Review: Silk Spectre by Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner

Guest post by Sean Korsgaard.

As mentioned before, the Silk Spectre is the most overlooked character in Watchmen, kind of just glanced over, and the Before Watchmen title sought to provide some much needed back-story and motive to her character. I’m pleased to say, the series succeeds in doing so marvelously on several levels.

The story centers on Laurie Jupiter, daughter of the original Silk Spectre, Sally Jupiter, who chafes under her mother’s forcible attempts to train her daughter to take up the mantle in the family trade of a masked vigilante. Needless to say, Laurie, rebellious as all teenagers tend to be, wants to set her own path, and runs off with her boyfriend to San Francisco, where after getting entangled in both the rising counterculture scene and the local drug kingpins that capitalize on it, Laurie may soon discover that she is more her mother’s child than she expected, and that she may take on the mantle as the Silk Spectre for her own sake, and no ones else’s.

Largely thanks to some fantastic writing, the story serves as a sharply written coming of age story for Laurie Jupiter, as she struggles to both live up to and avoid the expectations of her mother, while discovering just what and who she wants to be. It’s a far more personal tale than any other Before Watchmen title, and one which fills out her character in ways that truly help you to gain a greater understanding of both Laurie and the Silk Spectre.

Ironically enough, the title also provides the best look at the Comedian in Before Watchmen, where in a few pages, we see both his twisted monstrous self, and alternatively, a glimmer of a soft-paternal side of Eddie Blake when encountering some of his daughter’s work, and we even see where he gets his now-familiar smiley face button. In literally a handful of pages it did more to develop the Comedian than six issues of his own series had, and is worth checking out the title for this alone.

Of course, it’s worth checking out the Silk Spectre title for more than just that – the series develops on of Watchmen’s most brushed over characters, exploring Laurie’s backstory as she both comes to terms with her domineering mother, struggles to achieve some independence as a person, and takes up the mantle of the Silk Spectre out of her own desire, not her mothers. When combined with a dozen little moments, good writing and the wide-variety of art styles that make up the series – one which arguably is the most faithful to the original style of Watchmen - you have yet another must-read.

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Soldier, scholar, writer and web-voyeur, Sean CW Korsgaard has been active in the alternate history community since 2006, and was recently elected to succeed Mitro as President of the Alternate History Online Facebook group. In addition to his contributions at the Alternate History Weekly Update, he writes for several websites, including his own, which can be found here.

Review: Minutemen by Darwyn Cooke

Guest post by Sean Korsgaard.

As mentioned before, a prequel covering the initial supergroup whose foundation set off all of the events of the Watchmen universe had been in talks for years, and had the opportunity to tell the tales of characters like Captain Metropolis and the original Nite Owl, as well as casting light on a corner of the canon Watchmen universe only given snippets of details in passing.

The title focuses on Hollis Mason, the original Nite Owl, getting ready to write Under the Hood, as he remembers his time as a masked vigilante, his various adventures with the Minutemen, and the rise and fall of both the group and its various members. We get to see some of the capers the group went on, some of the behind the scenes drama that faced the members of the team, and we watch as the world of masked vigilantes shifts from that of Nite Owl and Dollar Bill to one of Doctor Manhattan and Rorschach.

Let me start by saying that the story is fantastic – told from the perspective of Hollis Mason as he both begins writing Under The Hood and remembers the events of his time with the Minutemen and its various members via flashbacks, we get a look back at the group through events large and small up through the so called ‘Golden Age’ of the masked vigilantes. It certainly benefits from the fact Watchmen said so little about this group of heroes, yet the title wastes no time giving each of them personalities, back stories and identities that perfectly fit in with both the original spirit of Watchmen, and the sort of mental pictures I’m sure some of us had formed of the various superheroes from the team.

This is made all the better by the fantastic artwork that in many ways, showcases the very best kind of artwork the Golden Age of Comics had to offer. Darwyn Cooke, who did both the writing and the art, has earned a name for himself on new retro titles like The Spirit and The Rocketeer, and he brings that same infusion of Golden Age spirit to a title that manages to deconstruct that eras comics as much as it pays homage to them – all the while connecting it to the greater Watchmen universe, and fleshing out its most overlooked chapters.

This series grabbed me from the first issue, and save for Ozymandias, is the best of the Before Watchmen titles. It fleshes out the Minutemen and the greater universe of Watchmen, tells interesting stories while fleshing out a cast whose rise and fall we bear witness to, and is a joy to read and look at. A top notch title, and comes with my firmest recommendations – for those who loved the original Watchmen, Minutemen will very easily find a place next to it on your shelf.

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Soldier, scholar, writer and web-voyeur, Sean CW Korsgaard has been active in the alternate history community since 2006, and was recently elected to succeed Mitro as President of the Alternate History Online Facebook group. In addition to his contributions at the Alternate History Weekly Update, he writes for several websites, including his own, which can be found here.