BW Media Spotlight

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Watchmen is somehow both a step forward in comic design and a step backward at superhero writing. It might not have been the intention of writer Alan Moore to ruin how modern writers approach superheroes, and artist Dave Gibbons didn’t set out to change how we view panel layouts, but both those things happened. For good or bad, Watchmen became a quintessential part of understanding comic book storytelling.

And I never wanted to read it.

I know the story, I know what its done, and even if it didn’t change comics forever it wasn’t my kind of story. I’m just not into grim and gritty “adult” superhero deconstruction, and this is arguably where it all began. I can appreciate its importance in comic book history, which no matter what else I think of it the comic totally deserves its place, but it’s not a story I was ever interested in reading, or seeing the various adaptations into motion comics and live-action, or audio dramas, or an HBO program loosely based on the concept, or a video game that doesn’t sound like it was made very well. And I probably would have kept that streak up throughout my life…until Free Comic Book Day 2025.

To promote his comic, The Hollow Earth, creator and Grey Goblin Cartoons co-founder Keith Fields held a game meant to introduce the strange world of his comic. I played the game. I won. The prize was one of the many reprints of the Watchmen trade along with two of the three sequels: Doomsday Clock, which crossed over with the main DC Universe, and Rorschach, which I believe is a prequel. I didn’t make it to the full launch part of The Hollow Earth. Maybe Before Watchmen would also be in my collection if I had. I don’ t know. Hope the comic did well, because Google is pointing me to every Hollow Earth comic and non comic usage except for that one.

So now I had a comic I never wanted to read. I would have felt bad returning them since I don’t own them, and then I remembered I have this site. I have never read this comic. Oh, I’ve heard much about it, including some of the important story highlights, but I’ve never actually read it. It’s near impossible to go over this comic for the first time completely spoiler-free. Due to its historical importance everyone knows this story by now. Still, as someone who read and slowly reviewed Seduction Of The Innocent out of sheer curiosity, to see if it deserved its scorn (it was actually undersold how crap it is but for different reasons than you get from the internet–check out my reviews sometime), why not do the same here to see if it deserves its praise?

And so Watchmen: A First Time Read will do exactly that. It’s my first time actually reading the book. Before I begin, let me show you where I am and what I know going in, to get an idea where my biases are already going to lie as I start. No review is truly unbiased, but I like to put my cards on the table. It’s why I’m a lousy gambler. WARNING: Spoilers from here on out and in the upcoming installments of this and the follow-ups! Just so you’re warned.

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