Re-read “Watchmen” while waiting for a new book shipment, because it’s an easy and quick read. This makes about the 10th time I’ve been through this series. It really was an amazing turning point for comics. I caught it a few years late, but the impact was no less effective. The shifts between current and flashback, the relationship of the side stories to events in the characters lives – and particularly the dark, adult subject matter explaining the motivations of the various flawed characters made it so real – a little too real at my first exposure.
Although it’s not the most clever story in the whole, my favorite character to analyze has always been Dr. Manhattan. As kids we played superheroes and the inevitable escalation of powers always led to the taunt “well, SuperBill (or whatever) can do anything“. As an adult, Watchmen explored the idea of exactly what happens to a person that can basically do anything – how it affects his mental shift, values and relationships. It remains the most intriguing mindplay from the series, at least for me.
I don’t have to extol the values of the series; they’re well documented. This series and the Dark Knight Returns series was what brought my attention back to comic books from my grade school days with Jack Kirby and Stan Lee.
This book doesn’t count toward my reading goals because it’s basically entertainment only, but I do get extra credit 
