Customer Reviews

Absolute Watchmen

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There are really two issues here: the merits of Watchmen itself, and the merits of this particular edition. Because I have seen some of my reviews crop up for editions other than the one they were originally posted for, please let me stress that I'm posting this review for the Hardcover Absolute Edition.

Whether or not this edition is right for you depends on what you hope to get out of it. This book is beautiful to look at, and as the "absolute" edition, it includes a great many interesting extras that all Watchmen fans will appreciate. So if you're looking for a great book to simply leaf through, the Hardcover Absolute Edition is definitely the one I'd recommend. On the other hand, it is also a bit too big and unwieldy for comfort. For this reason it's more of a coffee-table book than something you want to just lie back and immerse yourself in. If you actually want to "read the book" in the sense that I'd normally use those words, save yourself some money and go with Watchmen. Trust me: you'll have a far more enjoyable reading experience if you aren't constantly trying to grapple with an object approaching the size and weight of a library atlas.

Well, so much for the battle of the editions. Now how about Watchmen itself?

On this I can only repeat what I said in my original review of Watchmen: the cyclopean reputation of this work is entirely deserved. I don't want to give away any spoilers, so I'm going to keep things abstract. Watchmen simultaneously deconstructs its own genre while giving voice to one of the great "absolutes" of literary fiction: the human quest for morality and meaning in an inherently meaningless and amoral universe. Perhaps this latter aspect explains why the aptly named "Rorschach" has become so iconic of this work as a whole.

Amazingly, Watchmen achieves all this while simultaneously spinning a superheroic epic that easily holds its own against anything you're going to find in the latest avengers/xmen/blackest night/justice league cosmic crossover.

Speaking of Justice League, it's interesting to think about just how much the Project Cadmus storyline in Justice League Unlimited, Seasons 1-2 (DC Comics Classic Collection) owes to Watchmen. Indeed, I find that I can't help but draw comparisons. Justice League Unlimited is most certainly its own show, and by no means a slavish remake of Watchmen. Yet both, in their own way, take a long hard look at the myth of the superhero and ask us if this is really something that we would want. Certainly, it can be no accident that in the Project Cadmus story, The Question takes the central role that he does. In Alan Moore's original proposal for Watchmen, the role ultimately filled by Rorschach was then taken by The Question.

But where the Project Cadmus story arc races headlong towards the edge of the abyss only to back away at the last second, explaining with an apologetic cough and a nervous giggle that really, it's only a children's show after all, Watchmen careens off the edge of that abyss at full speed without hesitating for so much as a heartbeat. It leaves us suspended anchorless mid-air, entirely on our own in our attempts to re-orient ourselves as we hurtle directionless through this new void.

It's not for nothing that Watchmen is widely acknowledged as one of the defining works of its medium.

The bottom line? BUY IT. In whatever edition works for you.

Theo.

I won't reiterate the universally glowing reviews of Watchmen that are in other reviews, suffice to say that Watchmen, along with Frank Millers "The Dark Knight Returns," is the book that shoved graphical storytelling (oh, all right, comics) out of strictly children's fare into truly adult material that stands on its own as true literature. Many people look down their noses at graphical stories, but that is simply snobbery. This book is an example of what a truly gifted writer and artist can do with the comics medium.

That said, this edition is only for the superfan. It is incredibly reproduced with some interesting additional material; but, if you have not yet read it, get a cheaper version, because the Absolute Editions are quite pricy. The additional material will not add anything to your reading pleasure. You are not missing out. But for the superfan like me, this is a lot of fun to have and is a great addition to any library.