# Watchmen - meh... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 26, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watchmen-meh/487522 "2009-02-26T16:38:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 31
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2009, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watchmen-meh/487522/31 "2009-02-26T20:36:09Z")
I’m somebody who was never much of a comic book reader, even as a kid, and I’ve read very few graphic novels. As of a couple of year ago, the only one I’d ever read was _Maus_ (for a college class). I picked up _Watchmen_ because it was recommended so highly on this board, and because I was intrigued that it had been listed as one of _Time_ Magazine’s 100 All-Time Greatest Novels (the only GN to make the list). I was hugely impressed by it, and I have to say to a couple of people here like **Hampshire** , I think you might need to give it another chance. It’s much more complex, provocative and subtle than it appears upon a casual reading. The “regular guys as superheroes” is just text, not subtext. Rorshach, alone, is one of the most fascinating characters I’ve ever seen, and definitely the greatest _comic book_ character. I’m still not sure I’ve really got a handle on him. Good or evil? Insane or ultra-sane. Utterly corrupt or utterly incorruptable? He’s repulsive and brutal and unsympathetic, yet so indomitable and honest and badass as to be almost inspring anyway. I guess it’s not an accident that he’s called Rorshach. He’s also got the best line in the entire book, and I’ve read Jackie Earle Haley’s reading of that line is getting cheers in the screenings. Anyway, I’m somebody who’s not generally a comic book geek, and I have been entranced by the book ever time I’ve read it. There is definitely more to it than meets the eye on one reading. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watchmen-meh/487522)._