So you want to be a Watchmen geek? Many people have mixed feelings about superhero push in pop culture, but like it or hate it, it appears they will have to live with it.  In that case I say embrace it in all it’s geekdom.  Especially since the release of the Watchmen, which has sparked heated debate among the masses because honestly, people just don’t get it.  The reason why they don’t get it is due to the fact that they never read the book.  That’s okay though, because even if you did read the book you probably wouldn’t get it.  In fact, you may not have even understood the book in the first place.

The Watchmen is a very difficult book to grasp even for the seasoned geek like myself.  It is the type of story that you just have to go with, and know that everything in the story holds meaning, but the true mystery will not reveal itself until the bitter end.  The Watchmen graphic novel differs somewhat from the film.  There are a great deal of shots in the film that are panel for panel exactly like the book.  The thing about the Watchmen is that if you read the book there are other aspects of the story that won’t make sense and are not in the movie at all so you will be totally lost.

Here’s the honest truth.  The Watchmen is not a great book to make as your first sep into comic geekdom.  If you ask my opinion, since I have been reading comics for the last twenty years, I would say that The Watchmen should be a book you read as a seasoned comic book reader.

If you are interested in starting to read Graphic Novels, The Watchmen is not a good first choice.  Reason being, you won’t understand the characters and you will feel that it is a story that hates superheroes.  This is not the case though.  In essence The Watchmen is the archetypes of some of the most famous superheroes in history.

The Watchmen characters are based off of, Superman, Captain Atom, Batman, The Question, The Black Canary, and Lex Luthor to name a few.  You need to understand the original characters before you may be able to understand the characters and the back-story of the Watchmen. 

If you decide to pick up the Watchmen and give it a read here is my best advice.  Don’t stop.  Don’t put the book down.  If you can power through the first five chapters it will suck you in and you will be dying to know what’s next.  If you just want to read the comic portion skip the parts of the Black Freighter and the Hollis Mason Story parts.  These parts of the story play a very important role in the book but they do slow the story down.  Maybe if you read the book through once and want to give it a second read you should go through everything.  So enjoy the book and gain a stronger understanding of the movie.  See you in geek land.