Before Watchmen: Thoughts?

[TheFerg714]

I know I'm about five years late to the party, but I just read all of Before Watchmen (for whatever reason) and really wanted to hear what the rest of the comic community thought of it (if anyone read it in the first place). Here's my quick thoughts:

Minutemen- Fantastic, and a worthy spinoff of the original. When I inevitably reread Watchmen, I plan on reading Minutemen first. DC should've started with this one to test the waters. I think people would've been much more open to the idea of Watchmen prequels if this had been the only series to start with.

Silk Spectre- A fun read, with glorious artwork and panel layout, but can't see myself caring enough to read it again.

Ozymandias- Another fun read, that I kind of enjoyed while reading it, but then came to realize that it's literally just full of really lame/lazy explanations for plot points in Watchmen. Ie: Comedian just happened upon Adrian's plan; Adrian decided to be a superhero because he had a junkie girlfriend for few pages that died.

Nite Owl/Dr. Manhattan- These were solid stories, but extremely forgettable imo.

The Comedian- Boring. Dull. Everything wrong with Before Watchmen.

Rorschach- Pure garbage. Almost everything about it sucks.

Crimson Corsair- Started off interesting enough, but became really tiresome. The "twist" at the end was about as bad as "who was phone."

Moloch/Dollar Bill- Pointless.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

I only read the two Darwyn Cooke series, which were both fantastic, and Dr Manahattan, which had an OK story but beautiful art. The rest I'm less interested in - though the caliber on artists was pretty great throughout.

I don't think any of it really takes away from Watchmen at all - or adds to it for that matter. They range between fun spin-offs and glorified fan fiction but it's really nothing to get upset about.

[TheFerg714]

I only read the two Darwyn Cooke series, which were both fantastic, and Dr Manahattan, which had an OK story but beautiful art. The rest I'm less interested in - though the caliber on artists was pretty great throughout.

I don't think any of it really takes away from Watchmen at all - or adds to it for that matter. They range between fun spin-offs and glorified fan fiction but it's really nothing to get upset about.

Totally agree. Although I think it could've been done in a more responsible way. Like maybe don't shove 50 issues down our throats and just assume that everyone would be okay with it. The artists were brilliant (although JG Jones and Bermejo didn't even attempt to take inspiration from Watchmen), but the writers could use some work. Apparently they were trying to strong-arm Cooke into writing every series, but he negotiated down to one and a half. Azzarrello did not work, Len Wein felt try-hard, and Stracynszki's work was kind of lifeless imo.

[ed2962]

I liked Dr Manhattan and Silk Spectre. I thought Minutemen was pretty good but it was a little too close to being a normal superhero comic. I got the first issue of Comedian for free and did not enjoy it. Got some random issue of Nite Owl as a give away, I while I thought the craft was there, I felt it was just another superhero comic. I didn't read any of the others.

[Jody Garland]

I enjoyed them all. I think the best was obviously Minutemen, which was fantastic on every level. As for the others:

Silk Spectre: Amanda Connor's art elevates this to a fantastic love letter to a bygone era. The story itself made me care about a character that I outright disliked in Watchmen.

Ozymandias: Pretty good as well. Really adds some depth to Veidt as well as giving him more similarities to Thunderbolt. I'm a sucker for Jae Lee's artwork too.

Nite-Owl: I really liked the central conflict about Dan's morals here. Ultimately I think he failed morally in Watchmen proper, but his story here is interesting and multi layered.

Dr. Manhatten: Nicely cerebral. Not a whole lot to add.

Comedian: I like Azzarello's grittieniess, and the unrelenting grime that pervades this story and intertwines with real life figures gives Eddie Blake a much more Boogyman-esque quality. Expanding on his relationship with the Kennedys was a wise move. The whole subplot about him killing Bobby Kennedy was surprising and bold.

Rorschach: Solid crime story. Like I said, I like Azarrelo for those.

Dollar Bill & Moloch: Much stronger than I expected. Moloch in particular tugged at the heart strings.

Overall, they didn't lite the world on fire or anything, but I enjoyed them nonetheless.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I only read Silk Spectre and Minutemen, which were both great, although I didn't like how they turned Comedian into an all-knowing, all-seeing supervillain, rather than the amoral scumbag anti-hero he was in Watchmen.

The rest seemed pretty awful.

[WillieMorgan]

They were decent enough. They were nowhere near the quality of the original Watchmen series itself, which is my favourite comic book of all time, but they passed muster so to speak. Like the other replies we've had I also thought the best of the bunch was the Minutemen.

I actually enjoyed the Comedian one better than the overall critical consensus. One of the first things the story does is to heavily imply that Blake murders Marilyn Monroe as a favour to Jackie Kennedy so I'm not sure where the accusations of him starting off as more righteous but growing more amoral as both the Sixties go on and the Vietnam War grind him down come from. He's always been an arse Eddie Blake . I also liked the twist that Azzarello later employed. Turns out Blake DID kill a Kennedy, just not the one everyone assumed.

[WillieMorgan]

As a bit of an aside, I'd also like to point out that the Watchmen prequels all did a very good job of capturing the essence of the historical periods they were set in.

The Rorschach story isn't particularly captivating by itself but it does do a great job of recreating the grimness of 1970's New York. The city was experiencing a fierce heatwave during July 1977 in reality. A devastating blackout actually did occur that month and the city was reeling under the terror of the Son Of Sam serial killer. The story brings those years back to life very effectively for me.

In fact, they all worked very well as period pieces irrespective of the quality of the stories themselves. Amanda Conner's art is worth buying the Silk Spectre issues for just by itself.

EDIT - Finally, I don't think that I've ever hated a comic-book character and his actions anywhere close to the extent that I abhor Adrian Veidt in the Moloch storyline. What a bastard.