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 bestseller, WATCHMEN has been studied on college campuses across the nation and is … and is considered a gateway title, leading readers to other graphic novels such as V FOR VENDETTA, BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and THE SANDMAN series.
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Before the movie came the Graphic Novel.
This has the feel of real superheroes, if they actually existed, weird and insane individuals with a point to make and a fist to make it with. There are no signs of superpowers bar one who is too different to even feel emotions.
The story?
Someone is killing the last superheroes off. Rorschach (Think Batman without limits or personal hygiene), arguably the most insane of all the remaining heroes, decides to investigate. He recruits the retired Nite owl to help him out.
Along the way, we discover their pasts and the unpleasant truth that hides behind the world.
The why of it is as insane as you would expect, and yet given the nature of mankind actually makes sense.
Beautifully written and illustrated throughout,
This series has been on my tbr list for a very long time. I can’t say enough good things about it. This is hard-boiled pulp-meets-superhero fiction-meets political commentary-meets grownup drama, and it’s an all-around amazing work. I can see why so many people call it groundbreaking, and it deserves every word of critical praise it’s received over the years.
This is a classic graphic novel. It was groundbreaking and it changed the genre. From the first page, you can see why. The art is phenomenal with details and darkness. The setting was based in the real world and dealt with political and social concerns of the time. Fantastical elements drip their way into the stories, but the realism is part of the hook to ‘Watchmen’.
There’s also the meta of the series. Not only are there side storylines, but Moore added in excerpts from referenced works from the characters. You get a stronger feel to what the characters experience because we’re given that insight into their world. There’s also a comic within the comic. The struggle with this meta was that it didn’t stick the landing. The initial issues were parallel or mirrored the main storyline, but by the halfway mark, they went their own route. Their purpose felt more like filler than content that I cared about.
So why three stars? It comes down to the horrible view of the author about women. Dark characters are one thing. It’s necessary and makes for great stories BUT Moore portrays every single female character as sexually motivated and vapid. If it had been the characters viewing or treating the females that way, fine. If it had been some of the female characters, fine. But Moore made every single female stupid, flighty, and focused on her sexual validity. It was disgusting. He goes so far as having a rape victim be hated by everyone for allowing herself into that situation. And then, she winds up admitting she loved her rapist. No. Just no. Even thirty years ago, this was not acceptable. None of that added to complexity of character or necessary darkness. Instead, it was Moore’s distorted view of women seeping onto the page and it was hard to digest as a reader.
I recommend this book if you want to read something that changed a genre. I do not recommend it as a quality book that you’ll enjoy.
Ruthless and brilliant. One of my favorite stories. I enjoyed the movie adaptation as well!
One of the greatest graphic novels stories ever written. This is a must-read for all who are fans of the medium or looking to get into it.
Make no mistake, if you like comic books, and especially superhero comics, then Watchmen is mandatory reading. You can’t appreciate the bombastic take on larger-than-life characters like Superman, Spider-Man, etc, until you see is from the other side, deconstructing the psyche of what a character like that can be like.
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If you’ve seen the recent HBO miniseries or the movie… this isn’t that book.
This is the book that those came from – but it’s almost impossible to take this piece of art and make it into a movie, or a show. Because it’s almost a perfect comic book, with each panel holding so much information and story that it’s a sin.
Seriously.
This first came out in the 80’s, and changed the comic book world forever – if you’ve enjoyed a dark Batman, or an evil good guy, this is where it all started. Get yourself a copy and enjoy one of the best stories of all time – IMO, of course, but I doubt you’ll disagree when you hit that last page…
My husband and I have been watching Watchmen on TV over the last few weeks, and he encouraged me to check the “backstory” and read this graphic novel.
This graphic novel takes place from the 1930s all the way until the 1980s. Vigilantes mixed with one real life superhero are helping to protect. There has been a family tragedy and a scientific accident. There are masked vigilantes trying to do good, but someone is picking them off one by one. The world is on the verge of World War III. Can one man stop the countries from around the world causing a nuclear accident.
This graphic novel crosses a lot of time lines, and a lot of story lines weave in between the underlying theme of seeing the human side of super humans. It is a good story, even though it got a little confusing at times. IT is a very long graphic novel – I was surprised at its size. And now that I have read this, the TV show will make a lot more sense (since that takes place after this novel)
The first time I read Watchmen, I was alone in my kitchen. The world he presented was full of “heroes” and yet profoundly dystopian at the same time. This seeming contradiction drew me in, but the coexistence of melancholy, unbridled power, ambition, and deeply flawed characters left nary a box to be seen. It was this beautiful and painful contradiction that kept me hungry for the answer to just how everything went so wrong.
I found Moore’s writing to be some of the most elegant, concise, and thought-provoking I have ever encountered. His expert’s economy of words often kept me unraveling new subtleties of plot and character on a page-by-page basis. Upon subsequent reads, I recognized not just the elegance of the narrative but also of the structure itself. It flowed so effortlessly, yet a trail of breadcrumbs was there all along.
The illustrations are quite a sight to behold in their own right. I spent the entire afternoon and evening at my kitchen table, loving every minute of it. Part of that was due to the sheer scale and level of detail in the illustrations. You could have gotten the gist of the panel immediately, however doing so and moving on would be robbing yourself of some of the best parts of the narrative. It didn’t take me long before I saw the same elegance and depth in the illustrations as I did in the writing style.
It seems silly to write a review about a book that has been out so long and written about so much. If you haven’t read it already, do so, not because it’s a classic but because it is one of the greatest books ever. Period.
Simply amazing. I first read this as a 14 year old when it first came out. It still holds up and is inspiring to this day. Alan Moore built a miniature Manhattan, and constructed his story as realistically as he could around it’s premises. I’m not a huge Dave Gibbons fan, his work is a little too clean and poppy for my liking, but with this complex of a tale, his precise perspective, light source, and anatomy really shine and ultimately help enhance the story.
The work deals with two very real, and especially at the time, very un-comic like concepts. One is the chaotic, fallible, ever changing real world. The other is the psychological strain inflicted upon you by immense power. People die. Make bad decisions. Commit ghastly crimes. But ultimately, the majority have an internal sense of what is right (in their perspective) and try to follow it. Which only feeds the chaos, and fallibility, of the real world.
I think people always make too much of “what the author is trying to say”. It’s a complex story, full of colorful characters, human frailties, and complicated situations. And it’s extremely engaging and well told. That is more than enough. Too bad the movie version caught none of this. But that’s another story.
Arguably the single most influential superhero story for good and for ill, Watchmen is also a masterpiece of experimental storytelling, marrying techniques from film and literature with some that are only possible in comics. Moore wrote many remarkable works, but this is rightly regarded as his masterpiece.