Before Watchmen - Comedian #6

Before Watchmen – Comedian #6 was probably the best story of the series.  Unfortunately all we got was a retelling of what we already knew about the Comedian and his backstory from reading the original Watchmen series.  We already knew he killed him and now we knew he cried about it.  It says volumes about this Before Watchmen series that a simple recap issue is the best of the set focusing on this character.

Before Watchmen - Ozymandias #6 !!!

Before Watchmen – Ozymandias #6 was simply a retelling of the movie and portions from the original Watchmen comic book.  I was rather disappointed as after the last issue this could have been much more and better.  This was the last chance to do something good with the Watchmen universe and instead just did a basic retread.

Rorschach - Before Watchmen #4 !!!

Before Watchmen – Rorschach #4 was actually really good.  I do not know why there was such a downturn in quality before.  But this issue of Before Watchmen was good.  Rorschach was captured and his mask stolen, the bad guy takes the mask and goes out to kick ass (During the big blackout riots I assume).  Instead the bad guy gets his just reward falling to the mob on the street.  Rorschach escapes with the help of a hungry Tiger.  Then the flashback ends and we see “current” time with Rorschach taking revenge on a different bad guy whom had harmed Rorschach’s lady friend from the dinner.  This issue was good (I think I said that already but added for emphasis).

Dr. Manhattan #4 - Before Watchmen

Before Watchmen – Dr. Manhattan #4 was much much better than I feared the comic would turn out.  The last two issues were boring naval gazing crap.  This issue resolved the crappy story line and moved into through and past the original Watchmen comic and movie.  The cover art of this issue is completely unrelated to the story within the comic which was kind of annoying.  My one big complaint about Dr. Manhattan comic was it was the one with the most old school hero potential and it was wasted.  Dr. Manhattan was the one true not insane hero of the Watchmen universe and all he did was manipulate the universe to give up his free will and impose his will upon the universe to reach an ending he did not like or want.  He could change the world with a though to prevent the end of the world due to Nuclear War if it came to that end.  But instead he imposed order so that the story went only one way.  Ugh so annoying.

The Comedian! Before Watchmen

Comedian #5 or still Before Watchmen is another blah blah blah blah blah issue.  All the Comedian does is talk about how good he is how smart he is how American he is.  This is just repeating the same old same old.  We know the Comedian is insane and actually a bad guy.  That is why his redemption in the original Watchmen series is so important.  But with a full mini-series I’m disappointed (again) that so much time and energy is wasted on covering the same material issue after issue.

Ozymandias - Before Watchmen!

Ozymandias #5 Before Watchmen – this issue was good.  It was more of what I was expecting from Before Watchmen series than we actually were given.  It was the backstory of the watchmen and how that folded into what became the movie.  Not the egotistical ramblings of writers trying to do better than the original Watchmen while not being allowed to actually write anything new.  While I am surprised that Adrian Veidt required so much time to figure out his plan to save humanity.  He goes on and on about how smart he is yet he needed a Sci-Fi TV show to show him the way.  Now we just have to see if this book follows the true comic or the movie version of events.  So far the other comics have hinted more toward the movie.

Dollar Bill! (Before Watchmen)

Dollar Bill one shot number one of one of the Before Watchmen mega series.  Dollar Bill was William Benjamin Brady or Bill for short.  Bill was a sports hero who was injured during his final big game and could not turn professional.  He tried to be a singer but he was terrible.  This forced the man to look for any type of work.  Finally Bill found himself a rather crazy job as the defender of a large banking concern; he became a movie star and eventually a member of the Minutemen.  I believe everyone remembers how his story ended.  This comic was well written and told an interesting story of one of the Minute Men who is just mentioned in passing.  It was a fun read, not sure about the afterword but still a good story.

Minutemen (Before Watchmen)!

Minutemen #6 is a long winded re-re-re-telling of the same story being told in all the other Before Watchmen Comics.  Nothing new happens, we learn nothing new.  This was such a disappointment.  I guess I will need to go back and re-read everything in this mega series once it is finally being done dragged out.

Before Watchmen Moloch

Before Watchmen Moloch #2: This was an excellent yet creepy story.  J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) is a really good writer.  Moloch was barely mentioned in the original Watchmen comic and to see him fleshed out was a great idea.  Issue number one was Moloch’s life story and this issue was a simple single story of his end.  The story connects in a great way things that happened in the original comic; this I am sure was more of what Alan Moore was hoping for when the idea for Before Watchmen was broached.

Nite Owl

Nite Owl number four was really good; it shows what can be done when a real writer writes a comic book.  Someone who is used to writing more than just one liners and quips.  J. Michael Straczynski is one really good writer and even though half the book is just a filler rant that filler rant was really good and moved the story along.  Very good stuff.

Marvel and DC Books!

Avengers Arena AA Murder World #1, well that was horrible. Just ripping off a bad Japanese idea stolen from someone else is really lazy. Was hoping for something better but this is horrible (I’m sorry I bought issue #2).

Before Watchmen Dr. Manhattan #3 and I am thinking what a load of crap. Long winded tripe and I wonder why anyone thought this would be interesting. Dr. Manhattan could be one of the more interesting Watchmen he is one with real power but in this mini-series we just get more mental masturbation that made him so uninteresting in the movie.

Before Watchmen

I have been reading the new “Before Watchmen” comics (all of them) I’m up to date on each series now.  I have to say the issues are rather uneven in quality; some of the books are excellent and other suck.  From reading about this maxi-series I understood that these books would be untold stories of the characters before the Watchmen comic.  But what we are getting is a rehash of the back stories told in the original Watchmen comic.  This points’ out the inherently impossible timeline of some of the characters whom would in some cases had been in the hero business since the 1930s while the main Watchmen story happened in the 1980s.  It makes the stories disjointed and uneven. Do not even get me started in the two pages per issue side story of the zombie pirate story I will not name.  In the original Watchmen comic the Pirate story fit into the main story in timing story and gave another angle at the morals of the main story.  The new story just sucks. 

I do want to say the Moloch series while seemingly slapped together to get more cash out of the series was good so far.  The issues written by JMS show a polish that the other comics are missing.