Book: The Watchmen

Authors: Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons

Review: This is a comic book published in 86-87.  Bryan saw it in the library and insisted that I read it.  It is a rather dark look at a future where masked vigilantes had once been heroes, but are now obsolete and have been made illegal.  The story opens with a questionable death.  One of the former heroes appears to have been murdered, by being thrown out of a shatter proof window in a highrise.  Rosharch, one of the heroes who refused to quit, starts to investigate.  He finds that the victim was "The Comedian", a former hero, who had since worked for the government.  There is a hero who has real superpowers.  The government dubbed him Dr. Manhattan, but he is really a scientist who was the victim of an unfortunate accident.  This has left him with some amazing abilities, like being able to walk through walls, teleport, see the future, see and manipulate atoms.  He is part of the reason the vigilantes are obsolete.  Yet the world is becoming a worse place.  When Dr. Manhattan retreats to Mars, will the former vigilantes be able to solve the mysteries of their kind being killed, and will they be able to save the world from one of their own?