So far Before Watchmen has been pretty good comic book reading. Here’s how I rate the books so far….

#1. Silk Spectre – This comic can stand on it’s own as a great read, but throw in the Watchman tag and it turns into a must read. Lovely art and touching story. Also this comic adheres to the format and style of the original Watchmen series -9 panel grids, using a quote to name the story, clever background art that makes you pay attention. Nice work.

#2. Minutemen – The other Darywn Cooke series that lets his flare for the sentimental comics of yore shine. While Silk Spectre is readable without a obsessive knowing of Moore’s and Gibbons work, it certainly helps reading Minutemen if you have poured over Watchmen countless times and also read the supplemental material in the back of the issues.

#3. Nite Owl – This book borrows the heaviest, so far, from the original series. Here we get for the first time actual scenes taken from Watchmen (I’m not really counting the Laurie Snowglobe memory that Silk Specter #1 had) – seen through the JMS lens, a lens that you either love or hate. I land on the love side of things (well, more on the “like” side of things. Love is a little too strong). Although not a great comic, Nite Owl is enjoyable and nice to look at. The Kubert’s do a fine job and I had a good time reading this origin story.

#4. Comedian – Not sure this book really captured the essence of Eddie Blake the way Alan Moore did. It’s funny, The Comedian is only seen in flashbacks and is almost a secondary character in the original series, but Moore wrote the fuck out of him and brought that character to life in a way that his shadow loomed over the whole series. He was the dude you loved to hate. But here, in Before Watchmen, he is written as a half-assed Deathstroke. But hey, they can’t all be winners.