Moore's complex story moves back and forth in time, and shifts in perspective among the main characters. As he skillfully deconstructs the concept of the costumed superhero, Moore deals with a host of potentially explosive issues: sexual violence, politics, mental illness, etc. This is very much an adult story.

One of the book's most intelligent devices is the alternation of the comic book format with excerpts of the story told in other media: a newspaper clipping, personal correspondence, a psychiatric report, chapters from one character's autobiography, etc. This gives the book as a whole a richer texture and a powerful satiric thrust. Along the way Moore also riffs on classic superhero story elements: the origin story, the superhero teamup story, etc.

The visuals in "Watchmen" are amazing: some scenes are graphically violent and horrific; some magical and hauntingly beautiful. This world is populated with rich, fully developed characters who have complex emotional and moral lives. To sum up, "Watchmen" is a truly epic story that is told with consummate skill and power. It's a book that should, I believe, be read by both comic book fans and by those who don't normally read that medium.


OTBE   May 17, 2004
 21 out of 40 found this review helpful

Science fiction is a chancy field to write in. You speculate on how things are going to develop in the near future, and you gamble on factors beyond comprehension. And sometimes your story is OTBE--OverTaken By Events. That's exactly what happened to this deserved classic. And now it's become old hat.

When it was new, it provided a new view of costumed superheroes. With their reliance on law and order, but their willingness to disregard the legitimate establishment in pursuit of their goals, they are deeply conflicted people. But Superman and Spider-Man had disregarded this reality up to that point. Alan Moore was the first person to investigate the flawed identities of comic-book heroes in light of how human beings relate in the real world.

Superheroes are seen as rapists, serial killers, men and women with vendettas. Or they're would-be actors looking to boost their profile. Old grudges and doubts fester under the surface for decades, unable to find release and healing. They suffer sexual dysfunction which affects their crime-fighting techniques. And their defense of the old order against reformers and non-conformists leads to the stifling of honest forward growth.

Now that Wolverine and Wonder Woman have to deal with existential dramas growing out of their vocations, this attitude isn't groundbreaking. A reader coming to this story from contemporary comic books will find the points, which had to be examined in detail when they were new and revolutionary, to be belabored now that they're commonplace.

There is supplementary prose material at the back of each chapter. Some of this is interesting, such as the attempted overview of the history of organized superhero behavior. Others, such as the lengthy history of comic books (supplementing a rather ho-hum pirate comic subplot), are easy to skip.

This comic series was groundbreaking when it came out, and it's worth reading for that. If you want to know how comics shifted from the flat-colored hero worship of the past to the dark, conflicted material of today, this is the turning point. No other work has been as influential in the art of comics. But if you're looking for timeless art or new insights into human nature, this book is no longer your starting point.


Wow, It Really is THAT Good...   February 15, 2003
 20 out of 21 found this review helpful

Although I've been a comic-shop hanger-onner for a number of years now, it was only recently that I finally decided to take a look at Watchmen. Part of the reason I put off checking it out was due to my disappointment in another comic series that is often hailed by many as the "hallmark" of the four-color format alongside Watchmen: Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns series. If I didn't consider Dark Knight all that impressive, my biased and jaded sensibilities told me, why should Watchmen be any better? Another off-putting factor was the pompous statements from more than a few pretentious comic geeks about how Watchmen "requires multiple readings for one to really understand all the nuances and hidden meanings in the story." Whenever I hear something like this, I usually blow it off as the ramblings of intellectual wannabes who try to make their favorite reading material seem more profound than it actually is. That, and they're likely suffering from attention-deficit disorder to boot. But finally the time came when I could relax and give this bad-boy a read, and see if it could rise above my less-than-stellar expectations...

My first run-through put to bed any comparisons I would've made between Watchmen and Mr. Miller's Batman tale, `cuz there really is no comparison-the former funnybook is far more enjoyable than the latter! It was one of the few TPBs longer than eight issues that I've ever read from cover to cover in one sitting! As for that whole "requires a second reading" deal: I'll be dipped if the people making such statements aren't right on the money! I went through Watchmen a second time, and picked up on all sorts'a stuff I hadn't paid attention to the first time `round! Of course, having already read it once, it's easier to follow the second time through, which in turn makes it easier to sift through the subtle foreshadowing events, flashbacks, backstory, and subplots. So maybe those "intellectual-wannabes" are on to something after all! Or maybe I'M the one with A.D.D., who knows. All I know is, every time I give Watchmen a read, I'm unbelievably obsessed with finding out every little snippet of `hidden meanings' and `subtle nuances'... it's become a sickness with me. I find myself trying to come to grips with the book's alternate-reality setting (Nixon serving his fifth term as prez in 1985; the U.S. won the Vietnam War; electric-powered cars are the standard mode of transportation; etc.). I become fixated on seeing the foreshadowing elements contained in the end-of-chapter articles "written by" or related to the book's characters. I try to get into the minds of the core characters and make efforts to understand what motivates them, especially Rorschach's cold, mentally-unbalanced and uncompromising approach to solving crime, and the nigh-godlike Dr. Manhattan's gradual severance from his human side. To make a long story short, I read and processed Watchmen in a way that I'd never done with any other four-color tale (or any other form of literature for that matter), and found it to be an unusual and enlightening experience. Yeah, enlightenment from a comic book... who'da thunk it?

All right, time for me to top this all off with my assessment of the recurring face-with-blood-covering-the-right-eye dealie. I'm aware that there's been some discussion regarding the symbolism of this image-- what it means, why it keeps popping up the way it does, and so forth. After processing all the info and other peoples' thoughts about it, I finally arrived at my own conclusion: there is no actual significance to the `stained face'- Moore & Gibbons intentionally placed this `sign' in various parts of the book to make people believe there's some deeper meaning behind it when there really isn't any at all. Simply put, they're goofing on the readers, testing them to see if they, like the late Comedian, "get" the gag. It's sortuva Andy Kaufman kinda thing, you know? Hey, wait a minute... dear lord, I'm startin' to sound like one of those stereotypical pompous academic types who deconstruct every piece of literature they read to show everybody how scary-intellectual they are, aren't I? Never thought I'd see the day when something like that would happen! But I suppose there's a first time for everything...

`Late


Quite disappointed.   January 16, 2004
 20 out of 115 found this review helpful

I was quite disappointed with Watchmen. I had heard so many great things about it and was expecting a memorable read. Now that I have read it I'm left with a feeling of "What was the big deal?". The story was incredibly average. The art was mediocre at best. Alan Moore's writing is eloquent but an eloquently written boring story is still boring. I was expecting a lot more.

Three GREAT examples of graphic novels at their best are: Kingdom Come by Alex Ross, the Rising Stars series by J.Michael Straczynski, and The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller.


Oversized, brilliant edition!.   October 22, 2005
 20 out of 23 found this review helpful

I am a foreign amazon.com customer, and after read the 4 reviews of this edition, I felt I had to write one.

I bought this OVERSIZED SLIPCASED EDITION along with ABSOLUTE BATMAN:HUSH that hits the store just weeks before this one.
I can afirm that this edition of WATCHMEN is one of, even the Best, publication ever released by an Editorial.

DC makes this ABSOLUTE EDITIONS like no one else, and brings extra material like a DVD title does.
If you want more than just the 12 brilliant episodes, you have sketches, original scripts provided by Alan Moore and all behind the scene stuff.

The giant size of this edition could excite anyone, and I must confess that it made a break on me, in the way of see and think things....

A REALLY TRUE MUST HAVE for anyone who wants to be delighted.