Watchmen - How long did it take you?

[Cardiac]

Did any of you truly enjoy Watchmen the first time you read it? I read it over Christmas last year and it just seemed like a boring drudge at the time, with an interesting ending, but now I'm reading it for the third time and I'm beginning to fully appreciate the sheer scale and lyrical brilliance of it's execution. Has anyone else has similar re-reading experiences with it?

[Terry Verticchio]

To be honest, I find it a hard read. Not as accessible as V for Vendetta. But still the art and the story are compelling. It remains a great example of the comic medium, just not a very exciting one.

[Jason Kanno]

I can never find the time to read the whole thing.

[S.A. Parvaze]

I loved it the first time I read it, though things probably didn't start completely sinking in until the second or third read. An awe still comes over me when I think that it was the first super-hero story of its kind and it was so stunningly executed.


Mod Note: And this thread, I think, belongs in the Wildstorm & Vertigo forum, so I believe I shall move it there.

[The Sexsor]

I only read it once(last Christmas). I don't know how I could possibly like it any more than what I do now. Watchmen is the reason I even gave a chance to comics like Fables(Which is now my favorite comic being made). I actually brought in to my English professor after a comment she made about comic books. she was so impressed she bought the trade.

[Benoit Fabre]

I wasn't thrilled by my first reading, I still have to read it a second time.

[Downfall]

I had to read it twice, it took me 3 hours, but once I "got it"... I was literally like "......................WHOA"
:O

[Cardiac]

Mod Note: And this thread, I think, belongs in the Wildstorm & Vertigo forum, so I believe I shall move it there.

I wasn't sure. It doesn't happen within the DCU but it doesn't have any other insignia on my trade either.

[S.A. Parvaze]

Heh, no worries, my trade is the same. But given the mature nature of the book and the fact that it takes place outside of DCU proper, I figured it was best to move it here.

[Blake Petit]

Actually, I was just about to move it TO the DC forum -- it's not a Wildstorm of Vertigo book, and I thought anything with the DC Bullet -- whether DCU or not -- belonged in the Direct Currents forum. But I'll let it go.

[S.A. Parvaze]

Well, I can't remember a time when Watchmen and other non-continuity works weren't discussed in the context of the WS/Vertigo forum (this is a couple versions of cX, mind you), so I guess was going on tradition less than technicality. But I suppose it's a moot point now...

[glecharles]

Wow, I guess I'm dating myself by saying I enjoyed Watchmen...as it unfolded with each issue! Read straight through, as I did a year or so ago, I enjoyed it even more. While it may seem a bit dated and even unoriginal to a new generation of readers, IMO, it remains one of the best, and most influential, comic books of its time.

PS: I think any discussion of it belongs in the main DC forum, as Wildstorm and Vertigo didn't even exist yet. Context is everything, and realizing this wasn't some side project from a trendy imprint is important to appreciating its importance.

[ForeverZeroV1]

It took me one night to read the first time but i skipped over a few things like the pirate story and the imbetween issues stuff... i dont own it so i havent gotten to it yet. But i was blown away by it.

[CharlieM]

I really enoyed it my first time.

[Cameron Scott]

Same here, but the Watchmen is the kind of the book which should have been read over and over to get the true meaning of the story and make judgment on who was right or not. I remember hearing an interview from Big Al saying Rorschach was the bad guy in the Watchmen, of course the majority of the readers would readily point Adrian Veidt as the villain.

[Cardiac]

Well Rorscach is the violent fascist member, so I suppose that makes sense. He documents his ramblings too, and it's those diaries that restarted the cold war after the 12th issue.

[AmazingMattMan]

well i read just read the first issue of watchmen down at barnes and noble. yeah yeah i know im behind and all but so far i thought it was really good. in fact im gonna get that hardcover when it comes out cuz im such a sucker. :rolleyes:

[Gabriel Sosa]

I LOVED IT the first time I read it, so deep and thoughtful, the characters were just fantastic, watching how they fell apart, and the ending is just AWESOME, an ethical dilemma. Scary.
Who is right? Veidt or Rorscharch? Well, creepy as it might seem, I have not made my mind up yet, both of them give pretty good arguments, Biblical and Machiavelian, but well, who am I to judge? LOL
Anyway it is really good, and you could get two people to argue about who was right and spend weeks at that.

[Terry Verticchio]

Rorsharch was right...never compromise, not even when faced with Armaggedon. :banana:

Really...Veidt's plan would have worked if the world wasn't so screwed up. People always revert to type in the end. Even when faced with an impossible terror from above, it won't change people's pre-conceived ideas of other human beings. Such thoughts run too deep. Our hatreds would overcome Veidt's plan in less than a year. Utopian ideals fall away when faced with human nature.

I love ranting. Thanks for time.

[Sloat]

I just finished issue three...
It's not my number one priority at the moment, even though it is quite lovely.

Please don't hurt me.

[Terry Verticchio]

Actually, it took me about a week to re-read it...I usually read ONE issue per day then I sped things up a bit near the end. Great stuff though.

[Todd Thompson]

When I read it the first time, which was around 15 years after it was released, I liked it but thought it was given more praise than it deserved.

I've read it a few more times and now I'm pretty sure it deserves the praise it has received. It's an absolutely brilliant piece of storytelling.

I agree with Terry, BTW, Veidt's plan would not have worked over time.

[Lord_Magneto]

I have it more then a year now and still haven't read all of it. It's not really exciting. It's very interesting and smartly-written, but at the same time not too engaging, and it's not like Fables or Y the Last Man where i HAD to read the first trade in one day because i just couldn't put it down.

[TNC]

I never read it....

Can someone tell me what its about and how it ends!!! PLEASE!!! :banana:

[DocDoom]

I think it's brilliant, one of my fave fiction pieces, and every time i read it, something different grabs my interest, if it weren't so expensive, i would definetely grab de ABSOLUT edition.

[Jimmy-San]

It took me a few weeks.




TNC: It's basically about the Cold War and super-heroism an altered Earth.

In the 40's, during WW2, a group of heroes banded together, but basically stayed on the streets of America. They were quite realistic, with some members being gay, one of them expressing approval of the Nazi's before Hitler really got deep into his killings, and so on. The Comedian is one member, who rapes Sally Juspecyk. Later, she did him consentually, and they have a daughter who becomes a hero named Laurie (although Laurie doesn't learn The Comedian's her dad until he's dead).


Anyway, shortly after the 40's, they disband. One of their members writes a book about it revealing much of this, and at the end of the first 3 chapters are exerpts from this book (at the end of each chapter, there's additional, strictly text material from the various news-related fictional publications of the Watchmen universe, adding depth to the comic story itself).



Later on, in the 70's, heroes start up again. We see guys like Ozymandias, Rorschach, and so on. Dr. Manhattan is born in a one-in-a-million shot nuclear accident, and is the only superhuman of that world. Rorschach fully loses his mind after an incident with a little girl who was murdered and fed to dogs. He becomes an even more hardcore version of The Punisher and Bullseye mixed together, except more poetic as well. Anyway, in this world, the US won Vietnam due to Dr. Manhattan. Soon thereafter, due to fear and paranoia over super-heroes, they're outlawed. Dr. Manhattan and The Comedian get to stay because they're government-sponsered. Rorschach is the only other one that continues, due to his strong convictions.

Anyway, the heroes come back, and in the end, we see Ozymandias was behind everything. He masterminds a plan to bring the US and Russia to terms by detonating something that looks like an alien in Manhatten, killing millions. This makes people beleive there was an alien invasion, and gives the US and Russia an out to put aside their differences. Rorschach lets Dr. Manhatten kill him, due to the fact that he refused to go along with this lie, even despite it being for the greater good. He wanted to reveal what Ozymandias did, so he lets Dr. Manhattan atomize him, as he simply refused to compromise. In the end, Rorschach's journal ends up in the hands of a right-wing newspaper group he mailed it to, and we see an assistant reaching for it, after having been informed to print whatever, just for a "filler" news issue. That's pretty much the end. Whether or not the story's printed, and whatever reprecussions it has is left to the imaginations of the reader. It's also left ambiguous and hard to judge who was "right".


Anyway, everything I said is a MASSIVE summarizing of everything that's contained in the story ... Really, I didn't even begin to fully cover the back-stories and details contained within about all of these characters. Watchmen is such a complex story that you must read it from start to finish, without skipping around, to get everything and not get mixed up, what with all the flashbacks and little details. It's truly an awe-inspiring story, however. Maybe the best I've ever read. You can get a TPB of it from Barnes & Noble or Borders for $20.00.

[Dino Pollard]

I have it more then a year now and still haven't read all of it. It's not really exciting. It's very interesting and smartly-written, but at the same time not too engaging, and it's not like Fables or Y the Last Man where i HAD to read the first trade in one day because i just couldn't put it down.
Odd. I first read it when I was 15 and I couldn't put it down. Now I'm 22 and I STILL can't put it down whenever I reread it (which I've done a few times). Simply an amazing piece of work and it completely revolutionized the way stories in comic books are told.

[Sasquatch]

the 1st time i read it.
it was increndible, it blew my mind off.
an experience sending shiver all over. a work of genius, the comic book i loved most in my whole life.
i'll be forever in alan moore's debt
all the comics readers are.

[Croyd Crenson]

Gawd, it took me YEARS!
Well, i think i was 12 the first time i read it. Even if i couldn't understand the whole thing, i remember liking a lot of individual scenes, which is why i finally bought it a couple of years later. Even today though, it seems every time i read it i find something new about it...

[Normalman]

I'm shocked, absolutely shocked that there are serious comic fans who haven't read this. That's like being an college English major who's never read Shakespeare. For shame - you don't even have to buy it, most libraries have a copy.

Now going into codger speak for a moment, I read this back when it came out in the 80's which was w/o a doubt the renaissance of comics moving to a more "adult" stage. There was Watchmen, DKR, Crisis, the first Squadron Supreme mini, Roger Stern writing Amazing Spiderman, even the over the top Secret Wars. It was a great time to be in comics.

And of course that set the stage for the 90's collapse.

[Blake Petit]

My local library doesn't have any graphic novels... I swear, as soon as I'm an eccentric millionaire, one of my first orders of business is going to be to donate a bunch of graphic novels to the St. Charles Parish Public Library.

[Joe Illidge]

I first read WATCHMEN in 1990, I think, and since then, I've reread it once a year.

And still I find something new in every reading.

I haven't read it this year yet, so that'll just have to be a blip.

One of the real treats is the special editions with the notes by Moore on the world, and the original profiles of each Charlton character with his approach to them.

That stuff is golden, kind of a precursor to the DVD-style commentaries you see in some stuff now like the ULTIMATES hardcover and FELL.

[Normalman]

My local library doesn't have any graphic novels... I swear, as soon as I'm an eccentric millionaire, one of my first orders of business is going to be to donate a bunch of graphic novels to the St. Charles Parish Public Library.

Our library system's pretty good for graphic novels, they have nearly 400 in the system, of course a bunch is manga :sleep: .

What I have discovered also is something called interlibrary loan where they'll borrow stuff for you from other libraries for a buck. I've gotten stuff like Invincible and Powers through that.

[Mike D'Alfonso]

Actually, I was just about to move it TO the DC forum -- it's not a Wildstorm of Vertigo book, and I thought anything with the DC Bullet -- whether DCU or not -- belonged in the Direct Currents forum. But I'll let it go.


Well the mini came out long before Wildstorm or Vertigo was a mere thought, so I think it qualifies as a DC story; I really don't think that DC had any subsidiaries way back when.

[Sasquatch]

I never read it....

Can someone tell me what its about and how it ends!!! PLEASE!!! :banana:

in the middle ages the burned heretics to the stake

[Joe Illidge]

Originally posted by Sasquatch

in the middle ages the burned heretics to the stake


Word.

Trust me, TNC, WATCHMEN must be experienced, don't cheat sheet it.

And, unlike a former friend of mine, do not consider skipping the in-between black and white material.

Read everything.

[nightwing1982]

I only read it once. My brain was blow away. It took me about half a day.

[Joe Illidge]

Originally posted by nightwing1982

I only read it once. My brain was blow away. It took me about half a day.

HALF A DAY?????

Daaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggg, man.

"Impressive"
-the ersatz Ra's Al Ghul from BATMAN BEGINS

[nightwing1982]

Originally posted by nightwing1982



HALF A DAY?????

Daaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggg, man.

"Impressive"
-the ersatz Ra's Al Ghul from BATMAN BEGINS


yeah, last summer. I was able to finish what I had to do (housework/yardwork) the day before so I could have the next day to relax.

Well, I started reading the trade around noon(?) and finished about 9 something. That is why my brain was blown away.

[tomb rocket]

I read it once a year and have done so since I first bought the trade when I was 17 (I'm 32 now). And every time I read it I see something new that I hadn't noticed before. The Watchmen is a masterpiece.

[Whirlysplat]

Did any of you truly enjoy Watchmen the first time you read it? I read it over Christmas last year and it just seemed like a boring drudge at the time, with an interesting ending, but now I'm reading it for the third time and I'm beginning to fully appreciate the sheer scale and lyrical brilliance of it's execution. Has anyone else has similar re-reading experiences with it?

Well i'm very old so I read it as it came out the first time and yes I enjoyed it then. If you like Watchmen hunt around for Miracleman in my opinion it's even better. Tom Strong is superb as well.

- Whirly

[RadioCleve]

I've just re-read Watchmen... and finally understood its brilliance. So well structured, so beautifully cinematic. It's just a wonderful tome, en sum total.

[nightwing1982]

I'm thinking of getting AS Watchmen...

[nightwing1982]

:watchmen:

I just finished reading the Absolute Watchmen.

I noticed thing that I never noticed the first time.

The extras are great. There is a fews scripts by Moore. WOW.

[Ammar Al Subahi]

I found a cheap copy of the trade in my LCS, I should have it in about a month

[Ammar Al Subahi]

I got the trade today :D

I'll give you my opinions about it some day now

[DocDoom]

Having not read Miracleman or Lost Girls, i have to say nothing Alan Moore has done can touch Watchmen's toes.....

His Swamp Thing is awesome, his V is great, his LOEG kicks *** ... but there is only one Watchmen.... the best comic book ever

[Ammar Al Subahi]

I finished reading it some week ago, and it was a really great read. I set my mind to analyze the whole thing because I I didn't want to re-read it just to get it...well, it didn't go so good. I only picked up little pieces like Moore speaking to the audience through the guy who read the pirate tale, telling us that if we don't get it, read it again and again. And I'm positive that there's somekind of connection between Rorschach and sexuality or something like that. Seeing as his mother was a prostitute, he took a part of a woman's dress and put it on his face and that he went nuts after that little girl got raped and killed

[comicgeekoid]

and was transported in a way never before or since. and it gets better with every reading.

[Tanjint]

I finished reading it some week ago, and it was a really great read. I set my mind to analyze the whole thing because I I didn't want to re-read it just to get it...well, it didn't go so good. I only picked up little pieces like Moore speaking to the audience through the guy who read the pirate tale, telling us that if we don't get it, read it again and again. And I'm positive that there's somekind of connection between Rorschach and sexuality or something like that. Seeing as his mother was a prostitute, he took a part of a woman's dress and put it on his face and that he went nuts after that little girl got raped and killed

much of the brilliance of watchmen is that it is variations/emphasized versions of ideas that have been presented to us through very very well known characters. Owl Man and Rorscach, for example, are both aspects of Batman more fully developed.

Owl, is a regular well trained man with tech resources much like batman but he's more of a relatable dude, a la spidey...Rorscach is a detective, hard boiled, traumatically affected by the fate of his parents while in youth. Just take ideas that have already been presented to you through comics and follow those ideas through to their logical conclusion and watchmen will make sense.

-T

[Tanjint]

oh, and between 1 and 3 days. was years ago, don't recall.

-T

[JX141]

It took me about 2 days reading the issues in pdf format, love torrents, in between jobs at work. All I have to say is meh.

[Kani]

It took me 3 days to get through the trade...brilliant

[Jalos Nerobi]

I've probably read it 6 or 7 times (at least) at this point. And each time I notice new things, both in the art and the story. The Sheer presence of the characters doesn't even sink in until at least the second time you read it. Like Rorschach being right there on the first page or all the clues Veidt leaves as he's fulfilling his plan. The Symetry chapter is visually incredible. The way the Comedian's Life is explained throughout the piece is also quite brilliant. I fully intend to read this novel at least twice more before the movie comes out next March and I look forward to discovering more on both of those reads.

[Wolverace]

I've read it twice. I like it, but I feel this is a book that you should have read when it first came out. There are simply a lot of Cold War references. I will also say that as excellently written the book is, at times it is just a chore to read.

[Justin Byrd]

I've read it twice. I like it, but I feel this is a book that you should have read when it first came out. There are simply a lot of Cold War references. I will also say that as excellently written the book is, at times it is just a chore to read.

My two cents:

So just because it's got a lot of Cold War references makes it dated?

So any book, movie, or generally, any piece of fiction, will therefore be harder to read if it's set in a different time period?

Sorry, that makes little sense to me.

[Wolverace]

My two cents:

So just because it's got a lot of Cold War references makes it dated?

So any book, movie, or generally, any piece of fiction, will therefore be harder to read if it's set in a different time period?

Sorry, that makes little sense to me.

The book captures a mood and period in time. And I believe it made a bigger impact when it first came out, than when you read it now.
Let's face it, when you read the book now for the very first time, you read it in knowledge that almost everyone regards this as the best GN ever written. Hype preceeds judgement.
I never said it was harder to read because of the time period, I said the Cold War references made a lot more sense when it came out. And yes, for me, certain parts were a chore to read.
I enjoyed his LoEG and V For Vendetta a whole lot more.

[Justin Byrd]

The book captures a mood and period in time. And I believe it made a bigger impact when it first came out, than when you read it now.
Let's face it, when you read the book now for the very first time, you read it in knowledge that almost everyone regards this as the best GN ever written. Hype preceeds judgement.
I never said it was harder to read because of the time period, I said the Cold War references made a lot more sense when it came out. And yes, for me, certain parts were a chore to read.
I enjoyed his LoEG and V For Vendetta a whole lot more.

I think they made plenty of sense. I mean, even if you just study the history, the novel really highlights what it would've been like had the USA had an "ultimate weapon" in Manhattan, then how USSR would react once they "lost" him. And it really captured the whole Cold War paranoia and sense of the impending (and inevitable at the time) apocalypse. And it made a big impact on me. This is like saying that Dark Knight Returns doesn't still make an impact because we've seen a grim and gritty Batman for the last 20 years.

I say it holds up. And I read it when I was getting back into comics, and only because I heard good things, and didn't realize how much of a pedestal it's put on. And frankly, it surpassed my expectations. It wasn't "hyped" for me. Perhaps the "hype" you heard led to a downer, if your expectations were so high.

[Wolverace]

Perhaps the "hype" you heard led to a downer, if your expectations were so high.

I think that is propably a most accurate explanation. When you're right, you're right.

BTW, I enjoyed Dark Knight.

[Jalos Nerobi]

It's funny you guys should be discussing the time period, there was a large degree of controversy as to what time period to set the movie in over the past 20 years of them trying to make it. There were even plans to set it post 9/11/01 and focus on terrorists instead of russians, which I feel would have been just awful. I mean I guess it could be done well, but it would really *******ize a good degree of the story, and like Mr. Byrd said, this novel captures the feel of the arms race, not the war on terror. Thankfully, the current director -Zack Snyder of 300- is planing on keeping it in the exact time period it's set in (Mid fall 1985 with President Nixon). He's something of a freshman to the film industry but I've gotta say, I was impressed with 300 and he's recieved approval from Dave Gibbon on the artistic style of the movie, so I've got high hopes.

[Justin Byrd]

It's funny you guys should be discussing the time period, there was a large degree of controversy as to what time period to set the movie in over the past 20 years of them trying to make it. There were even plans to set it post 9/11/01 and focus on terrorists instead of russians, which I feel would have been just awful. I mean I guess it could be done well, but it would really *******ize a good degree of the story, and like Mr. Byrd said, this novel captures the feel of the arms race, not the war on terror. Thankfully, the current director -Zack Snyder of 300- is planing on keeping it in the exact time period it's set in (Mid fall 1985 with President Nixon). He's something of a freshman to the film industry but I've gotta say, I was impressed with 300 and he's recieved approval from Dave Gibbon on the artistic style of the movie, so I've got high hopes.

The idea of Watchmen as a movie just speaks "problems" for me. There's SO much in that thing, and cutting any out you really lose something.

It'd work a whole lot better as an HBO miniseries or something similar.

[Jalos Nerobi]

The idea of Watchmen as a movie just speaks "problems" for me. There's SO much in that thing, and cutting any out you really lose something.

It'd work a whole lot better as an HBO miniseries or something similar.

when they originally wanted to make it in the late 80's they grabbed Mr. Terry Gilliam(Monty Python, Brazil, Time Bandts, The Fisher King, 12 Monkeys, Fear and Loathing) to direct it. After trying to put the film together he said just that. He dropped out of the project because the studio wouldn't let him make it as a mini series or just an incredibly long film. I know for a fact that they're removing the Pirate section from the film (Although Snyder is still shooting it for the DVD). I'm sure other stuff will have to be pushed aside, unfortunately. But I was personally quite satisfied with V for Vendetta despite the monstrous amounts of story they had to remove, so I'm thinking the film has a good chance of still being good. I in no way think it will be as good as the novel, but there's just so much in the novel that can't be communicated in a moving picture, so I'm hardly expecting that of it. The only major change I've noticed in what's been released thus far is Nite Owl II's look. His costume is much darker and more badass looking. Not so happy about that. I like that Nite Owl was the sort of beacon of humanity compared to the other heroes. He was fallable, flawed, showing his age more than the others, and cheesy looking. I just hope they're not trying to pull off a batman feel with him, (And here's the part where everyone jumps me) because he is so much more human than Batman is.

check out some of the release pictures though. Aside from my earlier statements regarding NO's costume, I'm quite happy with the costumes and set designs they've released here =====> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409459/mediaindex

[Wolverace]

It's funny you guys should be discussing the time period, there was a large degree of controversy as to what time period to set the movie in over the past 20 years of them trying to make it. There were even plans to set it post 9/11/01 and focus on terrorists instead of russians, which I feel would have been just awful. I mean I guess it could be done well, but it would really *******ize a good degree of the story, and like Mr. Byrd said, this novel captures the feel of the arms race, not the war on terror. Thankfully, the current director -Zack Snyder of 300- is planing on keeping it in the exact time period it's set in (Mid fall 1985 with President Nixon). He's something of a freshman to the film industry but I've gotta say, I was impressed with 300 and he's recieved approval from Dave Gibbon on the artistic style of the movie, so I've got high hopes.

Mr. Byrd? :eek:

Let's say expectations for the movie are less than the expectations were for the book.

[Justin Byrd]

Mr. Byrd? :eek:

Hey, some people know superiority when they see it :LOL:

[Wolverace]

Hey, some people know superiority when they see it :LOL:

Apparently...

Sniffing glue is bad, Jalos.

[Jalos Nerobi]

So I guess I shouldn't call you Mr. Race...

[Wolverace]

So I guess I shouldn't call you Mr. Race...

Why not? You can call me mr. Ace. It's Wolver-ace. But then again, just call me sir.

[Jalos Nerobi]

Why are we whispering Mr. Ace, Sir?

[scloster]

I know the thread has been quiet for a bit, but heck, I haven't been 'round these parts long. I've actually just been reading this again over the past week. I kind of alternate between reading this and From Hell every other year. I was fairly young when I first read this, so a lot of it was lost on my. Essentially during my initial reading I just kind of followed Rorschach's story and skipped (missed out on) a lot of the rest. Twenty years later I'm still picking up on neat little bits that I missed.

[WhereIsTony]

Read the first two issue yesterday.

Seems as good as advertised.

[Hands]

So anyone else rereading this after getting pumped up by the trailer?

[Adam Chapman]

Read the first two issue yesterday.

Seems as good as advertised.

I'm shocked you hadn't previously read them. They're fantastic. Its a great series, although there are a few places where it shows its age. Still an engaging epic with so many levels.

[Wolfwood]

Just finished it for the first time last night. It was good, I'd give it about an 8/10. But I'm the type of person who has to wait awhile to reread a long book/graphic novel, so I might appreciate it more on the second read through.

[WhereIsTony]

I'm shocked you hadn't previously read them. They're fantastic. Its a great series, although there are a few places where it shows its age. Still an engaging epic with so many levels.

I always had a phobia they were being oversold

they weren't

[Janitor]

Just finished it for the first time last night. It was good, I'd give it about an 8/10. But I'm the type of person who has to wait awhile to reread a long book/graphic novel, so I might appreciate it more on the second read through.

You'll notice a lot more the second time around, believe me.

I think modern readers won't get the same impact today that they would have gotten when it was first written. As it is with so many influential works of art, it's been imitated so much that a lot of its once-original concepts have become hackneyed and predictable.

[Wolfwood]

You'll notice a lot more the second time around, believe me.

I think modern readers won't get the same impact today than they would have gotten when it was first written. As it is with so many influential works of art, it's been imitated so much that a lot of its once-original concepts have become hackneyed and predictable.

Yeah, the big twist didn't shock me much (been done alot, but was still a cool reveal). I also suspected the main "villain" after that assassination attempt. But it was still interesting and a great read, and I think it deserves it's spot on Time's Top 100 Novels.

[Janitor]

Yeah, the big twist didn't shock me much (been done alot, but was still a cool reveal). I also suspected the main "villain" after that assassination attempt. But it was still interesting and a great read, and I think it deserves it's spot on Time's Top 100 Novels.

Same here with the reveal.

To me, while the plot was still excellent, what I loved the most was the profoundly human and flawed characters.

[Ammar Al Subahi]

and I think it deserves it's spot on Time's Top 100 Novels.

I don't, because it's not a novel.

[Whirlysplat]

Alan Moore did a small, intimate signing today in London. He still hates tights and fights. :(

On the subject of Watchmen, you might want to check out a book from the 70's called Super folks by Robert Mayer. Trust me, when you read it, you'll see why. ;)

I don't, because it's not a novel.

Absolutely!

As it is with so many influential works of art, it's been imitated so much that a lot of its once-original concepts have become hackneyed and predictable.

A bit like Mayers Super folks then?

Same here with the reveal.

To me, while the plot was still excellent, what I loved the most was the profoundly human and flawed characters.

Like Dr. M and Ozzyman?


Moore certainly was angry when he wrote in the 80's.