Geekscape Comics Reviews: “Before Watchmen: Minutemen”
This week sees DC’s controversial return to the world of Watchmen with Before Watchmen: Minutemen. This six-issue series is written and drawn by Darwyn Cooke, the man behind the fantastic mini-series DC: The New Frontier as well as the man responsible for bringing The Spirit into the mainstream DC universe. I love both of those aforementioned books and thus was looking forward to see Cooke’s take on the Minutemen. To say that I was let down is an understatement. So, what went wrong? Lemme break it down for you…
Let me just start by saying that Darwyn Cooke’s artwork is not the problem in this issue, in fact it is actually the issue’s saving grace. His artwork is uniquely his own and whenever you see a Darwyn Cooke page you know it’s one of his. His style fits the book perfectly. With the issue mainly set in 1939, the art fits the time setting nicely and still gives it a timely feeling. No, the art is not the problem at all. Well, then what is already?
The story is the big problem with the premiere issue. Why is it such a problem? Well, it’s because it’s boring. Issue one follows original Nite Owl, Hollis Mason, as he recalls the history of the first masks and what brought them together to form the Minutemen. The premise sounds interesting but the execution is not at all. Each member is given a few pages that shows their start in the world of the masks but the problem is that we aren’t really introduced to the characters, they are shown to us. We never truly get a chance to know who these characters are before we move on to the next character and soon forget ever meeting the previous character. I felt no connection to any of them and by issue’s end could care less about not only why they want to be heroes but also why they’d want to form a team. This is only a six-issue series so a slow burn story is not the way to go. Especially with this being the flag-ship book of the Before Watchmen prequels.
No, I didn’t hate this book, but I did expect a lot more. This was the Before Watchmen book that I was looking forward to the most and now I feel slightly cheated and very let down. Will I read issue two? Yeah, but I’m not looking forward to it. Should you read issue one? I say, save your money and go pick up DC: The New Frontier trade instead.
