The graphic novel Watchmen is one big murder mystery; it will leave you guessing at every turn. It is a very gruesome 1985, and the government is cracking down on criminal vigilantes. One of the very first vigilantes is murdered leaving the rest trying to find out who, and why they did it. With the Soviet Union invading Afghanistan the once close-knit group has to re-unite and try to stop the murderer and the doomsday clock. Along the way of their journey they have many flashbacks to the past of their once glory days. When another one of the original minutemen dies of cancer the group becomes even more worried. They wonder who could want the group to de off and why they would want this to happen. One member of the group is a few clowns short or a circus and tries to investigate the deaths on his own, beating old nemesis' on the road to redemption. The ending leaving you with mass destruction...
One recurring theme in this graphic novel is that all evil should be punished, whether it is old enemies or the Soviet Union. Moore uses the punish all evil theme so that it is like a traditional comic book with a hero that has to go and stop the villain from his master plan. The way that it is set up though is extremely complex, you never know when the villain is going to strike again or how they are going to do it. Moore develops one character, Rorschach, specifically on this theme to show that there are people that are very devoted to one cause and one cause only. Another theme that Moore uses is time and space, the way that Dr. Manhattan knows the past and future. Dr. Manhattan knows everything that will happen before it happens and he also knows when things happen exactly when they happen. The way that Moore characterizes all of the characters really gives you the sense that you know who they are and why they do what they do. It also develops the plot quite a bit also because; every single person in the novel has a role one way or the other. It may not be a big role but at one point there is a reason why they are saying or doing what they are doing. Rorschach has been a lifetime vigilante who never backs down from confrontation. Rorschach also does whatever he needs to do to get the job done, he also gets a very well kept journal of the day and how it went down from his point of view.
I thought that this novel was okay. I didn't hate it but, I also didn't like it a lot. The way it kept going from flashback to the present really makes it confusing. At one point reading it every other frame was a flashback so it made it really hard to understand what was going on. One thing that I did like about this was the massive plotline. New evidence or a new conflict would arise when you think it was all figured out. It was very good in that part of the book. I did also like how it was a comic book, if it wasn't I'm sure I would have been a lot more lost in some parts than I was. It also gives you exactly what is happening so when a flashback does come up you can see what another person was doing while a completely different character talks. That did help somewhat with all of the flashbacks. I would recommend this book to anyone who really enjoys books about superheroes and villains, murder mysteries, or someone who likes a very deep plot. I would recommend it to them because it keeps you going the whole time and, you can never get bored or really put it down because you want to know how someone is going to react to a certain situation. I would not recommend it to anyone who doesn't like a challenge. It may look like a joke of a book because it is a comic book but, it is a harder read because you really have to piece the puzzle together on your own.
