Why is Watchmen so highly acclaimed?

Yes, it is true.

Now, WAS IT SARCASM?

It's not exactly naive. And it can happen. But it's tough. And definetly worthwhile.

My post? No. I'm genuinely curious if it did. I know fuck all about the Western comic book industry history wise.

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

Aw, sorry. It's just that I cannot take caps seriously. But, yeah, they did bring such a consequence. Mostly from missing the point of both novels (well, maybe not TDKR) In fact Moore wrote Supreme as a reconstruction of the Silver Age.

edited 22nd Jan '11 10:39:19 PM by juancarlos11

It's not exactly naive. And it can happen. But it's tough. And definetly worthwhile.

Sorry about that. This misunderstanding over the internet thing is such a common bother...BOTHER I SAY.

Ah. So then I was right about that. It caused us to fall into the DARK ages of doom and Liefeld because people missed the point. I know something!

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

Yay!! Here's a cake for you victory!

But yes. Watchmen did lead to the Dark Age. Something Moore has allegedly regretted so much, that he wrote Supreme and Tom Strong in order to recontruct the genre.

Theres sex and death and human grime in monochrome for one thin dime and at least the trains all run on time but they dont go anywhere.

It wasn't the end of the Silver Age, however; that ended a few years earlier - this was during the period now dubbed the Bronze Age.

Well-thought-out plot, believable characters, good art, etc.

New RP!

... silly me.

Huh?

Yeah, that was pretty much the situaton and time. I think (As Im a little bit unsure about the eighties) that this was the time of Mark Waid.

Awesome Mark Waid...

edited 22nd Jan '11 11:29:52 PM by juancarlos11

It's not exactly naive. And it can happen. But it's tough. And definetly worthwhile.

^ I forgot the Bronze Age existed.

Mark Waid was actually later, during the end of the Dark Age / beginning of the Modern Age (Rust Age?). His run on The Flash and Kingdom Come, as well as Kurt Busiek writing Marvels and Astro City helped the Dark Age come to an end.

Heh, I thought Kingdom Come was at the very least a decade later than his Flash run.

It's not exactly naive. And it can happen. But it's tough. And definetly worthwhile.

He actually wrote The Flash from 1992-1997 and wrote Kingdom Come in 1996.

Wow, that's gotta be a pretty big mistake I did there.

But yeah, Watchmen is awesome because of all the reasons posted and more. Much more. Likethe documents and diaries.

It's not exactly naive. And it can happen. But it's tough. And definetly worthwhile.

For me it was the story treating it's characters as if they were real people. The rest of the comic I didn't really care for, it was really good, especially in comparison to other superhero comics. But it was just 'good' not super great.

I honestly don't understand either. It was an above-average read, until you get to the ending, but I don't see why so many people love it so much. Dennis O'Neil's run on The Question told similarly toned stories much better, and didn't get near the love and hype that Watchmen did.

edited 25th Jan '11 8:21:22 AM by Ronnie

I loved every single frame of it because it was well written, funny, sad, raw and powerful at the same time. It had great characters and it took it's own time to develop them, in a format that is still copied to this day (While watchmen is not by any means the Trope Maker of the A Day in the Limelight/Flashback episode trope, it certainly is Trope Codifier) It created one of the most believable and complete superhero settings in history, mit had Loads And Loads Of Characters (some of whom never even appear!) and yet it managed to make full fleshed realationships from all of them. It put forward several questions of the superhero genre that to this day are still asked. It had a beautiful art style. It had some of the greatest framing the comic industry has seen. All in all, it was powerful. It also had an ending that brought that actually contributed to the story, instead of just capping it off (Like so many other comics) And to this day I'm proud I read it. And I don't think I'll ever stop being proud.

It's not exactly naive. And it can happen. But it's tough. And definetly worthwhile.

Hear's a hint. Try reading it and see for yourself.

Closet DCLAU fan.

I love Dennis O'Neil's run on The Question. So awesome. But it is in no way the same tone as Watchmen.

There is a great (meta) example of this too: Vic Sage picks up a copy of Watchmen at the airport and reads it on the plane. He decides that he's going to adopt some of Rorschach's methods and tries them out the next time...only to get his ass handed to him. "Rorschach sucks," Vic concludes.

The Question was more about zen and thinking before doing - whenever Vic went off without thinking about what he was going to do first, he always lost the fight (even if he survived). He was more of an introspective hero, always wondering how far was too far (he once left a mook hanging on a ledge...then came back to help him even when the mook had killed somebody).

Similar means like, not identical. And in this case, it also means "superior". Watchmen went for 'realism' and overshot to 'People suck'. Dennis managed to capture realism and show flawed people in a flawed place without going that far.

Actually one of the main points of Watchmen is that people don't suck.

It's not exactly naive. And it can happen. But it's tough. And definetly worthwhile.

I've been told that but I can't see how the hell that works when your protagonists cross the Moral Event Horizon and get to enjoy a perfectly happy ending and your villain is utterly unpunished. That's pretty much "People and the world they live in suck", to me.

Yeah, but your villain is nothing more than Anti-Hero dividing between type 4/5. Your heroes don't enjoy a happy ending. It's strongly implied through out the story that Dan and Laurie are not precisely the happiest couple of all time. Manhattan finally says good by to humanity, meaning that the situation will probably cool down a lot more after the Squid.

And the whole ending has an implied Or Is It?. So the ending is not a perfect Bad Guy Wins anyway.

It's not exactly naive. And it can happen. But it's tough. And definetly worthwhile.

See, now if he didn't fucking murder New York, I might agree about him being an Anti-Hero. But as to the rest, hey, they're alive, they're having an average marriage from what I could see, and Jon goes off to be God. I fail to see how anyone gets what's coming to them, and that is part of why I loathe Watchmen.

A) He still has a legtimately good motivation. Which is pretty much what makes characters like The Punisher Anti Heroes.

B) If the diary comes out and is taken as a legitimate source of information. Veidt will be called to court, and at the very least Laurie and Dan would be subpoena'd too (Rorshach talked about Dan in the diary, and I think that by now everyone knows who Silk Spectre was and who she was shagging)

C) The whole point of Dr. Manhattan is a big, deliciously anvilicious (Yeah, I know it's redundant but I like the sound of it) Humans Are Special aesop.

But, the fact that we're having this discussion is what makes Watchmen a great book in my eyes. It's the kind of book that makes you think. You may not like what it says. But you're listening.

It's not exactly naive. And it can happen. But it's tough. And definetly worthwhile.