Watchmen

I read Watchmen for the first time this fall. I had been hearing about it for so long that I decided it was really time that I read it. I was amazed how sophisticated it was. I had read a couple of comic books before and Persepolis had been the only other graphic novel, but Watchmen was so different. Watchmen is set in a similar universe during the 1980's. The main difference with the Watchmen universe is that there are super heroes. While these vigilantes were popular for a while, they had fallen out of favor and there was a law passed in 1977 that forbid them from practicing vigilante justice. None of them have any "super" powers, besides Doctor Manhattan, who is used as a weapon and an advantage against the Soviet Union. The story begins with the murder of one of the original Watchmen Edward Blake, the Comedian. The first panel is a close up of his smiley face button with a drip of blood on it sitting in the sewer on the street. The scene zooms out until we see that he was thrown out of his window from a high rise apartment building. The police inspectors have no idea what happened. Rorschach, a super hero who refused to "retire", finds out that Blake was the Comedian and believes that there is a plot to kill off all the costumed adventurers. He tries to convince his old friends of the plot, but has some trouble doing so. Doctor Manhattan banishes himself to Mars when he is accused of causing cancer, which throws the country into political unrest because he was a huge weapon. His wife Laurie Juspeczyk, who is the second Silk Spectre, goes and stays with her old friend Dan Dreiberg, the second Nite Owl. They form a romance and break Rorschach out of prison to help him stop the plot against the costumed adventurers. They discover that it was Adrian Veidt who killed the Comedian and he plans on a larger scale attack on the city. He destroys much of the city, giving humanity a chance to start over. Rorschach does not believe this is right and Doctor Manhattan kills him before leaving for another galaxy.
The story is an amazing testament to what graphic novels are capable of. The art and writing in Watchmen is incredible. I have never felt so moved by characters or art while reading. I think that Rorschach's mask of ever changing ink blots is an awesome idea. It is so completely different from any other super hero costume I have ever seen or read about. I enjoy the dark undertones of the entire story and how even though the Watchmen do good, they are somewhat hated. Their involvement in justice is morally ambiguous. The colors used in the book are also very vibrant and emotional. The contrast of the red blood on the yellow happy face button is intense. Rorschach's journal entries may be my favorite part of the novel. I enjoyed reading it again and cannot wait to see the movie.