Before Watchmen: Reviews and Discussion (Spoilers ahoy)

[Nerys Myk]

Thought Cooke did a good with Minutemen in capturing who Hollis is. Never been too pleased with JMS's work, so his books are wait and see.

[DarKush]

Turtletrekker wrote:

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I'm trade-waiting. I'm not really anxious to fork over $140 to get them all, especially since the original is only $13. The only one that I know I'll be getting for sure is Minutemen. The rest will depend on the word of mouth.

I wish I had your will power. I'll at least get the first issues of many of them. I want to try them all out.

[Aldo]

How would a trade work of all of these? I know Minutemen is obviously taking place earlier, but are the other mini's all taking place concurrently?

[Allyn Gibson]

Aldo wrote:

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How would a trade work of all of these? I know Minutemen is obviously taking place earlier, but are the other mini's all taking place concurrently?

Either each mini will be collected separately, or several miniseries will be collected together into a single volume (much like the Flashpoint trades).

I'd bet that DC will eventually do two Absolute editions to match the Watchmen Absolute.

[Aldo]

I finally got around to reading my copy of Minutemen. It took me a minute to get into it, but this really does feel like the start of something special. As for the issue itself, eh, it was all set up. I suppose they're writing these things for people who are new to the universe as well, but it was basically stuff that the hardcore fans already know.

[Admiral_Young]

I'd expect to see regular hardcovers for each mini-series (not sure where they would put the epilogue) and then like Allyn suggested, we'll probably see an Absolute Before Watchmen next year.

[Turtletrekker]

Dave Gibbons doesn't consider "Before Watchmen" to be canon.

"...as far as I’m concerned, what Alan and I did was the Watchmen graphic novel and a couple of illustrations that came out at the same time. Everything else – the movie, the game, the [laughs] prequels - are really not canon. They’re subsidiary. They’re not really Watchmen. They’re just something different."

So how have the various "Before Watchmen" series been so far? As I said upthread, I am depending on word of mouth to make a decision on whether or not to buy the trades. I was hoping to get a lot of that in thyis thread.

[Admiral_Young]

To me the following have been exceptional

-Before Watchmen Minutemen
-Before Watchmen Nite-Owl
-Before Watchmen Silk Spectre

Before Watchmen Comedian started off with a bang, but I thought suffered a drop off in issue two and I'm borderline debating about dropping the thing. The art is fantastic.

Before Watchmen Ozymandias was exceptionally good, something that surprised me since I'm not really a fan of the character or Len Wein, but he did such a great job.

[Set Harth]

Aldo wrote:

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I finally got around to reading my copy of Minutemen. It took me a minute to get into it

*rimshot*

[Admiral_Young]

Not sure that anyone is going to care at this point, but DC have just announced Before Watchmen: Moloch by JMS.

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/jms-...watchment.html

[Aldo]

I'm not sure I ever thought to myself: "Gee, I wouldn't mind seeing a back story for him."

[Admiral_Young]

Yeah. My thoughts exactly when I saw this. I will be passing.

Just an update on what I'm still continuing to read:

-Before Watchmen Minutemen (this is arguably the best of the bunch and most like what I'll be getting in trade when it comes out)

-Before Watchmen Silk Spectre (this has been exceptional so far, both Amanda Connor's artwork and Cooke's writing compliment each other)

-Before Watchmen Ozymandias (this has been the surprise hit for me. Len Wein's writing has exceptional and Jae Lae's art spectacular)

-Before Watchmen Dr. Manhattan (just came out this week, but already awesome. JMS captures the voice so well and Adam Hughes' art is exceptional).

-Before Watchmen Rorschach (this was okay. Much better than the Nite-Owl book has been so far which I'm contemplating dropping).

[Agenda]

Coming soon from DC...

Before Watchmen: Joe Bourquin
Before Watchmen: Doug Roth
Before Watchmen: Bernard

Don't remember who they are? Well, that's just one more reason to buy the books! $$$

[Aldo]

Admiral_Young wrote:

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... than the Nite-Owl book has been so far which I'm contemplating dropping).

Really? It's only two issues in, and I could have sworn the last time we talked about it you were defending it to me, since I wasn't too hot on issue 2.

[Admiral_Young]

I did like it...I'm only contemplating dropping it. It pales in comparison to JMS's work on Dr. Manhattan.