Watchmen

Watchmen
by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
read: circa 2003
Time 100 Novels, Eisner Award

What, a comic book?  On a list of 100 greatest novels?

Truth be told, it was the inclusion of Watchmen that probably intrigued me the most about Time's list of 100 greatest novels (written in English 1923 - 2005).  I had read the graphic novel (graphic novel is what adults call comic books when they don't want to be stained by the "you read comic books?" stigma) a couple years before the list came out and I was completely blown away.

The reaction of different fans when the movie came out a couple years ago is a testament to the depth of this work.  Everyone I talked to or read was convinced the movie would suck (I haven't seen it) because there was no way to put everything in there.  There's a comic-within-a-comic (Tales of the Black Freighter, with the idea that in a world where superheroes are real, pirate comics would rule) that was great but expendable; others saw this as the emotional core of the story and something that could not be removed without crippling Watchmen.  One of friends reacted with "But the whole story was about sex; how could they possibly do that in a movie?," which was an angle I hadn't considered at all but made perfect sense when I thought about it.  From Night Owl getting turned on by wearing costumes to Rorschach being emotionally stunted by his mother's promiscuity to Sally Jupiter's insecurity over her mother's relationship with The Comedian, all the characters are touched by the darkest elements of sexuality.

My point is: there's a ton here.  I haven't read it in a few years, and if I did I'm sure I could keep finding new things, new angles, new themes to explore.  Its inclusion in the Time Magazine list was controversial, but in my opinion warranted.