I love Alan Moore, This is not, by far, his best. I did not like the gritty, graphic universe in which Richard Nixon is still president by 1985. The ending was pretty smart, except that the “badguy” does the all-time cliche of all comics- a monologue, a 20 page monologue !!!
And what’s with Hooded Justice? Who was he what was the big mystery to his identity. I understood he was gay- but was that the big mystery or who in fact was under the mask? I thought it was the later.
And the Pirate comic inside of the comic- I didn’t get it.
Too many mysteries- if I wanted mysteries, I would have played CLUE instead.
Sorry, no go for me.

I just finished this and really didn’t want it to end. I’m pretty new to the whole graphic novel thing but the solid, believable rendering of the characters really drew me in. All of the masks seem flawed, neurotic and full of doubt – in short there like you, me and everyone else. I’m sure that there’s plenty I’ve missed so I’m definitely going to read this again sometime.

Intensely complex in terms of plot structure, Watchmen is by no means bad. I don’t see what all the fuss is about, however. The most admirable character (Rorschach) turns out to be a right-wing fanatic. Alan Moore most definitely isn’t. What the hell?

A lot less comic book-y than expected, although there are heroes as the main characters. There are many layers to this tale and I found it interesting to peel back each one only to find another layer. Highly recommended.

The other half of my intro to the comics world(along with Batman: Dark Knight.) This one grabbed me much more than the other, because it’s a lot less comics-universe centric. It’s more like a great work of literature that just happens to be in comic form, because that was the right medium in which to express what Moore wanted to. And there’s a whole lot being expressed, most of it compelling and trenchant. As a big text person, I’d had trouble getting used to reading the comics format, dealing with the interplay of images and words and just the basic conventions of how that works and so on, but this sucked me in so thoroughly that I scarcely even noticed after the first installment.

Good

Finally bought this after reading the individual titles a long time ago, back in the hazy summers of my youth. Once I finish re-reading it, I might have an opinion on it, other than EXCELLENT.

Wow, what a wonderful introduction to graphic novels. I couldn’t put it down. It’s dark, and yet raises quite a lot of interesting philosophical questions, and the art is gorgeous. A must read, even if you’ve never read a graphic novel.