I remember seeing Nite Owl’s ship, and the excellent repeating trailer, on display at last year’s Comic-Con and here we are a year later. The film adaptation of DC’s classic 12 issue maxi-series has come and gone and has excited and perplexed many. I loved the film on the big screen. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. Sure, it wasn’t exactly a precisely faithful take but like Sin City before it, it showed the world that comics can be deep and mature. Hollywood had been trying to make the landmark story into a cinematic epic for the last twenty years, but it wasn’t until director Zack Snyder made 300 and proved himself worthy of the Watchmen helm.
Snyder’s brave choices are immediately obvious. The 1985 setting, the profanity, the brutal violence. It’s all there and it works and there’s even more swearing, lewdness and blood splattering in this Director’s Cut. There’s always an undercurrent of menace in this dark world where superheroes, or “masks” are outlawed, and the casting is almost perfect, particularly Jackie Earle Haley as Rorshach. His gruff narration and moving ink blot mask are exactly what I’d imagined when reading the comic. Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) is the only one with actual superpowers, though the other members of The Watchmen (The Comedian, Silk Spectre, Ozymandias) fight like superhumans. His glowing blue naughty bits may unsurprisingly be too much for some but it fits with Snyder’s overall vision. It ain’t always a subtle film. The sound and special effects are suitably fantastic, though the song choices don’t always work. Watchmen doesn’t look kindly on America and it believes heroes can kill villains. It’s not the typical superhero tale, and that’s what has made Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ masterpiece stand the test of time and be lauded as the best that comics has to offer.
The Director’s Cut includes an extra 24 minutes, meaning the film is now just over 3 hours long. Obviously if you didn’t like the film at the cinema a few more scenes won’t change your mind, but those scenes, and primarily the extra content will serve to cement fans’ love of the film. The additional scenes are enjoyable, but not necessary to the film’s narrative. They include a brief look at the kid reading the Tales of the Black Freighter comic that runs in the original series (and was made into an excellent animated film), Silk Spectre II being interrogated by government agents about Dr. Manhattan’s whereabouts and President Nixon and his advisers discussing the possibility of nuclear war. A gang’s attempted home invasion of Hollis Mason’s (the original Nite Owl) home is by far the best new scene.
On the second disc there’s a music video for Desolation Row by My Chemical Romance, 11 short video journals chronicling the film’s production and a very impressive doco on the power of the source material and why it was such a wake up call to the sequential art medium. This doco includes great art from Gibbons as well as interviews with the cast and other creators, including former DC President Jenette Kahn, colourist John Higgins, editor writer Len Wein, and singer Gerard Way. It shows the visual history of the project and is a must for those who don’t understand what all the fuss about this book is. Curiously there’s no sign of the rumoured Black Freighter segments being integrated into the film, but I think it’s better enjoyed alone anyway.
There’s simply no denying the power of this film and it is one I enjoyed watching or rather, experiencing, again. It’s available on DVD, Blu-Ray and on iTunes now.
Mauro Cascioli wowed many with his painted art on the Trials of Shazam mini that moved Freddy Freeman to drop the Junior from his Captain Marvel moniker. These pages are lush and realistic, not in an Alex Ross way, but with texture and tone and superb backgrounds. These characters look foreboding and heroic and scary. Thank you Robinson and Cascioli for giving the JLA CPR. It is for DC fans, but Robinson also knows that some of these heroes are more familiar than others and doesn’t act on assumed knowledge. This is going to be an exciting series and thankfully, once it’s over Robinson will be taking his skills, and possibly his new crew, on to the ongoing JLA series.
I’ll get to see this when it debuts at Comic-Con next month. Yay for me! The 
I’m looking at my hefty haul of new comics this week, including the cheaper edition of the 2007 DC Comics Covergirls, which is a very pretty coffee table book focused on DC’s female stars from the last 7 decades. I’m also looking at three issues with strong female leads. Justice League of America #34 is the last ish written by Dwayne McDuffie, which is kind of a shame, especially since he’s just starting to introduce his Milestone characters into the DCU. However it’s no surprise, as he was getting 
It begins with the leather clad redhead chasing a crim called Rush for information, before a brief encounter with the new Batman, ie, Dick Grayson, who gives her an unnecessary hair care tip. We then see Kathy have a breakup at a cafe before she talks to her stepfather, a Colonel who seems to be her Alfred stand-in. With the visit of pale Alice to Gotham, the new leader of the Religion of Crime and a gun-toting Batwoman staring her down it’s obvious that something odd is being set up. Odd in a good way though. With this new direction, it seems like a Vertigo book in the middle of Gotham. Williams’ fight scenes are beautifully choreographed and he makes the pages his own. When Batwoman kicks butt, wow is the only appropriate response. The dialogue and exposition scenes are designed with more restraint which makes the action scenes pack even more punch.
There’s an interesting (and well researched) article on 
So, Dick Grayson is the new Batman, and Bruce Wayne’s son, Damian is the new Robin. Though you couldn’t really tell from reading this week’s Battle for the Cowl conclusion. The current Robin, Tim Drake and former (dead) Robin Jason Todd were running around in different Batman costumes while various classic Batman foes watched as Gotham descended into more hellish chaos. And just so you know Batman, AKA Bruce Wayne is not exactly dead. Rather he was sent way back in time thanks to Darkseid’s Omega Sanction eye beams. You can read all about it in Final Crisis if you don’t mind a migraine. However, as a sum up, here’s my latest Broken Frontier article, 
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