person -- women, maybe? -- who just won't ever enjoy any superhero story, no matter how meta or decon or deep it may be. Yes, it's silly and juvenile and ultraviolent, even when it's self-conscious and critical of itself. But for graphic novel fans, Watchmen is the shit.

The only negative thing I could say about Watchmen is that it ruined comics for me. Or else I grew up. Probably both happened at the same time. Once something this interesting and deep entered my mental bookrack, Todd McFarlane started looking reeeeeeely stupid. I hoovered up all the Alan Moore I could find, as well as Neil Gaiman, Garth Ennis and Frank Miller, and I did find some great stuff, yes, but in shorter and shorter supply. In comic shops I'd rifle through reams of guns, tits, explosions, talking animals and speed lines, looking for some really good writing. It's damn hard to find in comics. I eventually switched to 'zines.(less)

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May 12, 2007 David rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people interested in the nature of heroes

Shelves: graphicnovels

I just finished reading Watchmen by the very intense Alan Moore of V for Vendetta fame. I've been on a bit of a comic book/graphic novel kick recently after completing a whole host of non-fiction work for use in my Master's thesis. The Watchmen is one of those books that anyone who cares, or cared, about comic books and superheroes should read. Set in an alternate American time line, skewed by the existence of masked vigilantes (read: superheroes), Watchmen explores an America that wins the Viet...more I just finished reading Watchmen by the very intense Alan Moore of V for Vendetta fame. I've been on a bit of a comic book/graphic novel kick recently after completing a whole host of non-fiction work for use in my Master's thesis. The Watchmen is one of those books that anyone who cares, or cared, about comic books and superheroes should read. Set in an alternate American time line, skewed by the existence of masked vigilantes (read: superheroes), Watchmen explores an America that wins the Vietnam War, never catches Nixon as a crook (in fact electing him to a third term), and then makes it illegal to be a superhero without doing so in service of the government.
Like Moore's other work, there are some very thinly veiled critics of the Reagan/Thatcher era. Moore visions a cowboy Americana were everyone is in it for themselves, notions of morality are arbitrary and strictly enforced, and the only officially recognized victims are those already in power. Moore exaggerates phenomenon to make a point about them the same way a satirist might. However, Moore seems instead is reading from the Orwell literary playbook here, warning of how this course of society could devolve. Like Orwell saw an inherent danger in Stalinism, Moore is warning of the dangers of the emerging framework of the Neo-Conservatives. Tough-love for the poor, welfare for the rich, jingoism, and fundamentalism are all part of Moore's world, then called Reaganism. Although Moore personally saw this through Thatcher, the basic reactionary quality was the same on both sides of the Atlantic.
This book touched my personally because it hit upon a discomfort, stemming from an initial fascination, with heroes. I spent many hours of my childhood loving Superman. Lex Luthor, by then a crooked businessman and not the crazed scientist of earlier years, was always the easy personification of evil. His occupation always reflected an area of society that created fear (mad scientists in the 60s, corporate vultures in the 80s, and now I hear politician). With Lex Luthor as the the ultimate evil, Superman by contrast became the ultimate good. The Christ metaphors were never lost on my as a child. The most recent movie did everything but use the phrase "my only begotten son" when describing Superman. And for a time the notion that all we needed was a hero was very comforting to me. However, as Moore would be quick to point out, that desire for a hero is easily exploited.
There are many people much more schooled in comics and superheroes than I that can tell you how much Watchmen changed the genre. I simply know that it did. Characters became more sophisticated and moral choices became less clear. But it is clear to me why this is such a landmark piece. Moore has that ability of all great writers to chastise and console in the same breath, on the same thought. He tells his readers that superheroes are pathetic refuge from reality, but then invites you to share in that fantasy. And for a time you are taken with this world, think maybe there could be a place for superheroes in our world. Then the end comes and you realize what kind of world our supposed heroes really want to bring us. (less)

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Apr 17, 2013 the review man rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: dystopian

Everyone seems to think that Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight is the best superhero movie. I respectfully disagree, of course, because I'm a film snob. I won't say that Watchmen is any better a film (it's worse), but the source material is infinitely better. In some ways that makes the film version of Watchmen worse (from what heights it fell!), but in other ways we can argue that it's all Zach Snyder's fault. Anyway.

Many seemed to enjoy The Dark Knight because they thought it was about reali...more

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Michael Herrman Great review, and I second that vote. Watchmen for the win.
Apr 04, 2012 07:35pm

Logan Watters This review is terrible. You clearly went into the Watchmen expecting nothing but things you've already read from other graphic novels. I'll just stea...more This review is terrible. You clearly went into the Watchmen expecting nothing but things you've already read from other graphic novels. I'll just steal your format for my comment.

Nite Owl II

Nite Owl is not a pacifist. It was made very clear that he missed fighting crime, he was simply non-confrontational. The everyman? No. The idea was that Nite Owl wore an everyman mask in order to avoid addressing his moral ambiguity. His world was black and white, dictated by politicians and reaffirmed by the masses, and any grey areas were pushed out of mind. No character development? He and Dr. Manhattan are the only two character to really develop over the course of the Comedians death. He went from avoidant to a strong sense of moral obligation. And he hasn't abandoned anything at the end. If you recall, the point behind Adrian's plot was to bring global peace. It is implied that Adrian had succeeded and his plan, thus eliminating the need for superheroes.

Rorschach

Rorschach does indeed have his own set of rules, but they are not directly designed to lead to any sort of truth. Rorschach states rather early on that he has seen the city's true face. This would imply that he knows the true nature of things, would it not? Rorschach's "mission" is, as he again stated early on, "evil must be punished. Even in the face of Armageddon I shall not compromise in this." Rorschach has the utmost regard for life. Maybe not his own, but why bother searching a garbage yard for discarded trash cans to empty? If that makes sense. It's like Nite Owl says to the Silk Spectre, "if he (referring to Dr Manhattan) is pretending, it's because he cares." Rorschach sees innocence being perverted everywhere, and he takes a clear stand on it. In no way are his values abstracted, and I hope my prior points affirm that. "Was no more capable." Yes, because all of those who try succeed, am I right?

(The written word autobiographical in nature, that implies some action was taken by some individual, and then further action was taken to transmit that information to another individual.)

Dr Manhattan was not exempt from ideologies, he simply had trouble deciding which were right. He surely did not know what was "'right' and 'wrong'." Do you recall the Comedian justifying his action in killing that oriental chick by pointing out that Dr Manhattan could have easily defused the whole situation? You might be of the impression that it was morally wrong for the Comedian to kill the woman, but much like the Comedian, Dr Manhattan viewed the entire world as grey. Not quite sure what point you were making about monotheistic religion as a plot device, maybe I'll find out further in. (How derivative Nolan's screenplay can be? Alan Moore fundamentally created this genre of superhero. In his time, superheroes were people who, by some twist of fate, were given extraordinary abilities, and used them to do what was implied as everyone's responsibility to the world despite their personal desires, even going as far as to say that anybody of right mind would become a superhero given the power, and that only people with mental defects would become the villain. Alan Moore simply chuckled at this and said, no, the average joe given the opportunity would give into corruption, and that it takes people with serious mental defects to don a mask and fight crime.) The Comedian did not die trying to make this decision, he died remorseful of the life he had lived, not much more. This is why he went and cried to Moloch. He spent his entire life exaggeratedly parodying the corruption he saw, in the hopes that people would see him and think to themselves, wow, it is amazing how fucked up we really are. It's a very passive aggressive trait often used by people too afraid to express their real emotions, and he just happened to get caught up in the act. In the end, the only person he felt he hadn't completely pushed away was Moloch, despite his love for the original Silk Spectre, and his daughter.

The Comedian

What? Like, seriously, what?? Homicide? All in the of duty (whether it was one he assigned himself, or that was assigned to him.) Abortion-by-murder? He murdered a woman who, shortly after realizing she did not own the Comedian, assaulted him with what would be considered, in most nations, a deadly weapon. All of this amidst a brutal war in which he was assigned to kill men, woman, and children, under order by the government, an establishment put in place to ensure the welfare of people. When you receive the order to wipe out an entire village by people who are put in place to ensure what's done is right for a cause that you don't even believe in, in kind of degrades the value of human life. The plan to nuke the living shit out of the world was in place prior to the Comedian's death. Your whole entropy thing just does not make sense.(less)
May 11, 2013 12:30am

the review man This review is terrible. You clearly went into the Watchmen expecting nothing but things you've already read from other graphic novels.

The joke's on y...more
updated May 11, 2013 05:43am

Jun 10, 2008 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: comics

I've heard nothing but unflinching hyperbolic praise for this book. I wonder if it's even possible for anything to live up to the kind of hype this has suffered. It's the only graphic novel/comic book to be included on Time Magazine's list of 100 greatest novels since the beginning of Time's publication. That's a lot of pressure - to be the sole symbol and representation and of an entire art form for a popular and wide audience. I mean, this thing needs to be devastatingly good.

Forget all that n...more I've heard nothing but unflinching hyperbolic praise for this book. I wonder if it's even possible for anything to live up to the kind of hype this has suffered. It's the only graphic novel/comic book to be included on Time Magazine's list of 100 greatest novels since the beginning of Time's publication. That's a lot of pressure - to be the sole symbol and representation and of an entire art form for a popular and wide audience. I mean, this thing needs to be devastatingly good.

Forget all that noise, and this is just a great book. "Best ever" - I'm not sure, but it definitely stands out as a milestone, and a sort of mile marker in superhero comics, along with Frank Miller Dark Knight Returns. 1985-86 is when comics got really dark, and really sinister and scary in a real life way that had never really been approached before. Sure Galactus had come around to eat the Earth and Doctor Doom, I'm sure had hatched some Armageddon schemes, and Darkseid had set out to control everybody's thoughts, but all of those doomsday scenarios were set at a safe distance from reality, all based on ridiculous, albeit compelling, contingencies. Furthermore, those stories always provided superheros you could rely on to save the day. The great myth-makers could never get away with letting the Silver Surfer or the Fantastic Four or Superman fail at their missions to save the world.

Moore's world of Watchmen is quite different. Superheros have seen their heyday decades ago, and the American public and government now sees these masked vigilantes as nothing more than criminals, head-cases not to be trusted. What's really grim, is the evils mankind faces in reality - corrupt governments, greedy corporations - are far more sinister than anything cooked up in a comic book. Moore deals brilliantly with these issues. Why do we trust those in charge? Why do we rely on other to protect us? Should we not protect ourselves instead?

Gibbons's art is wonderful. His use of very subdued, standard layout styles lets the story speaks for itself. There's no fancy splash pages to be found here, no overwrought action sequences, no onomatopoetic sounds, no motion lines. Gibbons uses symbolism and realistic rendering to create an atmosphere of grit and foreboding terror. I'm sure there's been papers written on his use of the smiley face throughout the book. I don't want to touch on any of the specific symbols here, but they're used in such a way that they never overshadow the plot, but are not so buried to become obscure.

I definitely wasn't let down by this book, but can't give it 5 stars. First of all, about half of the chapters in the book are diversions from the main thread of the story, giving insight and history to each of the characters. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't get rid of any of them, and honestly they are some of the best reading in the book - especially Rorschach's episodes - but therein may lie the problem. We are left with about 5 chapters that deal with the crisis at hand - the very fate of life on Earth. Most comic book stories can be dealt with in such a span, but Moore's story is too grand, too great to stop here. Or maybe that's a statement in itself. When it's too late, it's just too late. (Maybe Carole King should sing our Armageddon songs.) Any ending will come all too quickly.

Anyway, I'm willing to concede that this is probably one of the best superhero stories I've ever read - if it's actually a superhero story. It kind of destroys the whole notion of superheros, makes them irrelevant. I don't even want to get into the politics of this story. Too much, too much. (less)

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Sep 12, 2012 oriana rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-with-pix, read-2011

[adapted from my J&C essay series over at CCLaP]

Huh, apparently I said a bunch of stuff about this movie a few years ago when I saw it. But never mind that! Bookfriends, it is the one-year anniversary of Jugs & Capes! And so naturally we read the behemoth of behemoths. That's right: Watchmen. Probably the most famous graphic novel of all time, if not altogether one of the most famous books of all time. It’s such a hard book to even talk about, let alone review—I feel like everything I co...more

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Dec 09, 2007 Bryce Wilson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: comics

I'm rereading Watchmen for the first time in about five years and have thus decided to start a petition to officially change its name to creamy goodness.

Seriously its one of those blessed rereadings where every twenty pages or so I come across a sequence and go "Yeah I remember this this part kicks ass this is my favorite part of the book." and then twenty pages later I repeat the phrase.

People always remember how important the book is. But I think we forget just how goddamned good it is.

5 likes · like · see review

Mar 03, 2009 Kelly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy-and-scifi, fiction, po-mo, 20th-century-postwar-to-late

I was told and told and told again that I must read this as my introduction to the graphic novel genre. There were a few dissident voices for Sandman, but they were largely drowned out by the chorus for this piece. (Piece? Book doesn't feel right.)

It did take me a little bit to adjust myself to the storytelling method, but once I got into it, I was absolutely enthralled with it. I really loved about the first 3/4 of the plot- I loved the psychology of it all, and the nuanced, beautiful presentat...more

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view all 12 comments

Kelly Because I have a paranoid belief that every single bookstore employee judges me based on the books I buy.

They do. Several of my friends worked in book...more
updated Mar 04, 2009 08:07am

Madeline Once I went to Borders and bought a dvd of Marie Antoinette (the Kirsten Dunst version), the sixteenth volume of a manga series, a bright blue python-...more
Mar 04, 2009 10:50am

Mar 28, 2009 Shannon (Giraffe Days) rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novel, 2009, alternate-history, sci-fi, urban-fantasy, book-club

Set in 1985 in New York, the Cold War is still very much alive, Nixon is settling in for yet another term as President, and masked vigilantes are considerably passé. Since the costumed adventurers of the 30s and 40s called The Minutemen disbanded in the 50s, masked vigilantes became increasingly unpopular right up to the Keene Act of '77 which made it illegal. The only one who persists is Rorschach, and everyone knows he's not exactly mentally stable.

This second generation of retired crime figh...more

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Aug 21, 2008 Francine rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to Francine by: Jim Kay

Shelves: books-i-don-t-care-for, graphic-novel, superheroes

Addendum, 21Aug2008: Against my better judgment, I changed my mind and decided to read it to the end. And what a silly, stupid ending!! If I could give this a 0, I would. It's entirely possible that I missed the point. Maybe on some level, it is brilliant and it is seminal. But I, for one, did not like it; I did not appreciate it. This is time I will never get back.

------

Because the movie is coming out next year, Jim said I had to read this. It was the best graphic novel ever written.

I couldn't...more

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Mar 15, 2009 Greg rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novels

Maybe this is worth four stars. Or maybe even five stars, but only if I had read Watchmen when I was twelve years old. That doesn't mean that I had to be twelve to like it, but that would have been how old I would have been when these first came out. Instead of reading them then I was a pretty loyal Marvel fan at the time, and the little bit of money I had, which all went to buying comic books, was spent on the Marvel universe, with my forays into DC land coming a few years later when I realized...more Maybe this is worth four stars. Or maybe even five stars, but only if I had read Watchmen when I was twelve years old. That doesn't mean that I had to be twelve to like it, but that would have been how old I would have been when these first came out. Instead of reading them then I was a pretty loyal Marvel fan at the time, and the little bit of money I had, which all went to buying comic books, was spent on the Marvel universe, with my forays into DC land coming a few years later when I realized that Batman was just as much fun to read as Daredevil. My main comic book obsession at the time when Watchmen would have come out was the already mentioned Daredevil, and more specifically the Frank Miller issues, which at the time I didn't realize were the work of one writer, but that's because I never bothered to care about who was writing it, I just knew that the comics from the early 80's were the best ones.

Moving to the present day I finally decided to read this because I was going to see the movie. I had never wanted to read Watchmen. I didn't care for the artwork too much, and frankly anything with the blurbs that came on the front and back covers that this has I know would have my critical sensors on full blast, and most likely I would be looking to not like it. On the plus side there is a lot in this graphic novel, it's really a quite intricate story with subplots and allusions and all kinds of ducking and weaving going on that make it dare I say a piece of literature. On the negative side all of the stuff about in depth psychology that is touted isn't really all that groundbreaking here, for proof I point to the Frank Miller run of Daredevil, especially the Elektra story arc, and to the sort of coming out concurrently with Watchmen Born Again story arc. I'll admit though that there is an intricacy missing to the Miller stories that are here in Moore's.

Should I even mention the movie? I have to say that I liked the movie just about as much as I liked the book. I thought there were failings, but I thought there were failings in the book. Most of what was silly in the movie came right out of the book, having finished the book the morning I saw the movie much of the dialog from the book was still fresh in my mind, and the for the most part the cringe worthy lines in the movie came right from the text. Was the movie kind of dull at times? Sure, but so is the book. Both are super hero stories devoid of much action. I thought it was faithful to the book, and I think that many people who disagree are probably long time fans of Moore, and have idolized the graphic novel into something more than it really is. I have a theory of Moore's fans that they love what he did at one point so much that they are now extremely negative towards any and all adaptations just because they don't want to realize the shortcomings in the original works. I personally don't really have much of an opinion on the man, I think that he's not a genius, and that there is something really flawed in a man who spends twenty years working on a project where famous little girl literary characters get fucked a lot. That to me seems like a worse artistic decision than anything the director did to Watchmen.

I'm still tempted to come up with a list of a hundred books written in English since 1923 that are better than Watchmen, but I really have some other things I should be doing so that will have to be put off indefinitely. (less)

8 likes · like · see review

Jan 29, 2009 Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Karen by: Anthony Michael

I haven't read too many comic books (or graphic novels or whatever), and most of the ones I have read I haven't really enjoyed. I think it's because I lack a very basic skill, and I suspect that many literary types who disdain comics have the same problem - I suck at looking at pictures. My eye is drawn to the words and I completely ignore everything else. Well, any six-year-old will tell you that only a total moron would read a comic that way.

Anyway, repeated aggressive encouragement from a ce...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Jonathan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, graphic-novels

I refuse to let the hype of this novel influence me. And so here is my statement about the book in one sentence: I liked the story but the philosophy behind the novel I did not like.

Watchmen - many people know the idea behind the title 'Who will watch the Watchmen' - but not everyone has read this acclaimed novel. As the title suggests it is a graphic novel that deals with the idea of who exists to watch the superheroes if they go out of control. And really, part of my problem with reading this...more I refuse to let the hype of this novel influence me. And so here is my statement about the book in one sentence: I liked the story but the philosophy behind the novel I did not like.

Watchmen - many people know the idea behind the title 'Who will watch the Watchmen' - but not everyone has read this acclaimed novel. As the title suggests it is a graphic novel that deals with the idea of who exists to watch the superheroes if they go out of control. And really, part of my problem with reading this novel is that when a hero goes out of control you get a villain. I don't subscribe to the idea of the anti-hero like many people. I believe in absolutes and as such I think that the hero is the character who performs more good than he does evil.

In the end of this novel the whole idea of what Watchmen is really trying to convey wraps together. It's really about psychological conflict, about Nihilism and about the Jungian shadow. Many psychological theories I do not subscribe to but find useful to use as discussion points. Because I do not believe that the world is all full of darkness and evil when you strip it down as Watchmen appears to portray. I believe that there is much evil in life but that there is also hope and light for anyone to see.

I did not like either the idea that perhaps in order to create greater good we must compromise. But then I suppose that was the whole point of the novel. The novel was full of compromise made by these super men who are really very human in morality. As Rorschach* says "No, never compromise."

Of course it could simply be the spirit within me that says 'I dislike non Justice League DC comics on the whole.' After all for me while Marvel make few brilliant comics for me to enjoy I do rate them still highly due to the overall story telling in them. DC just don't have the fun of Marvel - they're too dark and gloomy except when the Joker plays with Batman or Superman battles a few enemies. On that note Marvel reigns supreme and The Avengers is one of the greatest films of all.

*Named after the blot test and definitely the most interesting character in the comics as a violent vigilante(less)

13 likes · like · see review

Jan 05, 2013 Aubrey rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 5-star, 1001-06-12, reviewed, pic-pic

Imagine the poster of a superhero. Bold lines curving around supple limbs, a palate of strong colors suffusing every empty space with black, yellow, red arcing in a heroic spray of vitality. It inspires an intense nostalgia for the days of black and white, where good was good and evil was evil, the latter never lasting for very long. You remember your childhood, filled with dreams and hobbies and racing through the world with bright eyes and an eager mind.
The poster is in an alleyway. It is fil...more Imagine the poster of a superhero. Bold lines curving around supple limbs, a palate of strong colors suffusing every empty space with black, yellow, red arcing in a heroic spray of vitality. It inspires an intense nostalgia for the days of black and white, where good was good and evil was evil, the latter never lasting for very long. You remember your childhood, filled with dreams and hobbies and racing through the world with bright eyes and an eager mind.
The poster is in an alleyway. It is filthy, and dark, and cold, and there is a sour smell of urine mixed with mustard and pot blowing across your face. You can see the poster hung by a door by way of the guttering light of a neon sign, 'LIQUOR' buzzing faintly into the night. The superhero's bold and strong design is marred with the bulges of its brick framework, poster plastered in wedges that have managed to survive the brutal onslaught of the elements for many years. Holes poke through where the survival was incomplete, including an unfortunate rip that reduces the right eye to a gaping maw, edges fluttering faintly as the acrid wind continues to blow.
You turn. There is something in the alleyway you can't quite see, a limp bundle nearly invisible to the eye, save for the glitter of something that manages to catch a little light from the decrepit sign. You step closer. The glitter is from a cheap metal bracelet, hanging from the slim ankle of a leg that even in the flaky light shows evidence of abuse, worsening as skin approaches skirt. You crouch, get a good look at her face. She can't be more than fourteen. Then you see the hole in her forehead, partially obscured by her bangs that frame a face still in the flush of youth, save for a gout of blood that is sluggishly pooling on her shoulder.
You stand, hastening to leave the alleyway with its silent sentinels. It's a tragic shame, what happened to her. But you can't afford to be caught with her. Would cause too much trouble. Besides, you're no superhero or crime fighter, someone capable of punishing the culpable. You have a normal job, a normal family, a normal life. There's no time to care about the misfortunes of complete strangers. Let the stronger ones, the smarter ones, the richer ones worry about all of humanity. Your mind whispers, what if they are the ones responsible? Who will keep them in line? But you squash it. You have enough problems of your own.
Making your way home takes you by a church in the midst of a mass, choir voices ringing out in a hallelujah that compels you to pause and listen for a small while. The lights, shining through slender archways, rising with the climbing voices to noble towers that frame the night sky so much more elegantly than their crude apartment complex neighbors. A single choir member reaches a single note so pure, you momentarily forget whatever concerns you were dwelling on, and marvel on 'the music of the spheres', a phrase you haven't heard since your days at high school.
Such beauty, not more than five blocks away from the scene of such an ugly crime. Such small, violent, petty concerns, framed alongside an ancient society concerned with adulation of grand cosmic forces. A brutal squirming of the physical, and the stately worship of surmounting it. Survival, squaring off with the reason to survive.
And humanity is responsible for both.
You hurry home. It's cold, and your thoughts are troubling. Better to drink and sleep it off. Tomorrow's another day.(less)

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Feb 05, 2009 Kat rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novels-comic-books, favorites, 2009, mysterious

I'm seriously tempted to give spoilers here, as the book was utterly mind-blowing (GAH! Rorschach! GAH!), and there were some serious twists in the book that, while I can't say I didn't see them coming, still really affected me strongly.

This is not a comic book for those who want their superheroes infallible icons of Americana. This is a graphic novel in every sense of the phrase. The violence is graphic, but not gratuitously so. It is there for impact upon the reader, and it works. There is nud...more

14 likes · like · see review

Jan 01, 2009 Miss_otis rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: apathetic, apocolyptic, au, graphic-novel

I'm prepared to get pelted with rotten vegetables and bricks and all manner of nasty things, but....Watchmen didn't really do anything for me. In fact, I was so "meh" about it that I had to go do some research in order to see if I could figure out just why, exactly, it's so acclaimed.

I found a very interesting thesis someone had written (if anyone would like to read it, comment and I'll try to find it again), which gave me some nice historical background on the history of comics in general and t...more

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Oct 29, 2008 Colin Miller rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novels

“Who watches the Watchmen?” is the question from the Roman poet, Juvenal, about who has authority over those in authority. Now, who reads the graphic novel Watchmen by writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins is an entirely different and far simpler question. The answer: Comic book nerds.

A graphic novel is a comic, although it has differences in length and complexity of storyline (akin more to a literary novel than an episodic piece) and is often aimed at mature audience...more “Who watches the Watchmen?” is the question from the Roman poet, Juvenal, about who has authority over those in authority. Now, who reads the graphic novel Watchmen by writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins is an entirely different and far simpler question. The answer: Comic book nerds.

A graphic novel is a comic, although it has differences in length and complexity of storyline (akin more to a literary novel than an episodic piece) and is often aimed at mature audiences. Watchmen came out in twelve issues, starting in 1986. Self-contained, the characters don’t appear anywhere else, so it’s an origin story and a concluding piece all in one. Set in an alternate history where the Nixon is still President (now in his fourth term) and the U.S. is close to nuclear war with the Soviet Union, it is clear that Watchmen has a political bend. This works well, however, as it’s more about the abuse of power than the any political viewpoint. There are no real superheroes—save one, Doctor Manhattan, a man who was caught in a nuclear explosion and is now a blue being existing outside of time and human confines—but the graphic novel does a good job of probing into the psyche of what makes someone want to go out and fight crime. Some are mentally imbalanced, others feel forced into the work by a hero parent, but all the characters have issues to one degree or another. In the initial pages, the heroes are dealing with the murder of one of their own. The crazed vigilante Rorschach—my favorite next to the Comedian, a nihilistic cynic whose very presence mocks the notion of a hero—becomes convinced there is a greater plot to eliminate masked heroes.

One of the fascinating things about Watchmen is that it dissects the necessary parts of a superhero into differing characters. Generally speaking, in the old comic book days, superheroes were powerful, moral and pristine in temperament. They were all of the above. In Watchmen, the characters who are powerful aren’t necessarily moral (and vice versa), so even if someone can save the world, doesn’t mean they care to. Some have radical political views (bordering on Nazism); others are contracted to work by the government. Alan Moore’s writing does a great job of analyzing the impact of having a group of masked heroes in society, how the average person would respond. Also, since this is a review of a comic, I must comment on the art style. Dave Gibbons style is simple, but effective. Usually, the story is told in a nine panel format (three by three per page), but when Gibbons deviates, it’s well done. The full page panels of issue twelve hit with great impact. Additionally, the colorist, John Higgins, does a good job of echoing the darkening tone of the piece as the colors literally fade down as the graphic novel draws on.

Unfortunately, Watchmen makes the bold assumption that you know comic books and have bought into all its tenets. No wonder comic book nerds were blown away by how Watchmen twisted the genre (as is evidenced by its rippling influence and the fact that its sales allowed the publisher DC to overtake rival Marvel for a brief period of time). If you’re not a comic book nerd though, you didn’t buy in anyway, so many of the deviations just seem to make sense. Of course people are flawed… even heroes. Despite all the bad conventions Watchmen deviates away from, it still gets snared by dreadful monologues. It becomes clear they didn’t have enough material for twelve issues. As a result, much supplemental material is thrown in. Sometimes this works well, as is the case with minor character storylines (the doctor who changes his life after interviewing one of the heroes is my favorite) and fictional written works at the back of each issue add to the series’ backstory. Then there’s the comic within the comic—the commentary within the commentary—that one of the minor characters is reading. It only works about 15% of the time, and the rest of the time, well, the eye starts skipping. Despite the flaws, the three artists created a seminal piece for the comic book medium that is still a fairly good read today. Three stars.

(less)

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Apr 22, 2009 Christopher rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: alternate-history, fiction, graphic-novel-comic

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I'd been meaning to get around to reading this for at least 15 years. And it wasn't bad at all.

I'm not too deeply steeped in super-hero lore, so maybe I'm missing some of the deep meaning.

I find it more of an interesting take on what the world was like and expected back in the mid-eighties. It's amazing how quickly I had taken that "we're all gonna die in a nuclear holocaust" fear and shoved in a box in a back closet of my mind -- not forgotten, just not perticularly useful right now and not li...more

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Terran I sort-of agree. One can take three tacks: Ozymandius was wrong, that in Moore's alternate universe Ozymandius was right, or that Ozymandius was ultim...more
Nov 26, 2008 02:42pm

Amanda Terran,

You actually caught one thought I had that didn't make it into my review. Right or wrong, Ozymandias needs to pay for the decision he made. I t...more
Nov 26, 2008 05:18pm

Apr 16, 2008 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Elizabeth by: book group

Shelves: book-club-selection, graphicnovels, recently-read, favorites

This is one of those books that I often picked up and looked at, but never read. I'm shallow enough to admit I was turned off by the artwork and lack of recognizable characters. I must say, I am so glad that Watchmen was chosen by one of my book groups, forcing me to get past my first impressions.

Watchmen takes place in alternative universe, where the emergence of costumed adventurers has altered the course of modern history. The superheroes, the majority which are neither super nor all that her...more This is one of those books that I often picked up and looked at, but never read. I'm shallow enough to admit I was turned off by the artwork and lack of recognizable characters. I must say, I am so glad that Watchmen was chosen by one of my book groups, forcing me to get past my first impressions.

Watchmen takes place in alternative universe, where the emergence of costumed adventurers has altered the course of modern history. The superheroes, the majority which are neither super nor all that heroic (with one notable exception), are in forced retirement, until the murder of one of their own compels them to action once more. The plot twists and turns in unexpected ways, all the while introducing us to these masked men and women, their histories, and their motivations, and draws to a riveting and ambiguous conclusion that leaves the reader pondering what heroism really means.

This graphic novel, published originally in 1986, ushered in a new era for comic fans; comic books became literature, and superheroes became people with flaws and angst of their own. Alan Moore truly takes the genre to the level of literature, pulling out all those post modern favorite techniques like meta-fiction, intertextuality, and symbolism, while still retaining the classic elements of comic books; while there are no whizz-bang sound effects or thought bubbles, he stays true to the format and elevates it to a new level. Likewise, David Gibbons, the artist, uses the art in a deeper way; each panel is filled with meaning and symbolism, from the repeated use of the Comedian's smiley face, to the repeated graffiti asking, "Who watches the watchmen?" The art creates a cinematic feel and also evokes the "golden age" style of comics, and in the end I was appreciative of it. Both writer and artist have put a lot of thought into this work; for example, the chapter "Fearful Symmetry" is based on the William Blake poem, The Tyger, and not only are there numerous places where both plot and image symmetry are used, but the panels are symmetrical goign from first page to last page, second page to second-to-last page, and so on. The chapter also refers to the character, Rorschach, who wears a mask with a shifting, symmetrical inkblot, who tends to think in black and white, and is a character that others should be fearful of.

One negative issue did get brought up in my book group meeting, and that was the treatment of the women in the book. Try as we might, we couldn't find many positive portrayals of female characters. We found the rape storyline distasteful, if only because all the characters but two, including the character who was the victim, are pretty dismissive of the serious nature of that act, and pretty forgiving of the rapist. I don't like seeing rape used as the start of a consensual, romantic relationship, and I don't like seeing a woman put her rapist up on a pedastal.

I still give the book five stars, however, because overall I loved the story and the characters, and found the writing stunning and moving. This is a landmark, watershed book, but it is also just a fine, enjoyable read. I'd recommend it to folks giving the genre a try for the first time, as well as graphic novel readers looking to branch out from Batman, Supes, and Spidey. (less)

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Aug 17, 2007 Seth Hahne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: comics

As the movie is coming up (much of the casting has been completed), I figured that I was ripe for a reread. In past readings, I have been less than astonished by the work that made TIME Magazine's 100 Best Novels (1923 to the Present). When I first approached Alan Moore's lauded work, I had just come off an extended (or perhaps overextended) run of immersion in film noir and the books and stories that inspired them, so Moore's existentialist take on heroism didn't strike me as all that fresh. Wa...more

5 likes · like · see review

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About Alan Moore

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Alan Moore is an English writer most famous for his influential work in comics, including the acclaimed graphic novels Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell. He has also written a novel, Voice of the Fire, and performs "workings" (one-off performance art/spoken word pieces)...more

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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 2

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Trivia About Watchmen

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Quotes from Watchmen

“Stood in firelight, sweltering. Bloodstain on chest like map of violent new continent. Felt cleansed. Felt dark planet turn under my feet and knew what cats know that makes them scream like babies in night.

Looked at sky through smoke heavy with human fat and God was not there. The cold, suffocating dark goes on forever and we are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything better to do. Devise reason later. Born from oblivion; bear children, hell-bound as ourselves, go into oblivion. There is nothing else.

Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us. Streets stank of fire. The void breathed hard on my heart, turning its illusions to ice, shattering them. Was reborn then, free to scrawl own design on this morally blank world.

Was Rorschach.

Does that answer your Questions, Doctor?” — 488 people liked it

“Heard joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says, "Treatment is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up." Man bursts into tears. Says, "But doctor...I am Pagliacci.” — 329 people liked it

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Watchmen (Watchmen Complete)

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