"Watchmen" Comic Review

      It's another Saturday and that means it's time for another Genre Defining Comic (GDC). This week I will be looking at Alan Moore's 1986 story that questions the standard of what a hero really is. The doomsday clock has struck 11 and the premonition of  war is at America's doorstep; but still the question is asked, "Who Watches the Watchmen?"
     By the time the novel starts the semi-corrupted superhero group, the "Watchmen", has been disbanded by the government. Only a few of the groups original members have been allowed to stay employed under the watchful eye of Uncle Sam. On the other end of the spectrum there are those left over from the group who feel costumed heroes are necessary to protect the people from the government. When the Comedian is thrown from his apartment building window, an investigation by fellow Watchmen member, Rorschach, begins.

      What makes "Watchmen" so unique is partly based on the time period in which it was written and partly because of the questions it tries to make us ask ourselves. Taking place in a time period when war made everyone paranoid, Moore is able to make a connection between fiction and reality in a way that had never been done before. I like to think that stories such as "Kingdom Come" may never have been written without the help of the "Watchmen."
     By the time you finish reading "Watchmen," you may be either scratching your head trying to make sense of what just happened, but when you really think about it, you can see that the question Moore proposes is "how does one measure the life of a man?" The characters in the novel are faced with a horrific decision of picking the lesser of two evils. In the end "Watchmen" is an amazing book that isn't for everyone. Although the story leads us down some very interesting alternatives to reality, some people who have a hard time moving away from the stereotypical superhero genre may find "Watchmen" too slow of a read that doesn't deliver until the end; but when it delivers it delivers with insurmountable precision.

      If you prefer to skip the reading, I found the 2009 film adaptation of the same name to be quite accurate. There were some defining moments in the end of the movie that were changed to appeal to a wider audience and not lose people along the way. However the same message was still there.

      Also if your interested, in 2012 DC comics started a prequel to "Watchmen" entitled "Before Watchmen" that is currently in its first publication.