The number one reason why I love comics.

It is this magnificent scene and dialog from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' highly touted Watchmen (1986) - known by many as arguably the greatest comic book of all time and the only graphic novel that was included in TIME Magazine's Top 100 Novels.

 

(Click on the images to enlarge.) 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful prose, amazing artwork, and a whole lot of meaning than any other title in the medium packed in just 10 panels.

And this is not even the whole 12-issue book itself. 

If you haven't read Watchmen yet, please do pick it up and read it before you die. Its one of the greatest stories mankind will ever have and one of the rare books that gets better and better after every re-read. Its just that damn good.

Comic Book Review: Superman: 'For The Man Who Has Everything'

 "For The Man Who Has Everything"

Written by Alan Moore

Illustrated by Dave Gibbons

Published by DC Comics

Before Alan Moore alienated himself away from DC Comics, he was on a roll writing the greatest comic book novels we could ever imagine and  literally "owned" every other writer back then. And in 1986, he did some of the best superhero stories, including this one which was published in Superman Annual # 11.

It is Superman's birthday, so Wonder Woman and Batman together with Robin (Jason Todd) decided to go to the Fortress of Solitude to greet the Man of Steel and surprise him with some gifts. Instead, they were the ones surprised with great horror as they see Clark in a state of limbo, with an alien plant on his chest, wrapped around his torso.

Apparently, this is the doing of the evil alien known as Mongul, and as he shows himself to the heroes, he explains what is the thing that has caused Superman to go in to a coma state: the plant is known as "Black Mercy" and it basically creates a very realistic dreamworld for the host based on his/her's deepest desires - and in Superman's case: he is living on Krypton with his father Jor-El and Lara very much alive, and he's also got a loving wife and two kids - a dream he is having trouble to let go.

From there, its up to Wonder Woman, Batman, and Robin to figure out everything and hope that they could save their friend before Mongul kills them all and continues on with his plans of conquering the world.

Just like their 1986 magnum opus Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons gives an extremely detailed story with them showing a lot of Krypton's rich history. Moore delivers a very innovative story that transcends the superhero despite not having a lot of room for more creative angles, mainly because of the restraints the superhero genre puts a writer into. And though this is clearly not his best stories - not as good as his previous novels like the aforementioned Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing, and From Hell to name a few - he is still able to put forth a story that has a lot of muscle in it, but at the same time, also intellectually and emotionally entertaining.

Dave Gibbons as usual does his thing here and his work is not something that I'm not really surprised with because he just does the art department so good that you can't complain. He knows how to really pay attention to every detail necessary in order to bring Moore's dialogue and story into life. I would say that Alan Moore is really lucky because he got to work with artists such as Gibbons who are able to think in the same way as him and who is able recreate his vision into something visually compelling.

An example of Moore and Gibbons' genius is shown in this particular panel where Superman battles Mongul with his back against the wall. Superman is not known to hurt anybody using his "heat vision", but in this panel ,he delivers some nice, bad-ass dialogue before blasting Mongul with fiery energy from his eyes:

That's some fucking good badassery right there. Superman doesn't has to be cute all the time, and Moore and Gibbons' understood that. (Now if only Zack Snyder could do this in his upcoming Man of Steel movie).

Another panel I really liked is the very last page of the book. Gibbons' gives us a Where's Waldo kind of  portrait, with him drawing a lot of familiar DC characters and inserting some long-haired and heavy bearded guy somewhere in it: fucking Alan Moore himself. Can you find him and name all the characters in this image? :

"Where is Alan Moore?"

Finally, though this whole thing is really really good and is one of the greatest Superman stories ever told in my opinion, that doesn't mean that there isn't one questionable panel to say the least. Like this one where Wonder Woman finally revealed her gift to Superman:

Fuck this.

Tell me if that doesn't tell anything that deserves to be in "The Greatest Whore/Douchebag Moments In Comic Book History". Just look at Batman and Robin's facial twitches.

Finally, for those who don't know Alan Moore and is interested of reading this works, let me tell you this: if there are two things that you should understand about the guy, that would be (1) he is a  genius;  (2) he has contributed a lot more for the comic book industry THAN ANY OTHER creator or writer alive now or has lived on God's green earth; and finally (3) he's never going to work for the industry again. 

Saw "Watchmen" For The Nth Time...

After watching Zack Snyder's masterfully filmed comic book movie Watchmen (based on the critically acclaimed graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons) a gazillion times, I'm still enjoying it. And even though the movie has its fair share of critics, most notably one of the co-creators of the graphic novel where it was based from - the great Alan Moore - I have to say that it was a success and undoubtedly one of the best comic book movies. 

Synopsis via IMDB:

In a gritty and alternate 1985 the glory days of costumed vigilantes have been brought to a close by a government crackdown, but after one of the masked veterans is brutally murdered an investigation into the killer is initiated. The reunited heroes set out to prevent their own destruction, but in doing so discover a deeper and far more diabolical plot. 

Trust me, that snyopsis is deceiving. Deceiving in the sense that it was described as having too simple of a plot. My friends, this movie is MORE than that.

The movie is as real as you can possibly get and you can never go wrong with the cast  (which doesn't include A-list names that actually made the film even better) and Zack Snyder's directing. And the heart-stopping climactic twist is perfectly brought to life like it was Just torn off of a page from the comic book itself which, actually describes most of the movie too. Everything was just fit together as if these guys were destined to do this adaptation of one of the most acclaimed graphic novels of all time.

I have read the original 1985 graphic novel itself and honestly, Snyder nailed it with this flick. It gave me a lot than I could ever hoped for a Watchmen adaptation and I applaud Snyder for staying true to the source material because it might not have worked if he tweaked it too much and thus making the whole movie a big disappointment. The comic book scenes and dialogues are amazingly the same, the fight choreography is very much realistic, the characterization is just splendid,(I still remember every line from Moore's writing while watching the film) the story is still as powerful and engagingas it ever wars 24 years later, and Malin Akerman's slow motion sex scene with her tits exposed are not that bad either despite that whole scene's awkward-ness (at least for me). I'm just glad to see this absolutely classic brought back to life.

Plus, it  probably has one of the best film intros ever made (probably because of the great "Times A-Changing" song by the immortal Bob Dylan, but still...) in history, with Snyder able to tell most of the story in less than 6 minutes. Its epic movie making at its finest. Here's the link if you haven't watched it yet (embed request is disabled): 

Watchmen Intro 

And if you haven't seen this thought-provoking movie, please do because this is nothing like you have ever seen and experienced before in a superhero film. Sure, it has its lows and horrible moments, but the good things simply outweigh the bad ones. It was simply wonderful and I won't get tired watching it over and over again.