DDMAN26 wrote: Am I missing something that maybe another reading could cure.
instant_karma wrote:Watchman has been out for a few years now, and has had a pretty massive influence on the superhero genre, so perhaps reading later works that owe a debt to Watchman has lessened it's impact.
You are holding the book the right way up, right?
instant_karma wrote:Watchman has been out for a few years now, and has had a pretty massive influence on the superhero genre, so perhaps reading later works that owe a debt to Watchman has lessened it's impact.
MasterWhedon wrote:instant_karma wrote:Watchman has been out for a few years now, and has had a pretty massive influence on the superhero genre, so perhaps reading later works that owe a debt to Watchman has lessened it's impact.
Yeah, that's where I come from. I read Watchmen for the first time about six months ago and thoroughly enjoyed it, but it was one of those instances where it was hard for me to divorce the work itself from its history, from all the hype that's placed upon it.
There's also the fact that I was four-years-old when it came out, so I've grown up reading comics in Watchmen's shadow. Any number of the ideas first expressed in there have been elaborated upon (for better or worse) in other comics I've read, therefore diluting the impact somewhat.
I prefer Powers to Watchmen when it comes to superhero deconstruction, but I get why people are so head-over-heels for it.
instant_karma wrote:Watchman has been out for a few years now, and has had a pretty massive influence on the superhero genre, so perhaps reading later works that owe a debt to Watchman has lessened it's impact.
You are holding the book the right way up, right?
MasterWhedon wrote:There's also the fact that I was four-years-old when it came out
Adam Balm wrote:instant_karma wrote:Watchman has been out for a few years now, and has had a pretty massive influence on the superhero genre, so perhaps reading later works that owe a debt to Watchman has lessened it's impact.
You are holding the book the right way up, right?
You know, I'm kind of in the same boat as Whedo in that I was just a tyke when it came out. I think I only read it for the first time around 2000 or so. But I guess I had the opposite reaction. I could see all the works that were later derivative---er influenced---by it but I remember being surprised at the time when I realized that what I was reading was almost twenty years old and that in my opinion still nothing had come along to equal it.
It wasn't really that it deconstructed the genre, or that it was dark or 'edgy' or any other reason that most people give when they talk about why they think it's so brilliant. Since then we've all seen superheroes cursing, fucking, being psychotic, or being completely amoral. We've seen a billion attempts at 'superheroes...but in the real world!' and so none of that was terribly interesting to me. What impressed me, and still does, is the level of density in the work. Yeah, it's pretentious, but here in a field such as comics, where everything is quick and dirty, easily digested and soon forgotten( Hell, we call 120 page illustrated books 'graphic novels'), here was something that felt like literature. It was labyrinthine, hard to read at times, and it was like nothing that came before it. To me, Watchmen is still one of the only superhero comics that I would deem worthy of the title 'graphic novel'.
unikrunk wrote:Is there not a Watchmen thread?
Adam Balm wrote:unikrunk wrote:Is there not a Watchmen thread?
No one was more surprised than me to find out that, no, we don't have a Watchmen comic thread. There's one for the movie, but not one for the comic oddly enough.
Orcus wrote:I just checked out http://www.aintitcool.com/node/31814 and the image of Rorshach was gone. Did someone complain?
Teh Balm wrote:It wasn't really that it deconstructed the genre, or that it was dark or 'edgy' or any other reason that most people give when they talk about why they think it's so brilliant. Since then we've all seen superheroes cursing, fucking, being psychotic, or being completely amoral. We've seen a billion attempts at 'superheroes...but in the real world!' and so none of that was terribly interesting to me. What impressed me, and still does, is the level of density in the work. Yeah, it's pretentious, but here in a field such as comics, where everything is quick and dirty, easily digested and soon forgotten( Hell, we call 120 page illustrated books 'graphic novels'), here was something that felt like literature. It was labyrinthine, hard to read at times, and it was like nothing that came before it. To me, Watchmen is still one of the only superhero comics that I would deem worthy of the title 'graphic novel'.
Lady Sheridan wrote:I still have to read it. I finally managed to pry a copy (one of the three he owns) out of the hands of a friend--and without giving "Pride of Baghdad" as hostage in return.
It's on my spring break "to do" list which seems to grow ever longer, argg.
DDMAN26 wrote:About a year ago I picked up Watchmen (..) it doesn't cross into that great category for me, like the Dark Knight did or Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Lady Sheridan wrote:
Of course, I was really into V for Vendetta and then ended up really disliking it by the end, so I could totally turn on it.
DinoDeLaurentiis wrote:You are a the dead to me... DEAD!
Lady Sheridan wrote:Ok, I'm about halfway through--oh, I'll just read a bit...and found myself at the part where Nite Owl redons the suit before I knew it.
I've tried to avoid spoilers with some success, but I've been so sucked into it that everything I knew about it flew out of my head. It's still surprising me--when Rorschach was unmasked, I was all "Whoa! That's who it is!" And that panel's been floating around the Zone for how long? I love when books and movies do that.
Of course, I was really into V for Vendetta and then ended up really disliking it by the end, so I could totally turn on it.
buster00 wrote:Lady Sheridan wrote:
Of course, I was really into V for Vendetta and then ended up really disliking it by the end, so I could totally turn on it.
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As a great man once said to me:DinoDeLaurentiis wrote:You are a the dead to me... DEAD!
Lady Sheridan wrote:I finished this on Friday...terrific! I can honestly say this is the first Moore book I have liked beginning to end. Unlike the thread title, I get the hype.
I've had people tell me they "still don't get everything that's going on" in Watchmen, but I didn't feel that way at all. I didn't feel like there was anything to decode. It requires a bit of interpretation and you can debate whether Ozy was right, or whether Dr. Manhattan & Co were right not to "turn him in" but I don't think the story is as cryptic as people make out. Am I wrong?
unikrunk wrote:Manhattan on Mars is some of the best writing in a comic book you will ever read.
DennisMM wrote:Rorschach was based directly on The Question. Rorschach, in the original Watchmen proposal, was The Question.
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