Graphic Novel Review: Watchmen

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons is one of the most important graphic novels of all time, but rather than blabbering on about how good it is, I see it as my job to inform you why such a work might appeal to you.

1: It's a comic book for adults. And it's intellectually sound in its construction too.

The world of Watchmen is constructed as an alternate reality where Richard Nixon is still the President of America, long into the 1980s, and the people are in constant fear of being bombed by the "Russkies", that is, the Russians, as this is set in the Cold War days of the Arms Race. Alan Moore's construction of this world is quite ingenious, with references to literature and films and songs everywhere, even at the end of each chapter, a quotation that the title of the chapter comes from is given. But let's not neglect Dave Gibbons's work on this opus, he gives life to Alan Moore's world in imaginative ways. The motifs of each chapter are placed in ways you don't notice at first, as they are subtle, but each placement is justified.

2: You won't feel like you're an idiot for reading it, as it deals with themes that the older reader can appreciate.

This was one of the first graphic novels in the Superhero genre that dealt with themes of the psychology of Superheroes, instead of being the perfect advocators of justice that is often seen in comics of the Golden Age of comics, and well into the Silver Age, the heroes have problems in their personalities. Rorsharch, a vigilante who wears a mask that shifts like a Rorsharch inkblot test image, employs unconventional, and often brutal, methods to gain information from people in his quest to find out who is killing the former "masked adventurers" (Superheroes) and why. The Comedian, a sexist dinosaur who is an amoral military man who began his career young, is revealed to be more than he seems on the surface, and Dr. Manhattan, a former human who has actual superpowers, but is disconnected with humanity.

3: It has a good plotline.

All up I give this Five "Smileys" out of Five.