The Watchmen, originally published as a 12 series graphic novel by DC in the mid ’80s is credited with revolutionising what we view today as a graphic novel. The layers and dimensions of the work earned it a place amongst TIME’s greatest novels of all time and universal adulation. From the off the story packs a punch. I don’ t have a bank of literary terms to describe fully the techniques at play and capture fully the resonance of the imagery, themes and contemporary political allegories captured in the writing and drawing. I do know however that from the opening pages, the realism of it all gripped me. The story takes laregly from historic events, describing a world of Cold War paranoia descending into hysteria, where superheroes walk amongst us. These superheroes, take on crime, with world views tainted by dysfunctional families, deep seethed insecurities and varying opinions on what constitues justice. So far, so familiar as any of the darker, more obscure heroes being brought to the mainstream by film adaptations attempt to add such layering to their protagonists. Watchmen achieves this though with a disjointed form of story telling and unmerciless portrayal of a world difficult to survive in and brilliantly suffuses this with conventions of science fiction and superhero lore.

Each of the 12 chapters combine story board panels, excerpts from autobiographys, police reports and correspondence filling in the pieces of a story of flawed people trying to navigate a world where the majority are driven by self serving ends and desire while the few try to cling to ideals. It is not an easy compromise and the sins of the past weigh heavy on our heroes, with the story giving time equally to the progression to the sorry state we find them in and the catastrohic events they find they are a part of. The complexity of the work is over whelming, with key words and ideas picked up in overlapping stories, with such an intelligent construct to the story it is constant reveal, a particular favourite of mine is the comic within a comic feature where the story of a marooned soldier is told in tandem with segments of the current story. The perfect matching of the parallel stories is fiction writing as best I’ve read. Criticism comes in the form of a gripping opening leading to a slight lull and its conclusion, hinges on such a huge compromise I would have appreciated some more development, though of course it’s execution has stayed with me long after, no doubt designed to do so and ensured I re-read the final panels. Overall an impressive diversion from the norm for me and much recommended.