BEFORE
WATCHMEN: NITE OWL/ DR. MANHATTAN (DC,
2013; Hardcover)
Collects
Before
Watchmen: Nite Owl
Nos. 1-4, Before
Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan
Nos. 1-4, and Before
Watchmen: Moloch
Nos. 1, 2 (cover
dates August, 2012- April, 2013)
Writer:
J. Michael Straczynski
Artists:
Before Watchmen: Nite Owl-
Penciler: Andy Kubert; Inkers: Joe Kubert and Bill Sienkiewicz.
Before Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan-
Adam Hughes. Before Watchmen: Moloch-
Eduardo Risso.
Colorists:
Before Watchmen: Nite Owl-
Brad Anderson; Before Watchmen: Dr.
Manhattan- Laura Martin; Before
Watchmen: Moloch- Trish Mulvihill
The
Before Watchmen: Nite Owl
mini-series is great. J. Michael
Straczynski, or JMS as he will be referred to from here on out, is a
great writer. This series goes way in depth on the origin and motives
of Nite Owl, and Joe Kubert's inks help give it that rough,
semi-unpolished DC Silver Age feel at times. The dynamic of the
partnership between Rorshach and Nite Owl is covered in great detail.
Before
Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan shows JMS
being every bit as clever as Alan Moore. What? Did I just say that?
Yes I did. Seeing JMS juggle the various probabilities and realities
that a God like Dr. Manhattan would certainly deal with was no easy
task, and it is handled here as cleverly as Moore would have handled
it. I know that the Moore faithful are popping blood vessels over
that statement but I call them as I see (and read) them. The artwork
and coloring are as top notch as the writing in this one.
Before
Watchmen: Moloch, while great
storywise, leaves a lot to be desired in the artwork department. The
vastly overrated Eduardo Risso handles the art chores. While his
panel composition and layouts and ability to convey the story are
excellent, I found his art itself to be too cartoony for my tastes.
Your mileage may vary.
So
after finally finishing all four Deluxe Edition Hardcovers, I can now
give you my opinion on the project as a whole. While I enjoyed these
prequels for the most part, many of them were more of a connect the
dots affair rather than original stories. I wanted to see more of the
spaces between what happened here covered. Like I've said in my other
Before Watchmen reviews, there is plenty of fertile territory
for more prequels. Whether or not that is necessary is completely up
to you, the reader. At the end of the day, this didn't “ruin”
Watchmen as everyone fearlessly predicted, nor did these
mini-series burn up the sales charts as I fearlessly
predicted. Everyone was wrong! They're out there and will
probably sink like a stone and be forgotten in the long run...which
is what Alan Moore predicted, so I guess he was right.
Junk
Food For Thought rating: 4.75 out of 5.
The
OCD zone- Aside from the slightly warped paper (see below), these
DC Deluxe Edition hardcovers are really nice. The image is printed on
the hardback itself, with no dustjacket included.
DVD-style
Extras included in this book:
Before
Watchmen: Nite Owl
No. 1 Jim Lee with Scott Williams & Alex Sinclair
variant cover
Before
Watchmen: Nite Owl
No. 1 Kevin Nowlan variant cover
Before
Watchmen: Nite Owl
No. 2 David Finch with Sonia Oback variant cover
Before
Watchmen: Nite Owl
No. 3 Chris Samnee with Matt Wilson variant cover
Before
Watchmen: Nite Owl
No. 4 Ethan Van Sciver with Hi-Fi Colour Design variant
cover
Before
Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan
No. 1 Jim Lee with
Scott Williams & Alex Sinclair variant cover
Before
Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan
No. 1 Paul Pope with Lovern Kindzierski variant cover
Before
Watchmen: Dr.
Manhattan
No. 2 P. Craig Russell variant cover
Before
Watchmen: Dr.
Manhattan
No. 3 Neal Adams variant cover
Before
Watchmen: Dr.
Manhattan
No. 4 Bill Sienkiewicz variant
cover
Before
Watchmen: Moloch
No. 1 Matt Wagner with Brennan Wagner variant cover
Before
Watchmen: Moloch
No. 1 Jim Lee with Scott Williams & Alex Sinclair
variant cover
Before
Watchmen: Moloch
No. 2 Olly Moss variant cover
Nite
Owl character study by Andy Kubert and Joe Kubert with Brad Anderson
(1 page)
Before
Watchmen: Nite Owl
Nos. 1, 2, and 4 cover sketches by Andy Kubert (4
thumbnails, 1 page)
Cover
progression for Before Watchmen: Dr.
Manhattan
No. 4 by Adam Hughes (2 pages)
Various
sketches and pen test for Before Watchmen:
Dr.
Manhattan
by Adam Hughes (1
page)
Cover
sketches for Before
Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan
No. 1 with layout and
final for Before
Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan
No. 1, Page 2 by Adam
Hughes (1 page)
Paper
rating: 4.25 out of 5. This book is made in the United States,
which is a huge part of the problem. I'd love to see everything made
in the USA once again if the products are as good as what we get from
the Chinese sweatshop printing presses. US paper mills use trees
which are not allowed to cure properly once cut, which means that the
trees are green when they are made into paper. The result is shitty,
somewhat wavy warped paper like the stuff found in this book. My
books are all stored in a climate controlled environment, and yet
this one has warped paper, especially when you view the top of the
book. Books made in China from virgin Amazon rainforest trees do not
have this problem.
Binding
rating: 4 out of 5. Glued binding in hardcovers this thin is not
a deal breaker. The book lays reasonably flat.
Hardback
cover coating rating: 5 out of 5. This has a super thick waxlike
coating which is impervious to damage when handled as the product is
intended. The black Before Watchmen band, spine, and section
of equal measure on the rear cover have a different, dull texture
which is really nice.
No comments:
Post a Comment