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Overanalyzing Anime
Blog Owner & Lead Writer
In the 1940’s, years before the arrival of the Watchmen, the city of New York had a different set of masked heroes protecting it - the Minutemen!
I want to start this review off differently, by immediately giving praise to Darwyn Cooke for not only writing this excellent tale, but for also providing the illustrations. It’s rare to find an individual who’s able (& willing) to do both the writing & drawing for a comic, & I have to give him kudos for managing to do both so magnificently in this piece. I really enjoyed his art style & the way it paid homage to the comics of that era (1940’s); it was the perfect choice.
Now, let’s talk about the actual story. While the Minutemen are mentioned briefly in the original Watchmen story - mostly through the asides from Mason’s Under The Hood novel - we never get to see the characters fleshed out in the same way as their successors. What BW: Minutemen does is take what little we do know about them & turn it on its head with massive retcons. While (very) few may take issue with the changes, I for one thought that they made for a very entertaining story - providing much more depth & #drama to #characters I could have otherwise cared less about.
I also enjoyed that it gave us more context on the Minutemen who did appear in the original Watchmen story. While BW: Nite Owl alluded to the wrong-doings of Hollis Mason, in this story we see exactly what he was so ashamed of. Not only that, but we also get to see the events that led to Silk Spectre & The Comedian reconciling with one another.
One more thing, I finally looked-up what the order of the BW comics was & I realized that I read the entire series in (almost) the exact opposite order. This should have been my first review, & Dr. Manhattan should have been my last. Oops.
While I never planned on reading this entry in the BW series - as I was only really interested in the actual Watchmen - I’m very glad I gave it a chance. Discovering the hidden truths regarding the *original* team of masked heroes was quite an experience. I definitely recommend it!
My rating: 10/10
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