Eduardo Risso

All this crime/horror hybrid book has going for it is its sort of clever wordplay in the title and premise, combining werewolves with a gang war over moonshine alcohol. The execution falls flat as the story revolves around a jackass loser who is caught as a hapless pawn between the big city mob, hillbilly distillers and supernatural forces. There weren't any characters in this bad-people-doing-bad-things story I could support or care about. It's hard to want to read a book where you just show more hope everyone ends up dead.

I don't think I've read a good Brian Azzarello book since the first few volumes of 100 Bullets, and I think it's time to stop giving him the benefit of the doubt when he comes out with something new. show less

Y'know, I gotta say, 11 volumes into a 13-volume set, and I've rated every single one as a five-star read?

I honestly can't think of another series I've done that on. The characters are just getting more and more real to me, the story is getting deeper, and the endgame is starting to present itself.

This is just a brilliant series.

Paul Dini is best known for working on "Batman: The Animated Series" and "Tiny Toon Adventures" for Warner Bros. for writing comics, and most notably, co-creating Harley Quinn with Bruce Timm. In the early-'90s, he was living his dream, writing the characters he'd loved as a kid, especially Batman, and financially secure enough to buy the toys and collectibles he desired. But his life was hollow, until the night he got mugged, surviving a vicious beating. In this graphic novel, wonderfully show more illustrated by Eduardo Risso, Dini recounts that event and what happened after, but also puts it in context of his childhood when he felt invisible except for when he could retreat into his imagination.

Dini's way to deal with the trauma of the attack was to retreat. He knew he had to make changes in his life -- the lack of anyone waiting for him when he staggered home made that clear -- but his feelings of helplessness, anxiety, and powerlessness stand in his way. It's up to the Bat villains and Batman, himself, who are there with him, to give him the push he needs. Risso's art varies, swinging from cartoonish to realism to suit the scene as Dini explores the dark places in his soul and ultimately, hopefulness for the future. A lot is packed into the 120 plus pages; it's not often we get to see inside the mind of a creative person, let alone one who suffered what Dini has. I highly recommend this. show less

When I first heard about the Before Watchmen series, I was somewhat curious but mostly skeptical. My opinion was that the original graphic novel provided a great deal of back story on its characters already (one of the many reasons I love that book so much), so this would be superfluous. Add to the mix that the original author as well the illustrator of Watchmen were neither involved in the project, and my doubts were high. Still, curiosity prevailed and I finally decided to check out Before show more Watchmen, starting with the bound book covering Nite Owl and Dr. Manhattan. Besides my unbeatable curiosity, another thing this book had going for it was that DC had gathered a team of highly prized creators to helm this effort.

In the original novel, Nite Owl/Dan Dreiberg was one of my favorite characters but also the one with the least back story, so it was a given that I’d want to read his prequel. Turns out I was rather disappointed. Dan struck me as one the nicest and least problematic characters in the original book, someone who simply got in to the costumed hero business because he idolized the first Nite Owl so much. Here he is given an abusive past with a father who victimized Dan’s mother while he was unable to help. There are also several allusions to the first Nite Owl having done something horrible, which was again sad to see, as he also struck a chord as a genuinely “good guy” in the original novel. Furthermore, this section of the book doesn’t read like Watchmen; it’s more or less any costumed hero getting his bearings, finding mentors and partners, and getting ensnared by a buxom woman - in this case, a high-class madam who seems to be a masked vigilante herself. As a superhero story, it’s entertaining escapism; as part of the Watchmen universe, it simply isn’t up to par. Likewise, the illustrations throughout are well done, but they are also pretty standard fare for comics in terms of being straightforward grid sequencing. This section’s rating is only three stars in my opinion.

As he wasn’t really a beloved character for me in the original story, I probably wouldn’t have read Dr. Manhattan’s prequel if it weren’t included in the same bound book with Nite Owl. In this case, that ended up being a good thing. I really enjoyed this part of the book, which touched on deeper themes and gave the reader pause for thought. While a lot of Dr. Manhattan’s back story was already explored in the original Watchmen, new details are created here, including 10-year-old Jon’s harrowing escape from Nazis – an event that later played in to his watchmaker father’s decision to abandon his trade and spurred Jon into his career as a physicist. We also see the building blocks here of the main crux of the Watchmen conflict and climax, with a brief look into the thoughts of Adrian Veidt as he pulls the wool over the Dr. Manhattan and talks him into re-creating his energy signature. The illustrations are far more interesting here, and there’s more creative license taken with the comics layout. My particular favorite is when the book literally reverses as we’re pulled into Veidt’s thoughts, a very clever and effective device. While this still isn’t exactly Watchmen, this seems like a suitable homage to it and a worthy contribution to its universe. I’d rate this section with all five stars.

An unexpected bonus at the end of the book is the inclusion of the back story to Moloch, one of the longtime enemies of the Minutemen/Watchmen. Being a relatively minor character in the original story, his background was really never explored nor one that seemed necessary to do so. The origins imagined here is comparatively trite – he looks funny, people make fun of him, he turns to crime in revenge. The real piece of interest here is again seeing how Veidt manipulates Moloch in to being a player in his master plan without revealing the details of that scheme. The religious overtones in this one were perhaps a bit much, but it did bring another layer to the story at hand. Like with the first section, the illustrations here are well done but nothing particularly spectacular. This section gets a three and a half star rating.

Overall, I do appreciate how the creators here were able to fashion something new out of an older story, incorporating elements of the original novel throughout but without necessarily simply re-creating them nor entirely re-imagining them. It’s more like they took the original events and discovered new life around them, putting them into a broader context. Inevitably, these Before Watchmen comics will strike strong chords – purists will hate anyone touching the source material while those just wishing there was more Watchmen to read will eagerly clamor towards them. For myself, I found this title both sadly lacking (the Nite Owl story), surprisingly on target (the Dr. Manhattan story), and giving new perspective (the Moloch story). While I wasn’t overwhelmed by what I found in its pages, it was certainly well done enough that I will go on to seek out further titles in the Before Watchmen series. show less