The Watchmen
After watching "The Dark Knight" and also seeing the awesome trailer of "The Watchmen" I decided to revisit said trade paperback. For those of you who don't know, a trade paper back is a collection of smaller issues of comic books that are put into graphic novel form. Now that we have that little bit of geek jargon out of the way let me get on to the important parts.
(Ozymandias)
"The Watchmen," written by Alan Moore of "V for Vendetta" fame, wanted to write an adult comic; a comic that crossed the generation gap while simultaneously commenting on modern society and specifically American Society. The thing is, while doing this Moore might have written the most beautiful, tragic, and darkest comic book series that the world has ever seen. Certainly it is one of the top ten greatest comic books ever written.
Warning: Some spoilers are ahead, but only the basic plot beginning.
The story begins with the murder of one of the "Minute Men" a superhero group from the 1940's alternate history U.S. From here the story spirals into a thickening plot of a "mask killer" conspiracy, the dissolutionment of those heroes who are alive after masked vigilantism has been out-lawed, and possible nuclear annihilation of the world via growing tensions between Nixon (creepy, huh) run U.S.A. and the communist Russia. These problems escalate when the U.S.'s only real super-powered superhero Dr. Manhattan (Doctor Jon Osterman) decides to leave the planet Earth for Mars after allegations that contact with him causes cancer.
(Rorschach)
The story is beautifully written, with large excerpts from media of the world that "The Watchmen" takes place in. These include the psychiatric evaluations of "Rorschach," a brutally violent masked vigilante bent on stopping evil at any cost, and parts of "Under the Hood" a book written by one of "The Minute Men," Hollis Mason who went by the name "Nite Owl."
(Nite Owl 2)
(The Comedian)
http://watchmenmovie.warnerbros.com/