This is a bit of a review for all 12 issues, as a whole, of Watchmen. There are some I particularly like more than others, but this book works best as a whole.

There is a reason people have called this, "The Citizen Kane of Comics". There's a reason it's on Times "100 Best Novels" list. I just can't believe it took me this long to read it.

SPOILERS!

I'm engrossed in this world. These characters are all so interesting. Each one, for the most part, has these horrible quirks that I find so appealing. Rorschach is a complete badass, yet the guy has no qualms about murdering a criminal. Comedian has a take-no-prisoners attitude along with a "what's mine is mine" motto. Veidt has the best intentions in mind, but is ruthless and uncaring.

Aside from the death of half of New York, I am a huge fan of realistic endings. Realistic? Yes, sometimes evil wins. Not only do they win, they obliterate good. It's a kick to the reader's face to see everything go down in the last chapter. This book questions morality. Is it ok to kill half of a major city in order to stop a possible nuclear war? Any book that gets me thinking and questioning my morality gets the highest regards in my book. As a child who grew up in the 80s, we were always worried about the reds, are they going to bomb us? This book probably hits a little harder to people that are in their mid-twenties and up.

My favorite thing about this book is at it's core, it's a multiple character study. Each major character seems to have his/her own issue discussing more intimate details of their past or personal life which really gives you insight into who they really are under the mask. Especially the issue in which Kovacs is talking to the psychiatrist as he conducts the Rorschach test. There is so much depth to this book, it's ridiculous. I would love to write more, but I'll feel as though it will turn into an essay, I'll leave that for another day.



Buy it in trade, sit down and read the best series in comic book history.

You might of noticed I gave Watchmen 2 1/2 stars. You might wonder why. Ill tell you. Watchmen is an amazing novel. It blew me away.Until the ending. Its like Alan Moore did it on purpose. It feels like this is the alternate version of how it COULD have ended. But no. This actual the ending. This is  the worst ending to an amazing novel Iv ever read. Let me explain. Ill warn you that this review has Major Spoilers.The Comedian is killed. The book starts off with men washing his blood of the sidewalk. Detectives talk about them not needing vigilantes to get involved. They mention the Keene Act of 77 which banned Masked Avengers. They mention that the all Superheros went into retirement except for Rorschach. Look for the sake of time Ill skip ahead to chapter 4 were they explain Dr. Manhattans origins, his romance with Janey Slater  and Silk Spectre. Also this is were the chapters from the book, Hollis Manson's "Under The Hood" ends. And every article or chapter after it doesnt really matter and for the most part has little to do with the book. In fact the ending of the book makes alot of things seem pointless to story material since it betrays the concept at the end. Now I keep mentioning it. The end, the end. Which actually is what this book is mostly about. You wonder whats so bad about the ending? Ok then Ill tell you. Since this book is so complex its hard to put it in a nutshell which makes it hard to write a review. So your gonna have to read it in order to catch up with me. In chapter 12 half of the city of New York is dead. Seeing all the bodies your relieved to see Dr. Manhattan is back in New York. Surely he'll fix all this, right? Him and Silk Spectre teleport to Veidt's(the guys who did all this) lair in Antarctica. Tachyons that Veidt planted weaken Dr. Manhattan. Veidt tells Rorschach and Nite Owl why and how he did this, etc. Now here Im waiting for Rorschach to kill him or something. The damage is done but at the very least the nuclear war didnt happen. But no. So Veidt runs off into another room when Dr. Manhattan arrives. He leads him into some machine that throws Jon's(Dr Manhattans) molecules everywhere. Then Silk Spectre shoots Veidt but he catches the bullet. He takes out Silk Spectre and Nite Owls and Rorschach shows up and he goes into another speech. Dr. Manhattan shows up and basically compares him to a termite. Veidt shows them the horror hes done to New York on tv and hes in tears because hes so proud of his accomplishment. He tells them that next he'll help Earth to utopia. Silk Spectre tells him hes not getting away with this and Dr. Mahattan says he is and everybody's ok with it. Yep. Anyways Rorschach is the only one who doesn't agree and walks out. Nite Owl and Silk Spectre figures its a good time to have sex. Better time then any, Im sure. Rorschach gets on a snow bike to go back to America and expose Veidt. Dr. Manhattan say he cant let him do that. Rorschach tells him that of course, he has to protect Veidts new utopia. He ask Jon waits he waiting for, to do it. To which Dr. Manhattan has no other chose but to kill Rorschach which he did. He finds Dreiberg and Laurie sleeping nude. He smiles and goes to Veidt. Veidt tells him he feels awful about what happend to those people but someone had to do it. He says that he hopes Jon understands, unlike Rorschach. Jon tells him Rorschach wont be a problem. He asks Jon if he thinks he did the right thing in the end. Jons tells him that nothing ever ends and then vanishes. Wow. F-cking amazing right? Well anyways Daniel and Laurie(Nite Owl and Silk Spectre) goes to Laurie's mothers house for Christmas. Apparently Laurie found out that The Comedian is he father and we find out that Laurie's mother (The frist Silk Spectre) is in love with him even though he tried to rape her way back then. Now to end the book we see this Detective yelling at some intern. Thats it. THATS THE END. No no no its not enough for them to slap me in my face and spit on me but they have to finish me off with a kick in the balls. There were SOOOOO many useless back stories in this book. It doesnt matter cause they died along with half the city. You know who else died? RORSCHACH. For being the only one who took action in the frist place. The only one who never stopped his vigilante activities despite the Keene Act and the only one shared a belief similar to mine MORTALITY. Im not buying into that whole kill a few million for mankind's survival. I mean Veidt sure seems pretty damn happy to find all the damage done on all those televisions. Almost as if he gets off on it. It seemed that he was trilled that people are dead. His whole plan was to kill a few millions. It doesnt take much preparation to do so. And if your going to go throw the effort why not put into avoiding Nuclear War. And what about our dear friend Dr. Malcolm Long? Or The News-stand guy. Or the two woman arguing. Whats the point of introducing those characters at all? And we cant forget about Hollis Mason. The Original Nite Owl. Murdered in his own home. What happened to Daniel avenging him? Oh, right no need. See those guys are all dead. So many flaws but Iv made this review to long. This is all I have to say. If you have a bitter taste in your mouth after reading this then take comfort in the fact that your not the only one.