BEFORE WATCHMEN Month Three

RORSCHACH #1: The dark mystery man fights crime on the streets in 1977. He seeks out a drug kingpin and starts with a junkie who he threatens to anally rape with the junkie’s own hand. From there, he tracks down the kingpin and gets severely beat up for his troubles. Along with all of this, a serial killer called The Bard strikes again and will eventually end sup crossing paths with Rorschach.

A dark, nasty book by Brian Azzarello with even darker, totally detailed art from the amazing Lee Bermejo. Every page oozes with filth. While I was hoping for more back story, we get none. All we get is a gritty crime tale that bathes us in the world the The Watchmen as the end nears.

DR. MANHATTAN #1:  This is the story of Jonathan Osterman. Son of a watchmaker, he receives a beautiful clock for his ninth birthday. He spends much of his youth as an introverted child playing with gears and making certain everything is in order. He forgoes trips with friends and is mostly a shut in. In 1959, he begins research concerning the 'intrinsic fields' of physical objects at a base at Gila Flats. There he meets and begins dating Janey Slater. Later, he finds himself having to fix her damaged watch. Unfortunately, the watch is in his lab coat which is inside the intrinsic field experiment test chamber. The door closes and Jon is torn to pieces as his intrinsic field is removed. While his father grieves, Jon’s body rebuilds itself into something far advanced. The Fifties become the Sixties and Jon’s relationship with Jamey crumbles even as he joins The Minutemen. Time continually shifts for the man now known as Dr. Manhattan.
 
You truly have to know WATCHMEN to understand this book as J. Michael Straczynski writes the book like Dr. Manhattan thinks:. One moment and we are in 1949 and the next we are in 1985. Then it’s 1966 and then 1959 and then back again. The continuity is all over the place but it is correct and proper. Like a Quentin Tarrantino film, you just need to read it and then put it together in a linear fashion. And the art by Adam Hughes? Hell-it’s ADAM HUGHES!!! I need to say no more.

MINUTEMEN #3: Norbert Veldon arrives at Hollis Mason’s garage to complain about the manuscript for Mason’s book. He is a friend if Nelson’s and apparently it is causing him severe distress…enough that he is suicidal and wants to sue Mason. Then we flashback to 1940 where we see The Comedian is being expelled from the Minutemen because of his assault on Sally Jupiter. This leads to a fight between The Comedian and The Hangman that involves some nasty sexual epithets.  A year goes by and we see Silhouette and Silk Spectre posing for pin-up pictures for the troops overseas. Meanwhile The Comedian gets recruited by the FBI. The Silhouette continues her campaign against child abusers including one incident where she can’t save a girl and almost dies herself in the process. That’s when Hollis arrives and takes her to her doctor friend/lover Gretchen.

Again, Darwyn Cooke shows a complete love for these characters. His art style totally fits the book and, at times, there are inserted panels which run parallel to the tale and are drawn in an over the top 1940’s comic style. Silhouette’s true self  comes out and we see the road that The Comedian took to get to where he was in the government. Great stuff…probably one of my favorite of the BEFORE WATCHMEN titles.

NITE OWL #3: Nite Owl continues his team-up with The Twilight Lady, leading him to a swirlie interrogation on a Colombian running a prostitution ring. They end up busting up the ring and having sex together. Later, Dan meets up with Hollis Mason and gets his first look at UNDER THE HOOD. Meanwhile, Rorschach discovers a lot of bodies and a very evil preacher who thinks he is God’s messenger.

J. Michael Straczynski continues to weave a twisted tale. And it gets kinkier with every issue. And a corrupt preacher? Say it ain’t so!!! I’m wondering if this is Joe Kubert’s final art work as the art stryle shifts half way through the issue as Bill Sienkiewicz takes over on the inking chores. And it is terribly evident and a shame that he couldn’t finish the series.

OZYMANDIAS #3: Ozymandias continues his battle with The Comedian, eventually allowing the government operative to defeat him. Later, after Dr. Manhattan arrives on the scene of popular culture, he arranges to invest in bomb fallout shelters. He begins building his stronghold in the Arctic and manages to weasel his way into a fund raiser to benefit the Red Cross and the Foundation of India, just so he can meet Dr. Manhattan. They don’t truly meet, as he spies on him, although Dr. Manhattan is aware of his presence the entire time. Once his fortress is completed, he begins watching Manhattan on multiple video screens.
 

Len Wein continues to craft a wonderful tale about the guy who becomes the ultimate villain in the original WATCHMEN. And the longer this goes on, we see him less as a villain but more as a paranoid genius preparing for the future. And the fact the Jae Lee’s artwork is the best of his career sure helps!
 

SILK SPECTRE #3:  Laurie Juspeczyk has an awakening, good and bad, while on a drug trip. The following morning, she awakes to find that her boyfriend Greg has overdosed and he is rushes to the hospital where they pledge undying love for each other. Leaving the hospital, she vandalizes a shoe store to acquire the last piece she needs for her costume. As Silk Spectre, she ends up at Gurustein’s place, beating him up while someone who looks an awful lot like The Chairman of The Board watches. Back home, she quietly waits for Greg. But Greg isn’t coming. Sally Jupiter has contacted The Comedian, Laurie’s biological father, and he has taken care of Greg. He forces Greg to write a breakup letter which The Comedian delivers(taking a certain smiley face button in the process) and ships him off to Vietnam.

Once again, Darwyn Cooke absolutely scores a winner with this issue and now all the pieces begin to come together, especially the happy face button!  And is that REALLY Frank Sinatra? Why not: Cooke and Amanda Conner did manage to insert four mop tops from Liverpool into an earlier issue. With only one more issue to go in this mini-series, I am very curious to see how we get from here to there in one short issue.

COMEDIAN #3: The Comedian is off in Hawaii and in major hot water with the Attorney General Robert Kennedy. It seems Eddie came back from Vietnam and face d protesters at the airport. Things got nasty and ugly and a riot ensued. But that’s not what Eddie is in trouble for. The bigoted racist sees riot in Los Angeles on television and decides to get himself involved. Before it is all finished, he has managed to incite more than he has managed to quell. He even goes as far as to throw dog excrement at the chief of police. But Eddie doesn’t care. He’s on vacation with a beautiful girl and he’s going to get some.

We get another ho-hum issue from Brian Azzarello. The dialogue is great but the story is boring. He we have The Comedian being dropped into another major event in our history and it becomes a case of showing how much of a total jerk he is. Azzarello seems content on proving something any reader of WATCHMEN already knew: The Comedian got what he deserved when he was tossed out that window! Again, you have to know history to understand what is going on. Azzarello has dropped Eddie into The Watts Rebellion of August 1965. The six-day in the Los Angeles suburb resulted in 34 deaths, thousands injured and over three thousand arrests. So, for the history lesson(or lack thereof…go look it up)we thank you. And we also thank J. G. Jones for continuing to blow the book away with killer art. Let me see: three issues to go-what’s next? My guess is the deaths of Martin Luther King and then Bobby Kennedy himself.

And, as a continued bonus, each issue has two pages from Len Wein and John Higgin’s pirate drama THE CURSE OF THE CRIMSON CORSAIR. which has taken on a new arc. The Evil that Men Do, follows our hero in servitude on the Flying Dutchman. He has to deal with filth, voodoo and the plague. And that’s just the beginning