Before Watchmen Ozymandias - Crimson Corsair by Len Wein

Title: Before Watchmen: Ozymandias - Crimson Corsair - Dollar Bill
Author: Len Wein
Publisher: DC Comics
Rating: worthy
Illustrated by Jae Lee and John Higgins.

This pretty much concludes my entire venture into the Before Watchmen series of comics, and I have to say that this particular one was a mixed bag. I loved the Ozymandius story - I think it was the best of all of them, or at least ties with Silk Spectre, but I thought the Crimson Corsair story nonsensical and boring. There was an unexpected treat at the end of this volume in the form of a very short story featuring Dollar Bill, which was appreciated.

I reviewed Minutemen - Silk Spectre back in April, along with Nite Owl - Dr Manhattan, and Comedian - Rorschach

Ozymandius was always, to me, the most intriguing of the Watchmen, and I have to say that although the illustration in general was very good in this story, the Ozymandius character was almost nauseatingly drawn. Maybe this was intentional! If it was, it worked! I certainly disliked it immensely.

His story arc was very well done, fit perfectly with the rest of the stories, especially the attack on the Comedian, and led nicely right up to the start of Watchmen.

The Crimson Corsair was well drawn, but a but too dark and bloody for my taste. But the problem I had was that the story which made no sense to me at all.

The Dollar Bill story was, as I said, welcome, but rather depressing. It's told very well and illustrated excellently. Bill was just a nice guy who was 'grandfathered' into the Watchmen because he was so well known, couldn't fight crime except by bungling and accident, and ended up trapped by his cape in a revolving door, and shot to death. It was really sad!

I liked this volume (as defined above), and I recommend it, even though it's DC, and they never approve my requests for review copies! See, I'm not petty!

Before Watchmen: Comedian/Rorschach by Brian Azzarello

Title: Before Watchmen: Comedian/Rorschach
Author: Brian Azzarello
Publisher: DC Comics
Rating: worthy

Illustrators: J.G. Jones, Lee Bermejo

Before Watchmen: Comedian was issued in six installments, written by Brian Azzarello with art by J. G. Jones. The Comedian is really Edward Morgan Blake, and it's his violent murder which kicks off the Watchmen story. Blake starts out his crime-fighting life at the tender age of 16, and even then he was ruthless and mercenary. He's first depicted, having beaten up an entire bar-room full of trouble-makers, stealing pickled eggs and helping himself to the contents of the cash register in that same bar.

It seems that all-too-many of the Watchmen were subject to abuse as children, and Blake is no different, but this story contradicts the story told in Watchmen - that Blake assassinated John Kennedy from the grassy knoll. The original Watchmen depicted him as a hitman for Richard Nixon, whereas this story portrays him as a friend of the Kennedys, who assasinated Marilyn Monroe on orders from JFK's wife, Jackie Kennedy.

Before Watchmen: Rorschach came out in four comic book issues, written by Brian Azzarello, with art by Lee Bermejo. Walter Joseph Kovacs was the son of a prostitute - and one who really didn’t care much to have him around - especially when she was working. Before his teens, he was removed from his mother's 'care' and placed in a home for problem children where he appeared to flourish. At sixteen he found work in a dress shop, and it was here that he picked up his face mask.

Rorschach's first case was investigating the murder of Kitty Genovese, although the writer here gets his facts wrong about what really happened to her. In the end it's Rorschach's failure to rescue a kidnaped child, and his discovery that she had been killed and fed to a pair of dogs flipped him over to the dark side. This was depicted in Watchmen in a flashback. From that point on, Rorschach simply killed thugs instead of turning them over to the cops, as he had been doing. When vigilantes were rendered outlaws by the passing of the Keene Act, Rorschach made clear his opinion of it by murdering a rapist and dumping his body at police station a with a note attached reading "Never".

Before Watchmen: Nite Owl/Dr Manhattan

Title: Before Watchmen: Nite Owl/Dr Manhattan
Author: J. Michael Straczynski
Publisher: DC Comics
Rating: worthy
Illustrators: Adam Hughes, Andy Kubert, Joe Kubert

Before Watchmen: Nite Owl came out in four comic issues originally, written by J. Michael Straczynski with art by Andy and Joe Kubert. Night Owl 2.0's real name is Dan Dreiberg, and again (this seems to be a common feature amongst the Minutemen!), he was an abused child. He became obsessed with the original Nite Owl, and ran down his true identity by means of surreptitiously sticking a tracking device on the 'Nite Owl mobile'.

Nite Owl threatens Dan initially when he discovers he has a stalker, but later he relents. In this Nite Owl 2 parallels the girl he's going to end up with - Silk Spectre 2. Both of them are the only members of the Watchmen who carry over a super hero identity from the Minutemen, and they’re also the only two who are specifically trained by their forebears and namesakes for their role.

Dan comes home one day to discover his father beating on his mother, and instead of trying to stop it, he retreats to his room where he discovers that his father has smashed his Nite Owl collection of memorabilia. He soon discovers that his father is dead - died of a heart attack, his mother assures him, and neither of them shed a tear. It’s at the funeral that Hollis approaches him with his offer to take him on as a side-kick, but later Hollis announces that he's going to retire and pass the reins over to Dan.

On his first night patrol, Dan encounters Rorschach who takes a shine to him. They eventually partner up, although they don't always get along. Rorschach's uncompromising and derogatory attitude towards women is hard for Dan to work with, especially when Rorschach tries to attack the Twilight Lady, a feisty Dominatrix who helps Dan solve a case, and with whom he hooks up briefly, in his briefs....

Before Watchmen: Doctor Manhattan was originally four comic issues written by J. Michael Straczynski with art by Adam Hughes. The Manhattan story was the least interesting to me amongst the three hardback Before Watchmen compendia that I read, especially since it was pretty much already told in the movie.

The Dr Manhattan story here was a bit too loosely-wrapped for my taste, offering nothing but a lot of mumbo-jumbo under the flimsy guise of deep metaphysical and philosophical bullshit. It didn't sit well with me!

But this volume I rate a worthy read if only because of the Nite Owl story.

Before Watchmen: Minutemen/Silk Spectre by Darwyn Cooke

Title: Before Watchmen: Minutemen/Silk Spectre
Author: Darwyn Cooke
Publisher: DC Comics
Rating: worthy
Written and illustrated by Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner
Colorists Phil Noto and Paul Mounts
Lettering by Jared Fletcher and Carlos Mangual

I came into this series from the movie, which I adore, and I never actually read the comic book for Watchmen, but anyone who has seen the movie or read the book will know that this is a seedy and violent series that shows the dirty underside of life and makes me almost want to empathize with Rorschach!

Because of my fascination with the original story, I was naturally interested in how these people came to be at the point where the story begins in Watchmen, so I jumped at a chance to read these. They were apparently issued as individual comics to begin with, but I got them from the library in the form of hardback books, combined into pairs.

This volume tells the story of how the Minutemen got together, including the endearing behavior of Silhouette, and the rather suspect behavior (and not in the way you might think) of Silk Spectre, the predictable antics of The Comedian, and the suspicious activities of Hooded Justice. It seems like Mothman and Nite Owl are the only two characters in the group who have a shred of integrity!

Before Watchmen: Minutemen was originally issued as six stand-alone comics all written and illustrated by Darwyn Cooke. Hollis Mason, now aging and writing a memoir titled 'Under the Hood', tells this story, and it follows The Silhouette (the alter-ego of Ursula Zandt) who was a part of the Minutemen team. Driven by events tied to herself and her sister escaping the Nazis in World War Two, Silhouette pursues justice, and in particular children who are disappearing.

Silhouette is one of the first to go public with her real identity, but as soon as she's outed as a lesbian, she's kicked out of the Minutemen. Nite Owl (the original Nite Owl, that is) continues to work with her in tracking down the child-abuser. The Comedian, who despises Hooded Justice for his homosexual relationship with another of the Minutemen and for his rescue of Silk Spectre from his attentions, leads Nite Owl to believe the HJ is the child abuser and murderer when in reality it appears to be HJ's father who is the guilty party. Both HJ and his lover die, the former at the hands of Nite Owl, and the latter in a car accident.

Silhouette herself is murdered with her lover. Dollar bill is shot to death when pursuing bank robbers and his cape snags in a revolving door rendering him helpless. Mothman is hauled off to a psychiatric institution as he starts losing his mind from alcoholism brought on by the stress of his job and the pain he's in from having accidents as he tries to glide with his home-made wings, and so the Minutemen fall apart.

The Silk Spectre portion is about SS 2.0, not about the original, although she features in it. About two-thirds to three-quarters the way through her story is when she joins the Watchmen, so why this is called Before Watchmen is really a bit of a mystery, since the other stories follow this same pattern, with even more of their content devoted to after Watchmen rather than before, but we do get some decent back-story, which is what I was looking for, so I was willing to rate this a worthy read.

Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre was originally issued as a series of four comics written by Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner, with art by Conner. It relates the story of Laurie Juspeczyk. Her alter-ego is Silk Spectre II, replacing her now aging mother, Sally Juspeczyk, aka Sally Jupiter who was the original Silk Spectre, and part of the Minutemen team.

Sally trains Laurie in an almost brutal fashion, grooming her to be her own replacement, but Laurie rebels against it all, and runs off to join the hippie culture in San Francisco. Eventually she changes her mind and returns to crime fighting, joining the Watchmen and hooking up with Doctor Manhattan, until the Keene act bans masked vigilantes (except, of course, those who work for the government, such as Doctor Manhattan and The Comedian).

The SS portion is particularly enjoyable, and by far the most interesting of these two volumes contained in this pairing. The Minutemen portion was interesting, but by its nature, the story was all over the place, and was very loosely tied. Indeed, it wandered and jumped so much that I wasn't quite sure what was happening for much of the time but I can't really go into more detail without telling the whole story.

SS was well done, and it made good sense to me. The story was engrossing, and the artwork fascinating, particularly the sixties LSD culture portion of it, and SS's commentary on the other Watchmen at their inaugural meeting was hilarious especially her comments on Nite Owl, given what we know from the Watchmen story!

So, in conclusion, I rate this a worthy read for anyone who's interested in the original story.