Watchmen by Alan Moore

[Los Ping]

This book is amazing. Watchmen brings storytelling and art together with a deep political and social background that most esteemed authors cannot find.

 

Watchmen is the story of heroes of America that are just normal people trying to do good for the community. A major conflict arises though when one of their fellow comrades, The Comedian, is murdered. This murder influences many other heroes to don the cape once more to solve this crime and later on attempt to save the world.

 

What this story does so amazingly well is how each character is descibed in so much detail that you want to read each character's backstory as much as the central plot. These main characters are Rorschach, the only man who still works as a hero because he's the darkness in the black and white world we live in. The Comedian, an antihero in many ways that loves to watch the world's everlasting joke and bring his own punchlines to the table. Nite Owl 2, a man who wants to see the good in all people. The Silk Spectre 2, a woman who's life has been following the footsteps of her mother even though she wants to be a truly independant person. And Dr. Manhattan, the only hero with true powers is a creature who knows of all of time and space but sees no use in Earth now that he is not connected to it. These characters are on all different sides of the spectrum but are able to mesh perfectly because they all at one point wanted to save the world of the problems that it contains.

 

Just as these heros mesh perfectly together so does the writing and art of this story. For any reader of novels, new or old, reading a comic book might seem childish or just stupid that a grown adult would read something with pictures but Watchmen's drawing only make this book even better. The drawings not only display a much better sense of the story but it allows for seamless transitions between character and plot. It is also interesting to observe these pictures due to the fact that they contain small details that would sound forced in writing but interesting to visually see (chapter 3 cover). The comic book also allows readers to read in a more "real time" where mulitiple plots can be read at once.

 

Overall stating too much about this book will just ruin the fun it gives you. It is on longer side (400+ pages which are bigger than any novels) but this book is something of the ages. It questions what is truly right and wrong and shows that the worst people can do the best for the world. Every character is a puzzle that you want to solve and every section is truly interesting to read. One of the single problems of the book would be the lack of a deep backstory for Nite Owl 2 while every other main character gets this treatment. Even though that is a problem it does not affect the story in any way and doesn't make the book any less of any epic either. This book is a must read for anyone that can read because this timeless story cannot and should not be passed up. Long live the Watchmen.