Book review: Watchmen (1986-1987) (to be finished...)

Hey, have you guys ever heard of Alan Moore? You know, strange English guy with a big bushy beard, worships a Roman snake god, written many of the best comic books and graphic novels in history and hates just about every movie adaptation of his work Hollywood has ever made? "Which books" you may ask? Well, "V for Vendetta" "From Hell", "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", "Swamp Thing", as well as one shot comics like "Batman: The Killing Joke" and "Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow", the list goes on and on. But probably his most famous work is the classic 1986-87 12 issue comic book series, whick was later turned into a graphic novel, "Watchmen". Most of you probably know of the 2009 movie directed by Zack Snyder ("300"), but did you know that Moore actually wrote the source material to which the movie was based on. Probably not since he wasn't credited in the movie. Instead it was "Based on the graphic novel published by DC Comics and illustrated by Dave Gibbons". Why was he not credited? It's kind of a long story, however I can say that he requested not to be credited and that all revenues went to the artist of the book, Dave Gibbons. But I'm not here to talk about old movie history, so without further ado, let's dig into "Watchmen", the graphic novel.

But before we begin, just a little comic history first, originally this book was supposed to feature characters from the the then-newly purchased Charlton Comics line of superheroes, many of which were created by Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man, because Moore felt it would easier to connect with characters readers were familiar with. The story was supposed to be called "Who Killed the Peacemaker?" and was submitted to DC managing editor Dick Giordano. Even though he was intrigued by the idea, he didn't like the fact that it featured expensive characters that either end up "dead or dysfunctional" and asked Moore to create original characters. Moore went ahead with the idea, but still gave the main heroes some resemblance to the Charlton characters he planned to use. But I'm not gonna go into that because there's just too much to handle.

The book is set in New York 1985 where superheroes exists, the U. S. won the Vietnam war and Richard Nixon is still in office for his fifth term (Don't ask about Watergate). A goverment enforced hero named the Comedian is killed by an unknown murderer and a masked vigilante named Rorschach begins to investigate this and starts dwelling into a bigger conspiracy. But that's hardly the bulk of the narrative. For the most part we're actually digging more into the six characters origin story in flashback, LOST-style. The overall plot doesn't start to rear its head until close to the end. But the story's big secret twist is way too obvious. I could predict the ending about a chapter into the book. Predictability aside, the story isn't bad, in fact it's actually pretty engaging. The psychological character studies are what really sells the story, making these comic book superheroes feel fresh and real. It has its cheesy comic book moments at times, but overall it does a great job of connecting the readers with the lead characters and keeps you hooked until the end and the final solution will make you think about for at least a week.

It also features a story within the story called "Tales of the Freighter", which features on a pirate out for revenge. Not too much to talk about, but it shows nicely how a world with superheroes would have its comic books, since using them in that format would be a little redundant.