Quis custodiet ipsos custodies? Ago.

Who watches the watchmen (themselves)? I do. Except for the Ago/I do, that is a quote from Juvenal, one of those rowdy Roman poets.

The preceding post, or widget (whatever that means), refers to The Watchmen - a graphic novel (i.e., a growned-up comic book) and now adapted for the big screen. I received the book as a Christmas gift from a friend. Since then, I have read it in totum twice. For those who are unaware with the story, it would take a rather lengthy post to explain it satisfactorily. Therefore, a brief description must suffice, and hence the reader must satisfy their curiosity elsewhere.

Some minor spoilers follow.

The story proper begins in 1985 with the murder of an aging hero and the world on the brink of Cold War-style nuclear apocalypse; the hero is the Comedian, a Hobbesian, government-employed assassin; the lynchpin of world security is Dr. Manhattan, a jaded, uninterested being who actually possesses superhuman powers (he controls atoms at the molecular level, or something). At first, the remaining heroes (all retired save one) attempt to discover the identity of the murderer, which leads to Dr. Manhattan leaving Earth (a huge generalization there) which then prompts the USSR invading small, neutral, neighboring countries. So the book basically starts as a whodunnit? and evolves into a howcanwestoptheapocalypse? But those two seemingly separate storylines are very much intertwined, physically and figuratively, that build up into a great finale.

That is about as good I can do in the few minutes allotted. There really is so much more to the book, including but not limited to: a jailbreak, (relevant) flashbacks, dirigibles, an hovership, Antarctica, and so much hidden-meaning, intelligent, referential material that I will not even attempt to describe any of it. Combine this with a very solid plot, great backstory, and fantastic characters and character development (and despite the existentialism prevalent in several sub-plots) I would probably give an overall rating of 9.3/10.