Watchmen

Reading Watchmen and Batman the Killing Joke really made me rethink my opinions on superhero comics. I’ve written them off for a long time as all being the same old cliché story but these two comics actually really captivated me. I think the premise they both have of superheroes and villains being real people makes them far more relatable and creates a deeper storyline. I liked how in Watchmen the characters were all normal people who chose to become superheroes who are now all retired. I really found the end of the first issue interesting with the autobiography of Hollis Mason, which recounted why he chose the path he did. It was super interesting to read this huge monologue from the point of view of the character that really dug into his past and what lead to the decisions he made. I found the opening really awesome with his bit about the cashier that wrote romance novels and how he took her advice in writing about something to make the readers sympathize with him. I was not expecting him to tell the story that he did! The poor guy who killed himself was a really dark turn in his story but it made the seemingly untouchable superhero character far more human and gave him some fault. After reading Batman the Killing Joke I wrote in the assessment that I wanted even more of that depth from that comic. I really enjoyed the parts where we delve into the Joker’s past and his psyche. I think the best part of how Watchmen approached this with Mason was that they did it in prose. I thought that method was far effective in really delving into his thoughts than doing so in comic form. While I think it would’ve been interesting in comic form I don’t think it would have allowed them to dive as deep, because it would just take so much more time to draw a panel for every sentence written in his autobiography. I think that in Batman the Killing Joke, while the flashbacks of the Joker were incredibly well executed and intriguing, I was left just wanting to read more about him. I wanted that autobiography that Watchmen provided.