Dan Schwent's Reviews > Watchmen

With the world on the brink of nuclear annihilation, the Comedian is found dead and the super heroes that knew him go looking for the killer. They might not like what secrets they unearth...

I first read this when I was around 20 and was blown away. Now, untold decades later, I decided to finally give it a reread. It held up.

On the surface, Watchmen is a murder mystery and it works fine on that level. Rorschach, the view point character, enlists Nite Owl, his old partner, and they shake the tree and see what falls out, which happens to be something much more than a murder. Beneath the surface, it's an examination of super heroes: what makes them put on costumes and fight crime, why would they waste their time on petty crimes when they could do something greater, and would a godlike being really care about humanity's day to day affairs. On that level, I think it goes above and beyond.

Dave Gibbons' art is somewhat understated and the subdued color palette makes it more so but I think both lend to the story's mood. The super heroes in this world have gone to seed and the sun rarely shines anymore. Everyone is pretty much running out the clock until nuclear armageddon. All that being said, the man knows his way around a nine panel grid. His use of perspective is excellent and he knows what to focus on. The pacing in Watchmen is masterful. Twelve issues was the perfect length for the tale, no padding, no rushing.

The characters departed quite a bit from their Charlton roots. It was a blessing in disguise that Alan Moore couldn't use the Charlton characters and had to go with analogues. He was able to take them much farther. The story was believable and the dark tone served the story. It wasn't dark just to be dark like a lot of books that came later. Even though this wasn't my first trip through the meat grinder, I felt the suspense building as I went. The last three installments flew by and part of me hoped it would end differently this time. Once in a while, it's good to be reminded that before Alan Moore hated everything about comics, he was actually pretty good at writing them.

Now I'm not going to pretend I didn't have any problems with this. I actually think the threat in the end of the movie made more logical sense that how it went down here. I'm also not sure how necessary some of the metafictional extras were, though I did like the Black Freighter sequences more this time around.

Gene Wolfe once said “My definition of good literature is that which can be read by an educated reader, and reread with increased pleasure.” That definitely applies to Watchmen. While it gets a lot of grief for the dark turn comics took in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Watchmen stands the test of time and remains one of the best. Five out of five stars.

2024 reread I scored Absolute Watchmen for $30 after no one else put in a bid so I figured it was time for a reread.

I'm still giving it a five. My issue with the threat in ending remains but I've warmed to the metafictional extras. Here are some more observations.

Rorschach has the best lines but is a real dirt bag, racist, misogynist, and probably a psychopath. However, I think getting back with Nite Owl humanizes him a bit and my favorite Rorschach moment is him not lashing out at his neighbor in front of her young son, no doubt seeing himself in the boy.

Nite Owl and Silk Spectre are way more interesting together than they are apart. My favorite moment of theirs was when they rescued the people from the burning building. I forgot how Dreiberg has some erectile disfunction before they get back into the super hero biz.

Moore does a great job portraying the void between Dr. Manhattan and the rest of humanity. While the most powerful, Manhattan is the least interesting of the leads for me for what he actually does in the story. It's petty but part of me wishes he'd vaporized Ozymandias at the end even though it was too late.

The best villains are convinced what they're doing is right so Ozymandias works very well in that role. He wasn't in the story all that much but made the most of his appearances.

So is Watchmen responsible for the darkening trend in comics? Only by people learning the wrong lessons from it. Watchmen works because it's world is speeding toward oblivion and super heroes have consequences. Put similar characters in a setting jam packed with super heroes and no real consequences or stakes, it's just dickheads and losers in costumes. I also think there's a loving approach to the material. DC has treated the Charlton characters worse than Moore treated their analogs.

I guess that's it. A bunch of us are doing Watchmen Wednesdays on BlueSky from 9/4 to 11/20 if anyone wants to partake.