BEFORE WATCHMEN: MINUTEMEN #1

Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1

Writer: Darwyn Cooke

Artist Darwyn Cooke

Pages: 28

Well, the wait is finally over. The greatly publicized prequel to Watchmen is finally on the shelves. Written and drawn by DC heavyweight Darwyn Cooke, Minutemen #1 deals with the early days of super-heroics.

            We start with some slightly heavy handed philosophy for the first two pages which is then humorously thrown aside as the writer goes about the business of introducing the main characters from the point of view of Night-Owl as he narrates them from his book. Everybody gets a fair amount of face-time and the set-ups are nice, though a plot may be difficult to find in it all. The dialogue is crisp and character building and never short of entertaining. This issue is only set-up so time will tell what the actual story is (we only really get glimpses towards the end.

            The art is standard Cooke (in that it jumps off the page) and is much nicer than in The Spirit. The cover is particularly gorgeous and it’s faded, almost sepia look seems quite fitting for the tone of the book.

            To call this project controversial is an understatement. It quite literally divided the comic reading public down the middle. It’s important that a work be taken on it’s own merits. Time will still tell on how Minutemen pans out, but it’s promising o far.