Customer Reviews

Absolute Watchmen

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I'm going to give my opinion on the actual book itself. I would imagine most people reading reviews of the Absolute Edition have already read Watchmen. It is probably Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons finest hour - `nuff said.

So, for starters, the absolute edition is much bigger than the original trade paperback. It is hardback, has a paper cover wrap and comes in a well-made, sturdy slipcase to protect it. The slipcase fits perfectly and has very bold text down the spine (looks nice on the shelf!).

The paper is very good quality, bright white and heavy stock. The printing is the key to this edition. It is flawless in every way. The colours jump off the page and the ink saturation is perfect. All the details are extremely clear (which is also helped by the larger format) it makes the first colour job look very murky and dark in comparison. The original colourist has made a return to tweak and improve his work (rather than completely change it) and he has done a grand job.

There is quite a bit of supplemental material thrown in at the back of the book (interviews, original script / concept drawing highlights etc.) which adds alot of insight into this classic of the graphic novel form.

So my final word? If you love Alan Moore, and you re-read Watchmen alot, this absolute edition is an absolute MUST.

So, you've read Watchmen, you loved it, you obsessed over it, you've been kicked out of civilized gatherings when you refused to stop waving it in front of people's faces, telling them it was "The Most Important Comic Ever Written EVER!!!", and you've come to blows with those that insist that that title in fact belongs to Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns" (they're wrong). Where else is there to go?

This edition, not only comes in an imposing hardback cover, but is also packed with extras, including samples of promotional art for the comic, preliminary character design sketches by Dave Gibbons, and excerpts from Alan Moore's insanely detailed scripts. And if that's not enough to satisfy you, then the new print of the comic will. Each panel has now been enlarged so the obsessive fan can now pick out every single embedded smiley face in the book, and see every speck of filth and street detritus on Rorschach's trenchcoat.

If you're debating whether this is worth £50, then I'm afraid you'll just never understand...

Reviewing a (nearly) twenty-five year old book may seem a bit strange, especially as quite a few others have already done so, but there's a couple of things I'd like to add.
I'm not going to say anything about the story itself - I think that at least the bones of it will be well known to anyone contemplating buying this edition.
The sheer quality of this edition absolutely shines out, and here we have a story and artwork that deserve this sort of treatment. For me though, the most interesting element of this package is not the graphic novel itself (I've read it an awful lot, starting with the original twelve comics...), but the additional material included. Of particular interest (especially in light of subsequent developments) is the original pitch/summary in which the main protagonists are based on the 1950's/60's Charlton characters - imagining what the book would have been if Moore and Gobbons had been allowed to pursue this idea was enough to keep me entertained for hours!
An excellent edition - absolutely (excuse the pun) recommended!

This is a great book. I don't like normally read comics but I loved this. It's clever, beautifully written with great illustrations, and it gently uses the classic 'superhero' idea to query whether there's any place in modern society for absolute morals.

When I finished it, I sat for a bit, pondered, then started it again - only the second time in 30 years that I've done that with a book.

Alan Moore's seminal work "Watchmen" finally gets the treatment it deserves in this, the Absolute Edition. As with the Absolute Crisis On Infinite Earths Watchmen is presented here in a gorgeous single, but large, volume. Again beautifully slipcased, and presented with the utmost care and respected for the material. If you have never read "Watchmen" then you are missing out on a treat. I wont go into specifics of the story, I'll let you discover that for yourselves, but you cannot buy a better version of it as presented here. DC are treating their best stories with complete and utter respect and this is a must have volume for any self respecting comic fan. Again the price is high, but you get what you pay for. Every aspect of the series is covered with lengthy commentaries from all those involved including writer and artist. Don't delay, buy this massive volume today.

Wow, that's all I can say. Having read the normal trade paperback a good while ago, I wasn't sure if this Absolute Edition would have the same impact on me. However, in the run-up to the movie coming out I was interested to see what the new digital colouring and over-sized format does to the end-product and I can confirm that this is not the Absolute edition, it is the Definitive version.

If you haven't read this book then read this version of it, you'll get so much more out of it. This book is what comics are all about and show how the product has grown in maturity with its readers. Note this is not a graphic novel, I know that's the phrase being bandied about to distance it from what most see as childish beginnings. However, a graphic novel is a work that is created for that format and was never individual issues, Watchmen was 12 individual issues of a maxi series and therefore this collection is a trade paperback. Please don't let this small distinction put you off, you must read this book.

There are really two issues here: the merits of Watchmen itself, and the merits of this particular edition. Because I have seen some of my reviews crop up for editions other than the one they were originally posted for, please let me stress that I'm posting this review for the Hardcover Absolute Edition.

Whether or not this edition is right for you depends on what you hope to get out of it. This book is beautiful to look at, and as the "absolute" edition, it includes a great many interesting extras that all Watchmen fans will appreciate. So if you're looking for a great book to simply leaf through, the Hardcover Absolute Edition is definitely the one I'd recommend. On the other hand, it is also a bit too big and unwieldy for comfort. For this reason it's more of a coffee-table book than something you want to just lie back and immerse yourself in. If you actually want to "read the book" in the sense that I'd normally use those words, save yourself some money and go with Watchmen. Trust me: you'll have a far more enjoyable reading experience if you aren't constantly trying to grapple with an object approaching the size and weight of a library atlas.

Well, so much for the battle of the editions. Now how about Watchmen itself?

On this I can only repeat what I said in my original review of Watchmen: the cyclopean reputation of this work is entirely deserved. I don't want to give away any spoilers, so I'm going to keep things abstract. Watchmen simultaneously deconstructs its own genre while giving voice to one of the great "absolutes" of literary fiction: the human quest for morality and meaning in an inherently meaningless and amoral universe. Perhaps this latter aspect explains why the aptly named "Rorschach" has become so iconic of this work as a whole.

Amazingly, Watchmen achieves all this while simultaneously spinning a superheroic epic that easily holds its own against anything you're going to find in the latest avengers/xmen/blackest night/justice league cosmic crossover.

Speaking of Justice League, it's interesting to think about just how much the Project Cadmus storyline in Justice League Unlimited, Seasons 1-2 (DC Comics Classic Collection) owes to Watchmen. Indeed, I find that I can't help but draw comparisons. Justice League Unlimited is most certainly its own show, and by no means a slavish remake of Watchmen. Yet both, in their own way, take a long hard look at the myth of the superhero and ask us if this is really something that we would want. Certainly, it can be no accident that in the Project Cadmus story, The Question takes the central role that he does. In Alan Moore's original proposal for Watchmen, the role ultimately filled by Rorschach was then taken by The Question.

But where the Project Cadmus story arc races headlong towards the edge of the abyss only to back away at the last second, explaining with an apologetic cough and a nervous giggle that really, it's only a children's show after all, Watchmen careens off the edge of that abyss at full speed without hesitating for so much as a heartbeat. It leaves us suspended anchorless mid-air, entirely on our own in our attempts to re-orient ourselves as we hurtle directionless through this new void.

It's not for nothing that Watchmen is widely acknowledged as one of the defining works of its medium.

The bottom line? BUY IT. In whatever edition works for you.

Theo.

I bought the graphic novel of Watchmen around 2 years ago, and was hooked ever since. Reading it over and over again, picking out things I never noticed before. Alan Moore's superb writing, and Dave Gibbons' superb artwork really compliment each other.

The Absolute edition make the original even better. Seeing Dr. Manhattan's transformation in an even bigger format was truely something. But this is only one example of how great this edition is. At the end you see the creation and first ideas about a lot of the characters.

Really happy with purchase. And in my opinion a must for any Watchmen fan.