Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Before Watchmen: Minutemen #6 of 6
DC Comics
Cooke
The Darwyn Cooke written and illustrated Before Watchmen mini-series wraps up with an unimaginative and lackluster effort. While fans of Cooke's art will find a lot to like in this issue, fans of Watchmen and general high quality storytelling will find this issue to be unsatisfactory conclusion to a very poor mini-series. Sadly, this one was one of the better Before Watchmen series thus far.
Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Before Watchmen Comedian #3 of 6
DC Comics
Azzarello & Jones
Comedian's series rolls on with another unfocused and garbled mess of a story, editorially, with Before Watchmen: Comedian issue number three. I'm not sure how this character portrayal fits in with the other Before Watchmen books or the original Watchmen work. I simply can't believe this is going to drag on for another three issues as this doesn't seem to be a story in as much as it's a collection or snippets of the Comedian doing things that don't really fit together in this series, let alone in the larger mosaic of the character's appearances.
Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre #3 of 4
DC Comics
Cooke & Conner
Silk Spectre issue three is the turning point for Laurie. She has her coming of age in this issue and it's a fantastic read. Visually we watch the progression of her feelings and her body language, while the story gives a natural next step to her life. The comic is not perfect, but it is a very good read.
Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Before Watchmen: Doctor Manhattan #1 of 4
DC Comics
Straczynski & Hughes
Doctor Manhattan is the final first issue of the Before Watchmen event and it offers a beautifully drawn, eloquently written recap of what came in Watchmen #4 some twenty-six years ago. The comic book spends almost all of its space recapping (with updated art and monologue) a story that was already told. It does this to set up the cliffhanger at the end. It's an entertaining read to be sure. Straczynski does an amazing job of capturing Alan Moore's style from the original Watchmen. Hughes does a great job on art. However, the book isn't original, even a little bit, until the very end. Unfortunately, the ending just isn't enough to get me to buy into three more issues of this type of story.
Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Before Watchmen: Rorschach #1 of 4
DC Comics
Azzarello & Bermejo
When Before Watchmen's list of titles was announced I had very high hopes for this title in particular. Of all the characters in the original work I felt Rorschach was the one that was the least defined of the bunch. I also felt his story had the most legs and seemed like could be something different if fleshed out. This comic book delivers a great visual story about a character that looks like Rorschach, but doesn't have the same magic in terms of characterization as the original work. Make no mistake, the comic book would be a success if Azzarello brings something interesting to the character, even without a compelling story. This is a good start, but the parts feel too generic at this point for me to get jazzed up the remaining issues.
Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Before Watchmen: Comedian #2 of 6
DC Comics
Azzarello & Jones
The second issue of the Comedian follows a similar path as the first issue only with less celebrity appearances. Unfortunately, the book drags the character into situations that make little sense and at the same time, bends the characterization of him in ways that are too divergent from the original work. The book surrounds the Comedian with no-name, generic characters that make the book uninteresting from a plot perspective. I appreciate that Azzarello is trying to distance himself from the original work as much as possible, but this mini-series is shaping up to be simply forgettable.
Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre #2 of 4
DC Comics
Cooke & Conner
The second issue of the Silk Spectre mini-series puts together a good little story. Granted, the book stayed anchored with the broader Watchmen universe, but it actually didn't need to. This story could have stood on its own the way the issue played out without trying to include too many other Watchmen references. Laurie finds that her new life still has a lot of lowlifes and her training as a superhero begins to bleed through her peace and love front. This issue presents a problem for the main character and puts her in a very sticky situation by the book's end. I liked this issue and I can't wait to see where it ends up when it is all said and done.
Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Before Watchmen: Ozymandias #1 of 6
DC Comics
Wein & Lee
Ozymandias has the luxury of being the character that I was the least interested in when I first read Watchmen. I couldn't reconcile why he had super powers or if he was just really strong and fast or how he turned bad or if he was always that way then how did he dupe everyone. In essence, I wanted to know more about the character and this prequel could perhaps fill in some of those blanks. I found this opening issue to be as straight-forward an origin story as you could possibly get. If you remove the fact that it is tied to a classic story then the issue is extremely average and is something you probably feel like you have read a thousand times before. If this comic book is to appeal to anyone that hasn't read Watchmen I would think this issue needed to give more of a story rather than an information dump.
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Reviewer In Chief: Brandon Borzelli
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