PLOT: Discover what happened before WATCHMEN. The team of legendary writer Len Wein and acclaimed artist Jae Lee--in his first DC Comics' work in nearly a decade--delve into the mind of the smartest man in the world: Ozymandias. How does one go from the son of immigrant parents to becoming the world's smartest man? Adrian Veidt begins his journey, both spiritual and physical, that will one day make him one of the most pivotal players in the world-changing events of WATCHMEN.
REVIEW: I for one, was extremely excited for the Before Watchmen comics as Watchmen is one of my favorite books of all-time, and probably the best graphic novel of all-time in my mind. A lot of people complained about these being made however, because why do we need more other than to capitalize on the success of the movie and the resurgence of interest in the original comic. I will admit that without the movie I never would have read the comic, as it is pretty extensive, but it was well worth the amount of time that it took to read. The first volume I got to read was Before Watchmen: Ozymandias/Crimson Corsair. Obviously we all know Ozymandias as the villain of the Watchmen, despite being what you could consider a good man at heart. The story really goes from birth to the events of Watchmen, and explains how he got to be the way he was. However, there wasn't a ton of new information that you couldn't deduce from the original or that actually wasn't in the original. The art was great, and I have to admit I was still intrigued when reading the book, but it just didn't present anything new. This point leads me to think that the critics may have been right, and now I start to wonder if there really is a purpose other than money to this series.
Ozymandias is the bulk of the book, but then there's the stories of Crimson Corsair and Dollar Bill. The Crimson Corsair were short 2 page issues bundled together into a tale of a man who dies at sea, and journeys through the depths of hellish waters to retreive the three items that will reclaim his soul. It's a beautiful work of art, but again the story wasn't something I found entirely necessary and it doesn't really connect in any way to the original. It was a back up story in the issues of Before Watchmen, and I can certainly understand why because it's exactly that. After that there's a story of about the same thing about a character Dollar Bill. This guy, they tie into the story of Watchmen delicately enough to make it plausible even though I'm pretty positive he wasn't present in the book or movie. I really liked this story because it had an old school look to it and it read like an older comic. On top of that, it had a really good storyline and it was ultimately the ending that packed the punch for it. Other than that, I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend reading Before Watchmen: Ozymandias/Crimson Corsair unless you absolutely have to or you're a die-hard Watchmen fan.
WRITING : ( 7 / 10 )
ARTWORK : ( 9 / 10 )
STORY : ( 5 / 10 )
COVERS : ( 9 / 10 )
AWESOME : ( 6 / 10 )
FINAL RATING : ( 6 / 10 )
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