Watchmen by Alan Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I probably shouldn’t have read this right after finishing HBO’s Watchmen, which is really more of a sequel than an adaptation.
The graphic novel is a post-modern look at superheroes and who’s actually keeping us safe. There’s also some alternate history involved as well. It’s all flavored with the cynicism that was rampant during the cold-war with nuclear apocalypse always looming on the horizon.
I’ve always been drawn to the darker superheroes who are more gray in their morals than black or white. So the characters in this graphic novel fit right in to my kind of masked crime fighters. There’s also some infighting about whether certain actions should be done for the greater good in the future even if it means catastrophic death in the present. A question that carries a lot of weight, even in today’s post-cold war world.
What spoiled this from being a five star is the length and the ending. I hate endings that just fade out with no real resolution—it’s like a literary shrug. At the best of times it’s obnoxious. And that usually for shorter works. For a graphic novel this long, to just end the way it did makes me feel line I wasted my time.
I would still recommend Watchmen, but I suggest reading it in short bursts rather than in one long session.
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