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| Watchmen | 
 enlarge | Author: Alan Moore
Creator: Dave Gibbons
Publisher: DC Comics
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $9.99
You Save: $10.00 (50%)
New (71) Used (37) Collectible (1) from $9.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  582 reviews
Sales Rank: 40
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 6.6 x 0.9
ISBN: 0930289234
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5941
EAN: 9780930289232
ASIN: 0930289234
Publication Date: April 1, 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new from a factory sealed case. Check our rating! Guaranteed!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Yes, entertaining, but hardly elevates the comic format to real lit. March 14, 2006
15 out of 55 found this review helpful
WATCHMEN, a comic book limited run written by Alan Moore and drawn by Dave Gibbons, takes place in the world of 1985 much like our own was, but with striking differences. Here, superheros, or "masked adventurers" are real, Nixon has been elected to a fourth term (after winning the war in Vietnam), cars run on electric power, and the US and the USSR come within a hair's breadth of nuclear war. Its basic plot is a detective story, when various superheroes, retired after a 1977 act made their work illegal, band together to face a threat, while looking back to their days of glory.
The superheros of WATCHMEN are ordinary men skilled in brawling or able to come up with clever technological solutions. The only character with true super-human powers is one Dr Manhattan, a former physicist who after a research accident has become nearly omnipotent and omniscient. Exploring the consequences of a human being elevated to knowing the future and able to do anything he desires is one of the truly original concepts in WATCHMEN, and Moore deserves praise.
With all the entertaining aspects of the storytelling, it's a pity that the writing has several serious failings. Moore's plot wraps up far too quickly. I suppose that in order to hit with maximum impact, Moore wanted it all explained within one issue instead of leaving the reader to wait another month. Furthermore, the ending involves the trope of the super-villian explaining his whole scheme to the heroes before doing them in. And while one can expect some amount of psedoscience with a character like Dr Manhattan, there are some shoddy mistakes here, such as claiming Mars' surface is made of "silicone", and unrealistically mild weather in Antarctica. While WATCHMEN has been lauded for elevating the comic format to legitimate literature, writing like this shows that regrettably it still has some way to go.
I felt that WATCHMEN was entertaining, and the character of Dr Manhattan quite interesting, but the work is nowhere near the perfection that many fans claim it to be.
 Calling this a classic is more than an understatement February 5, 2003
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
For anyone to ever argue the point that comics should be seen as actual literature should use this as their only example. Alan Moore crafted an unflinching, highly intelligent, and unbelieveably haunting story with this original 12 issue maxi-series (originally published in 1985) that is considered Moore's best. In a world where super heroes are no longer fantasy, we see a society torn apart by cold war paranoia, and an uncertain future. When a retired super hero is mysteriously murdered, an almost fascist hero named Rorshach is trying to find the killer, which leads him to convincing his old partner Nite Owl to come out of retirement to help. What is uncovered is more than either could have ever imagined, and what develops is nearly beyond comprehension. Moore's explosive, compelling storytelling and Dave Gibbons' great artwork make Watchmen an unforgettable read whether your a fan of comics or not. Everything about this collected story is exquisite; from the interludes to hero interviews and autobiography excerpts to the complex yet riveting story all make Watchmen truly one of a kind. All in all, this is an essential book to be in your comic collection, or even in your book collection as well, it is just that ... good.
 Meandering plot, uninteresting characters, dumb science May 3, 2003
13 out of 55 found this review helpful
I have wrestled with this "serious" comic book for about 8 months and I am finally giving up. It is the kind of thing that is trying sooo hard to be deep and witty, but fails miserably because of a lack of ANY REAL STORY. What we have here is the loose frame of a story, which is totally dated and uninteresting. The graphic novel to read for good criminology subtext is "The Dark Knight Returns." Moore seems to want to remind you on every frickin' page how clever his "real super heroes" idea is. First of all it ain't and secondly WE GET IT ALREADY NOW DO SOMETHING WITH IT. When I really lost interest however was with the whole Mars thing. I mean it was insipid beyond belief but attempting to be the ultimate in metaphysical insight. The art also stinks. It's embarassingly bad at times. Plus sides - some good one liners and the Pirate story has some great moments. But this does not alleviate a tiresome, tedious read.
Maybe historically interesting, but.... May 13, 2003
13 out of 71 found this review helpful
I recently read "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" and enjoyed it quite a bit, so I decided to read "Watchmen" after all the rave comments I had been reading.What a disappointment. My biggest complaint is that the story was just plain boring. There are 12 issues, and I couldn't get into it until issue 10. It made some interesting points at times, but all the material is covered better somewhere else (like Claremont/Byrne X-Men, or Marvels, or any of the Busiek/Perez Avengers). I also had a very hard time getting past the humourlessness and lack of any heroic/inspiring material. And sadly, the moral conclusion is WAAAAY off. Great violence leads to more violence - not universal peace. The whole thing left a very bad taste in mouth since the World Trade Center attack.
An interesting, but overated saga April 29, 2004
13 out of 26 found this review helpful
First off, Watchmen isn't bad. But neither, I believe is it the stunning end-all achievement that it is made out to be. It's greatest strength, obviosly, is that it's a book of morally ambiguous ideas. The Watchmen are an assemblage of heroes who's actions are a critique of superhero culture and of the ideas that lie therein. It is a facinating look at an alternate future, shaped in small ways by the existance of super heroes for both good and evil.Where it falls flat is that it simply feels like it's nothing but ideas. Consequently the book feels less like a coherant story and more like an aglomeration of ideas and visceral violence. To be sure, the themes are interesting, but the whole book starts to feel like one of those third rate Heinlein novels that degenerates from storytelling into expostulation about the morality of a world that doesn't exist. Which I guess brings me to my main complaint. At their best, comic book heroes are a critique and a reflection of the complex morality and themes of the real world. Instead, Watchmen seems like a critique of a fake world of superheroes, examining a looking glass through another looking glass. In a way, I actually found Moore's 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' to be a more interesting critique, if only because it seems that Moore actually likes the characters from 19th century British Literature, whereas it's pretty clear from his other writings that he doesn't really like or respect modern superheroes. The character's there have massive flaws, and exist in a complex, morally ambiguous world just like the Watchmen, but somehow feel more real in their anachronistic world than the Watchmen do. Again, I should say that I did like Watchmen. I just didn't like it all that much. And even if I did, it really doesn't deserve to be diefied like it is. It's not peerless, and it does a disservice to other excellent graphic novels in the genre like 'Kingdom Come' and 'Dark Knight Returns' to simply assume it is.
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