Before Watchmen

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Not since the launch of Image Comics do I recall the amount of public discussion and debate for several months prior to the release of the actual first issue. Now that the first of the actual comic books has hit the stands, I thought it might be nice to have a thread to discuss the comics themselves, rather than the controversy surrounding them.

MINUTEMEN #1: Elsewhere in this forum, Cap has posted a review of this first issue of the first prequel mini-series. I don’t know whether or not he plans to review each issue of every series individually, but if not, here’s a place to discuss them all. For my own part, I liked the way Darwin Cooke has begun to delve into the origins and backgrounds of characters which had only supporting roles in the Moore/Gibbons original. He’s even manage to successfully mimic some of the storytelling tropes of the classic groundbreaking series.

“So far, so good,” says I.

[Jason Marconnet (Pint sized mod)]

Nite Owl number 3 was a good one. There was some good growth of the main character. Before this event is done we are going to get a one shot that wraps everything up. Right now each series has its own focus but this week the overarching factor came into play. With a few exceptions the common thread is Hollis Mason and Under the Hood. While Hollis hasn't popped up in a few series I think we'll still see him. In the original Watchmen it was in there that Under the Hood changed the super hero landscape. I think we'll see that really come into play in the majority of theses minis.

[Rich Steeves]

My take on Ozymandias #3 and Nite Owl #3:

http://www.rpsteeves.com/2012/10/wrapped-up-like-before-watchmen-re...

[Rich Steeves]

What I love about the Silk Spectre series:

http://www.rpsteeves.com/2012/12/wrapped-up-like-comics-review-befo...

[Philip Portelli]

Before Watchmen: Minutemen is one of the best books of the year! It would probably get more credit if it were simply titled Minutemen.

[Randy Jackson]

Honestly, so far I'm enjoying them all save for Dr. Manhattan.  I'm loving Silk Spectre (yes, I know I wasn't so enthused initially), Minutemen and especially Ozymandias. 

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Silk Spectre has been the biggest surprise for me as far as enjoyment. I think they had the perfect creators on that one.

Randy Jackson said:

Honestly, so far I'm enjoying them all save for Dr. Manhattan.  I'm loving Silk Spectre (yes, I know I wasn't so enthused initially), Minutemen and especially Ozymandias. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

OZYMANDIAS #6: This issue brings the saga right up to the beginning of Watchmen #1 and explicitly depicts the behind-the-scenes events readers of the Alan Moore series discovered piecemeal as the story unfolded. This would have been a good issue for the “Before Watchmen” project to go out on, but there’s still one left to go. I wonder what Comedian #6 has in store..?

[Richard Willis]

They originally listed a stand-alone Before Watchmen book called Epilogue #1.

Was this dropped?

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

Jeff, I think Ozymandias #6 was supposed to have been last, but the Comedian series has been running late. It was the third series to start, but will be the last one to finish. They really should have had JG Jones get a bigger jump on the series, as he is slow.

Richard, I don't know if the Epilogue has been dropped or not. I haven't heard anything about it since the initial announcement, nor has there been any solicitation in Previews.