I picked up the first issue on Thursday, but I haven't had time to review it until now. Obviously you can't judge a 35-issue series by the first installment, but as that is how DC Comics is releasing it, so shall it be reviewed. As I stated on this board a few months ago, "I'll read it so you don't have to". And with all respect to Comicon.com's resident Kentucky Clark Kent (Lawson), my review will not be nearly as snarky as his "OMAC Project" reviews back in 2005. I'm going into this as someone who has wanted more since the first series ended in 1987, but also as someone who hopes this story lives up to the same high standards as the original. So with a guarded optimism, let us begin:

Based on the first issue, the series does not plan on replicating the format of the original series. The original series had each issue be a 32-page installment with no ads on "baxter" paper using a rather garish color process, and the 32 pages being divided between a "graphic novel chapter" taking up the majority of the book (with scattered sequences from a fictitious 1950's pirate comic called "The Black Freighter" dispersed throughout) and an illustrated text piece in the back of the issue. The first issue of the new series is a 32-page installment using the standard paper and coloring process that all of DC's regular comics currently use; there are also ads (on 3 pages only) in the book and instead of a text feature we have a two-page installment of a pirate story called "The Crimson Corsair", which we will discuss in a bit.

Firstly I'd like to start with an outright improvement this issue has over any of the 12 original issues: the coloring. The original series whether by artistic intent or by the process used, too often made everything look like it was colored with neon crayons. Now however Phil Noto enhances the different media used in the illustrations; for example, black-and-white photos, firelit glows, and cityscapes by sunset all look appropriate. Furthermore he does an excellent job in setting the mood for the various scenes while not detracting from the art.

Both said art and story as well are supplied for this issue by Darwyn Cooke; he also provided the standard cover (as opposed to the many limited edition variant covers) as well. Cooke is perhaps best known for his other DC work such as the Catwoman graphic novel "Selina's Big Score", "The Spirit", and of course "The New Frontier". Cutting to the chase: this issue is what you would expect the creator of "New Frontier" would deliver in fleshing out the details of "The Minutemen".

The Minutemen, for those of you unfamiliar, are the original superheroes in the world of the Watchmen. While these costumed crimefighters got their start in the late 1930's and operated throughout World War Two, unlike the majority of superheroes published in comics at the time in the real world none of this team had powers or abilities beyond those of extraordinary humans. Their membership consisted of "Hooded Justice", "Nite Owl", "Silk Spectre", "The Silhouette", "Mothman", "Dollar Bill", "The Comedian" and "Captain Metropolis".

The 26-page introductory story "The Minute of Truth Chapter One: Eight Minutes" is narrated by Nite Owl (Hollis Mason), primarily as lines from his autobiography. The story focuses on vignettes from the eight members' early adventures: a page of Dollar Bill's origins here, a three-page sequence of the proto-Rorschach Hooded Justice there. Little knew information is gleaned about these characters that we didn't already know from the original; the Comedian has a juvenile record and the Silhouette was a refugee from Nazi-occupied Austria. On the other hand, the issue can also be viewed simply as an introduction to the characters to any reader who may be unfamiliar with them; and my optimistic side hopes that in the coming issues we will see both an original plot and an original theme.

Artistically, Cooke definitely deviates from the original, as the series looks like his own work and not at all like the style or structure original series artist Dave Gibbons used. Cooke's retro style serves the retro series that this is very well. Hollis Mason as an old writer, a young police officer, and a newbie masked adventurer is given the emotional weight, the determined awe, and the do-gooder intensity that the age and scene demand. The way Cooke shows different emotions, such as the Comedian tearing into a "dirty egg" or the urgency Silhouette feels in breaking up a child pornography ring, shows the thought he puts into his illustrations. His linework is deceptively simple, evoking cartooning legend Alex Toth more than anyone else.

What is simple though, are the layouts. Aside from the first two pages, Cooke's layouts eschews the complex patterns of the original, moving more towards narrative than subtextuality. As both plotter and penciller, Cooke gets sole credit (or blame if you will) for this, whereas the original layouts had to do both with Gibbons and the original series' writer Alan Moore. However while Moore's story structure and ideas appear (at this point anyway) to be more sophisticated than what Cooke has displayed, the new issue's dialogue is just as good and perhaps a tad more authentic. The veddy English Moore often writes clever dialogue but his "American voice" appears to be forced at times, whereas with Cooke it seems much more natural. Whether it is the banter between Silk Spectre's manager and a police chief or Captain Metropolis's bathtub dictation to his butler, the words genuinely seem to fit the characters, and that is definitely to Cooke's credit.

One thing Moore did in the original which Cooke does not do here is create "clever" transitions between scenes, where the text, dialogue and/or pictures would lead us from one scenario to the next either literally or thematically. If you like that sort of thing, the absence will be missed. However few writers can pull it off as effectively as Moore did, so the fact that Cooke chose the more natural method of simply having one scene end and another begin does not bother me. And while DC has chosen to continue the notion of having a pirate tale intertwined with the main superhero tale, they wisely chose not to have the pirates interrupt the heroes, as the random shift of genres did not serve the original story well.

And since there were only two pages of the pirate story this issue, it is surely too soon to judge what writer Len Wein and artist John Higgins have begun. The wordcrafting by Wein is at least above his usual standards. Wein & Higgins, it should be noted, are the respective editor and colorist of the original series, so their inclusion in this effort is appreciated. While the coloring of the pirate sequence is just as subtle as the lead-in story in comparison to the original series, the colorist credit is not give for this aspect, so it is not known who to credit.

In summary, while the introductory issue lacks the originality and complexity of the original series, the artwork and dialague are just as good and the coloring is better. Here's hoping the next installment is as good or better than this week's!

Well written review, makes me curious to look at the books.

Nice review, but I think you can also take another step back and get a bit more "meta" about how the first issue of MINUTEMEN is nothing but a series of vignettes introducing characters that everybody buying this series is already familiar with. It's a great example of how super-hero comics have so slavishly followed the tone of WATCHMEN while fleeing from its structural example.

Mike

As the first issue is a reintroduction to characters who haven't had a comic appearance in 25 years, I'm willing to give Cooke the benefit of the doubt for this chapter.

Good review. I kind of want to check it out now, just to compare it to the original. I saw another preview, the first 4 pages. It still seems like it pales to Watchmen though.

I liked the original because it had so much going on. Two different genres, straighforward supehero, then an EC pirate story. Then implementing text pieces to make it feel more than just a comic book but a real world you're inhabiting as well as pushing the limits of what you could do with a comic.

Minutemen just seems like it's explaining everything that was in Watchmen. Like why and how the original Nite Owl ended up with a pretty plain approach to writing Under The Hood, rather than something more prosey. Explaining why Mothman went nutty. Moore was showing what superheroes would be like if they were real. Minutemen weren't really in it for the altruistic reasons comic book superheroes do it. Maybe Moore was saying that the notion of dressing up like a comic character and fighting crime would attract the mentally unbalanced, which is where Mothman comes in.

But Cooke seems like he's turning them back into the flawed but heroic type.

This will be on ZCult on Wednesday.

Minutemen ends with the first chapter of a pirate comic.

So yeah, nothing new, just a copy of the original. Not even a switch of the genre on the EC-style tangent story/metaphor? Make it a war comic, air fighters or gothic romance, something that might show the authors are choosing it purposely, not just copying the original.

I think Gerald really touches on a very important point. Every issue of Watchmen seemed so full and rich with text, and other elements, very intense elements, it gave the work such substance. You really felt immersed in the story. Giving you the levels of depth usually only seen in prose novels.

It really highlights the difference between a graphic novel and just a trade paperback collections, redefining the possibilities of the medium, more than any other work to date. Has any other work pushed further, hell have any done as much?

There are sequels to great novels or series written by contemporary authors all the time, but I can't think of a one that has ever been able to establish itself as being as good as any works by the original authors.

I have three on my shelf right now, that I haven't read yet so I could be wrong but I doubt it. I've got The Italian Secretary, an authorized Sherlock Holmes mystery by Caleb Carr. Jeffrey Deaver's Carte Blanche, a James Bond novel, and Spade and Archer, by Joe Gores, a Prequel to The Maltese Falcon. Like the new Watchmen books, I don't expect the new works to be groundbreaking, original or even anything as rich and satisfying as the original. And WatchmenLite has a bigger issue. It can't be original or groundbreaking, despite and probably because it has so many different creators working on it, no single vision other than the ghosts of the original work is guiding it. How can it be anything more than an eclectic anthology, with some successes and failures? My guess is Darwyn Cooke's segment will be pleasant but as a whole it will fail or be ultimately unsatisfying. Like those prose anthologies about fairy tales or vampires, this one just happens to be Watchmen themed, some individual stories might work, or will be at least entertaining, but others won't, they can't as a whole transcend the anthology format to create anything larger, anything unique and special without one unique vision like the original.

Reminds me of Grendel. Compare the original and subsequent sequels like Devil Inside, Devil Tracks, The Incubation Years, with that of the prequel Behold the Devil. The original and sequels touched on different genre's and ideas as well as using different types page design and media to grab the reader.

The prequel Behold the Devil on the otherhand just used the same Sparr-as-narrator device but illustrated the story in a typical straight forward style and didn't add anything to the concept of Grendel except for explaining some things that I felt didn't need explained. Like why Hunter Rose adopted Stacy Palumbo. How Larry being Rose's accomplice escaped justice.

Moore was saying how Watchmen was special because it was a finite story and that's what made it successful as well.

I think it had way more to do with making the medium more than it appeard to be, combined with the novel at the time concept of taking juvenile superhero characters and adding serious and mature elements to them. That concept is now old hat, and yet most mainstream comics don't do much with exploring the medium when telling a story.

I wanted to atleast peak at BW Minutemen, but now I'm even more disappointed after reminiscing on how much more complex Moore's work is. I criticized his habit of taking other peoples characters and indulging in parodying while reminiscing nostaligic but technically he does so much more with comic books than other writers.

After reading the issue where Sophie meets "Bill" Promethea and the world turns more clearer, shown to the reader via Fumetti, and the widescreen issue "Promethea Attacks!", and perfectly capturing the nostalgia of the 50s/60s with Rick Veitch on those retro Supreme tales, I can't go back to conventional comics like Before Watchmen.

Just downloaded and read it. Hahaha!! If anyone was unclear that Darwyn Cooke is an unoriginal and derivative piece of shit, I hope this clears it up for them.

Michael Golden turned to shit a decade or so ago and he provides a (shitty) variant cover.

Phil Noto's coloring is meh. It's better than Higgins' on the original (and on the original version of The Killing Joke) because it's a completely different process.

Even the lettering on this comic sucked.


I liked this quote from co-editor Will Dennis:


I'm wondering what Will Dennis' job was before this, and what it will be in a couple of years when there's no comic book industry left.