I finally read Watchmen after 10 years of hearing it's the greatest comic ever

Picked up the trade paperback last month at a shop in Austin. Everyone online says it's this perfect masterpiece of storytelling. But I gotta be honest, I found the pacing kinda slow and the characters hard to care about. Dr. Manhattan is cool I guess, but Rorschach is just annoying. Am I missing something or is this just one of those things you're supposed to say is great?

3 comments

3 Comments

lewis.troy1mo ago

@jana119 nailed it. Rorschach's just a crazy guy in a mask. Whole point is nobody in that book is worth looking up to. Loved the pirate comic side story. Liked it more than the main plot honestly. Pacing's a slog. Had to push through the middle. Space squid's stupid but it's Alan Moore's stupid idea so I respect it. Movie ending is cleaner. Flat out.

jana1191mo ago

Read an interview with Alan Moore where he said he wrote Watchmen to deconstruct superheroes, not celebrate them. That Rorschach character is supposed to be a paranoid lunatic, not a hero you root for. The pacing drags in places though, especially the whole pirate comic within the comic part. I got through it on my second try after a year sitting on my shelf. Still think the movie ending works better than the book's giant space squid.

christopher_wells428d ago

Wait, @jana119 said Alan Moore wrote a whole thing about deconstructing superheroes? I never heard that before, that actually explains a lot... I mean I knew Moore was kind of a grumpy old guy but I didn't realize he came right out and said it like that. It makes me feel a little better about not hating the book honestly, because I was sitting there thinking "am I just too dumb to get this?" Rorschach's definitely supposed to be awful but people online dress up as him and think he's cool, it's wild. Dr. Manhattan's the only one I halfway liked but even he's kind of a bummer. And yeah the space squid is ridiculous but I respect Moore for sticking to it even though everyone said it was dumb.