Wait, what?
Spending more than 5 bucks on a graphic novel is something special?
I can hardly find regular comics that cost less than around the equivalence of 4-5 dollars.
(By regular comics I mean stuff like… Well, Sherman’s Lagoon and The Far Side are two I can think of off the top of my head that aren’t more or less only known here. Anyway, you know the kind I mean. (Up to) Three panel stories and cheap gags. Not a lot of “comics is art” there.)
Anything else than those kinds of comics, and the cheapest is probably around the equivalence of 10 dollars.
Also, I’m actually sitting with the Watchmen graphic novel right now.
I’m at the library, and I guess I’ll borrow it and finish it later since I probably won’t have to to read it all right now.
I’ve barely gotten past the second part of “Under the Hood”, though. So can’t say I have any real comments about it so far.
Hmm… Finishing The Watchmen graphic novel, I’m disappointed.
The ending just left me thinking “Wow, for the smartest man in the world, you sure are dumb!”
I mean seriously… His “great masterplan” to end all wars were to manufacture an outside threat in the form of an “alien invasion”. And sure, that might work… For a while.
But if the threat does not actually exist to escalate the conflict, humanity will turn upon itself as soon as the paranoia passes and boredom kicks in. He probably wouldn’t even have time to die of old age before his awesome plan falls apart.
Even without Rorscharc’s story ever being printed.
All in all, I found the pirate comic, that the kid on the street corner is reading, much more interesting than the “real” comic.
If I had to pay money for anything, (Which I didn’t. Well stocked libraries rule!) I would rather have bought the comics that the kid was reading, than The Watchmen.
I just took it out of the library and finished it. I was hooked for some parts of it. The storytelling was really good - the parallel conversations and quick segues between them were done well and kept things interesting. The chapter with the viewpoint of Dr. Manhattan and the way he views time was very intriguing. However, I was disappointed in where many of the characters were taken, and I agree that the story as a whole ended up being anticlimactic. There wasn’t anything that really grabbed me about it by the end. Rorschach was my favorite character, but he was a little too humanized.
As for Veidt, I agree that his whole idea is full of holes. Firstly, why would have have to kill three million people? Maybe I can say this with the hindsight of 9/11, but a few thousand people would have galvanized the world just as well. Why couldn’t he have teleported his monstrosity into some hick town instead of the center of New York? And the other problem was just brought up by pokefreak, which is that since there obviously is no invasion, the tension would have just come back (except that the Soviet Union stopped existing soon after, of course, but Moore couldn’t have known that).
I think the reason he picked the center of New York was not because of the death count (since, as you say, a few thousand could work just as well), but to make sure people will notice it.
People dying are a tragedy, no matter where. But to make his plan work, the “invasion” had to get major international news coverage.
“NEW YORK UNDER ATTACK BY ALIENS!” has a bigger impact than “[Smaller town that is not internationally known] wiped out under mysterious circumstances”.
Fine, but then he could have tried for a slightly smaller apocalypse, or placed it somewhere else important but not as densely packed. Hell, 9/11 itself happened in New York but millions of people didn’t die. If he really claims to be feeling guilt over every death, why would he cause so much more death than he needs to?
I honestly “ehh”-ed at the story. I really enjoyed most of the characters, though. Especially the Comedian. It echoed possibility.
Sorc: Would you consider giving it another go? There have books in the past that I really haven’t enjoyed too much my first time around, primarily do to distractions or stress, that turned out to be well more then decent the second time around.
I always thought Veidt’s plan being tremendously flawed was sort of the point. Making band-aids out of bodies instead of actually solving the problem (see: The Cold War, The War on Drugs, The War on Terror, etc.) doesn’t really ever work. It is also an allusion to Truman’s decision at the end of World War Two, which, when one considers Rorschach’s reactions to each, is tremendously important for his character.
A message is thus sent that even the world’s smartest man becomes a fool if he starts to believe the ends justify the means; Veidt is physically, mentally, and emotionally extremely strong, but his decision was the start of a slippery slope that not even a true hero could stop descending once he had begun.
I read the Watchmen, and enjoyed it so much that I bought the nice hardbound edition that just came out Maybe I’ll get around to why later; I’m not exactly sure why I liked it so much myself.
Anyway, for the Alan Moore fans there’s a collection of comics he did while he worked at DC called DC Universe: The stories of Alan Moore, which includes “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow” and everyone’s favorite “The Killing Joke,” which also got a separate publication with new coloring by the artist, which is pretty cool when compared to the original in this compilation. Definetly something to look for if like interesting twists on “classic” (remember this is the 1980’s) characters.
Maybe I’ll get around to why later; I’m not exactly sure why I liked it so much myself.