DashCat9
08-15-2008, 02:45 PM
When I saw the brilliant trailer for the Watchmen movie coming out next year, I finally decided to pick up the Graphic Novel.
It only took me a couple of days to read, and wow. Just....wow. It's amazing how many of the points that Alan Moore raised back in the 80's are still completely relevant. The issues of nuclear war and escalation. The references to how our rush for new technology and industrialism is destroying our planet. The especially amazing parallel of how Veidt's plot to unite the world through catastrophe and misinformation brings up the memories of how the U.S. government used 9/11 to unite the country for a war it would ultimately regret waging.
I had been warned about the downbeat ending, but it still hit me like a ton of bricks. Especially Rorschach's death. It was masterful how it was said that Manhattan would kill someone some time after his knowledge of the future starts to get fuzzy, and you're thinking..."Oh, he's going to vaporize Veidt." Nope. He kills the only one of them with the conviction to stick to his guns. Seeing Rorschach tear his mask off and crying as he shouts "DO IT!" was one of the most powerful panels I've ever seen in a comic book
I highly recommend picking this up and reading it. I'm kicking myself for not having read it 15 years ago.
10/10
(Note that I didn't really talk about a lot of plot outside of the spoiler text...If you haven't read it, the less you know about the story the better. This is not your typical comic book/graphic novel...even by Alan Moore standards.)
It only took me a couple of days to read, and wow. Just....wow. It's amazing how many of the points that Alan Moore raised back in the 80's are still completely relevant. The issues of nuclear war and escalation. The references to how our rush for new technology and industrialism is destroying our planet. The especially amazing parallel of how Veidt's plot to unite the world through catastrophe and misinformation brings up the memories of how the U.S. government used 9/11 to unite the country for a war it would ultimately regret waging.
I had been warned about the downbeat ending, but it still hit me like a ton of bricks. Especially Rorschach's death. It was masterful how it was said that Manhattan would kill someone some time after his knowledge of the future starts to get fuzzy, and you're thinking..."Oh, he's going to vaporize Veidt." Nope. He kills the only one of them with the conviction to stick to his guns. Seeing Rorschach tear his mask off and crying as he shouts "DO IT!" was one of the most powerful panels I've ever seen in a comic book
I highly recommend picking this up and reading it. I'm kicking myself for not having read it 15 years ago.
10/10
(Note that I didn't really talk about a lot of plot outside of the spoiler text...If you haven't read it, the less you know about the story the better. This is not your typical comic book/graphic novel...even by Alan Moore standards.)