Before Watchmen

Before Watchmen: Ozymandias 1-6

It’s impressive how writer Len Wein can take a story that’s pretty much completely told in Watchmen and add just enough new detail to make it compelling and interesting to read.  He apes Alan Moore’s style well enough for this to feel like it belongs in the same universe (as opposed to yesterday’s offerings).  

Much of the credit needs to be given to Jae Lee, whose beautiful, cold, twisted style is perfect for the character of Adrian Veidt.  

Love June Chung's colors on Miranda's eye in the bottom panel.

A rare instance where the Kennedys are drawn as grotesque villains.  Nice Marilyn.

I like the Silk Spectre pose.

I was wondering the whole series how Wein would handle Marla's fate.  I liked her.

So I noticed this thing while writing this: Jae Lee has this running theme of showing the back of Ozymandias, centered in the middle of the page.  Because it intrigued me to do so, I looked at how many times he does it over the source of the series.  Get ready for a lot of pages... 

It's pretty amazing.  If I had the time, I'd come up with some analysis of what it means.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Before Watchmen: Dr Manhattan 1-4

Here’s the opposite end of the spectrum, where JM Straczynski tries and fails to add anything new to Dr Manhattan’s story.  He tries to make things interesting by adding a bunch of Sliding Doors scenarios, but they ultimately don’t do much.  

It’s always great to see Adam Hughes doing interior pages, but it’s a shame that they canceled All-Star Wonder Woman so that he could work on this.  What a waste of the man’s talents.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice