Before Watchmen: Ozymandais | Crimson Corsair
Writer: Len Wein
Artists: Jae Lee, John Higgins, and Steve Rude
An interesting exploration of the lengths that the world's smartest man will take to achieve his ends!
Ranking: 5 stars
(WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR THE ORIGINAL GRAPHIC NOVEL BY ALAN MOORE AND DAVE GIBBONS! READ NO FURTHER IF YOU HAVE NOT READ IT YET!) Alan Moore's WATCHMEN has had a significant impact on the comics medium. Not only did it, as well as Frank Miller's BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, move the industry down a darker, more serious road, but the literary prowess of Moore's writing was enough for WATCHMEN to be the only graphic novel to ever be listed on TIME Magazine's list of "100 Greatest English Novels." The book also stands as one of my top 5 comics of all-time, primarily for the complex psychological profiles of the characters, and the morally ambiguous themes and tone. Because of the impact that WATCHMEN has had on the comics industry, it should surprise no one that writers have wanted to make continuations of Moore's original work. Those continuations were finally made in the wake of DC's New 52 relaunch, as a set of prequels under the title of BEFORE WATCHMEN. This project has been heavily controversial from both fans and critics, with some believing it to expand the Watchmen's mythos, while others feel it devalues the original graphic novel. Alan Moore himself has openly expressed his distaste towards the project, and refused DC's offer for involvement on it (he's easily one of the most stubborn writers I've heard of). A while back, I wrote a review on the volume containing the stories for Comedian and Rorschach, and praising the ideas and potential they had, but criticized the execution of Brian Azzarello's writing (I've mentioned that I'm not a fan of his works). I mentioned in that review that I would continue reading the prequels despite my disappointment with that volume, and since I've read all of them now, I'm finally ready to give my thoughts on the whole BEFORE WATCHMEN series. For me the series has been hit or miss, with some stories being absolute masterpieces, some being simply okay, others boring, and one that was plain horrendous. The stories contained in this volume perfectly portray the "hit or miss" factor of this series as the Ozymandais story is my personal favorite of the series, while the Crimson Corsair story is quite easily the worst, with both written by Len Wein (the writer behind GIANT-SIZED X-MEN #1 and creator of the SWAMP THING). BEFORE WATCHMEN: OZYMANDAIS Review: (LAST WARNING! MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE PLOT OF WATCHMEN!) The entire plot of the original graphic novel was centered around the death of the superhero Comedian, causing the former members of the Crimebusters to investigate who killed him, and why his death was somehow connected to a plot to ignite a World War III. By the book's climax, the culprit was revealed to have been Ozymandais (Adrian Veidt), who is widely considered to be the world's smartest man, and was one of the Watchmen's own teammates. What made this plot twist even more shocking however, was that Veidt was not planning to start a nuclear war between the U.S. and Soviet Union, but rather prevent it. To do this, he had used genetic engineering technology to create a creature that the world would perceive as an alien monster. He would then teleport it to New York City, causing it to die upon arrival, creating a blast wave that would kill half the city's population. The world would be frightened by the perceived threat of alien invasion, causing the U.S. and the Soviets to put aside their differences and band together against an enemy greater than themselves. The most shocking part of all of this was that Ozymandais's plan actually worked, and the Watchmen could do nothing to prevent it. Not only was this one of the most cleverly crafted plots in comic book history, but it brought up the question if one should sacrifice millions in order to save billions. BEFORE WATCHMEN: OZYMANDAIS portrays the life of the world's smartest man, Adrian Veidt, and the steps he takes to carry out his plan. Born to a pair of European immigrants who moved to America to escape the growing power of the third reich, Adrian showed signs of his intellect from a very early age. This caught the attention of his teachers, as his test scores were so high that they believed him to have cheated. Much to his disdain, this forced him to hide his intelligence from others, though he was determined to prove his genius to all of humanity. After the deaths of his parents, Adrian decided to follow in the footsteps of the only person he could relate to, the legendary Alexander the Great. He sold all of his parent's wealth and possessions to charity, hoping to start from nothing as he followed Alexander's historical trail across the world. It was during this journey, that Adrian became obsessed with accomplishing what Alexander had nearly achieved: uniting the world into a perfect utopia. He then returns to America, forming his own company, as well as following the growing trend of costumed superheroes by taking up the identity of Ozymandais. Despite his efforts to use his intellect to create a perfect world, he comes to realize that there may not be a world to save with the approaching threat of nuclear holocaust. To what lengths will Ozymandais go in order to accomplish his goal, and at what costs will they be obtained? In my personal opinion, the Ozymandais story is quite easily the best that the BEFORE WATCHMEN series has to offer. What stood out to me in particular was the handling of Adrian's character, as well as narrative being presented like an autobiography. In the Watchmen universe, Adrian is considered to be the most intelligent person alive, with an intellect on par with great minds like Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton. Because of his intellect, his mind functions on a higher level, allowing him to think of ideas, and plan strategies that appear to make him almost superhuman. His intellectual thinking capacity is expertly portrayed in his fight scenes, where he is able to perfectly predict his enemies moves and every possible outcome like Sherlock Holmes does, or even when planing his ultimate end goal, such as studying the nature of Dr. Manhattan's powers and using the information he gains years later to frame him in the original graphic novel. Len Wein's portrayal of Adrian also contributes to the narrative, as the entire story is told through an autobiography of his life right before the beginning of the original WATCHMEN. Conveying the story in this manner allows us to explore the psychology of Adrian's character, and even understand and sympathize with his goals. Because Ozymandais mindset is on a higher plane than the average human, it would have been very easy for the writer to confuse the reader by making Adrian's motivations confusing and difficult to follow. Fortunately, I never felt that, and was able to perfectly follow and understand what motivates Ozymandais to do what he does, as Wein's narrative humanizes Adrian. Passages like, "Permit me to let you in on a little secret... Being the world's smartest man does not, by extension, automatically make you the most creative," make Adrian feel less like an indestructible god, and more like an actual human being, but with a higher IQ than others. It takes such expertise to not only properly pay homage to Alan Moore's near infinite masterpiece, but to also humanize and expand upon its heavily three-dimensional villain. A feat that unfortunately, could not be repeated in the other story in this collection, CRIMSON CORSAIR. BEFORE WATCHMEN: CRIMSON CORSAIR Review: The original Alan Moore graphic novel was notable for having a comic within a comic (similar to Hamlet having a play within a play), which was a pirate comic being read by a kid at a news vendor stand. The comic was centered around a shipwrecked sailor who feared that the black pirates who sunk his ship would attack his home town, and builds a grotesque raft from the corpses of his shipmates to warn them. In the process however, the sailor became corrupted by the darkest corners of human nature, and in the process that the pirates were not after the town, but for him as he had indadvertedly become like them. Not only was the comic powerful enough to stand on its own, but the dark narrative and mental torture of the sailor perfectly intertwined with the plot of WATCHMEN. While that was a good story, the only reason that CRIMSON CORSAIR exists is to cash in on the fact that WATCHMEN had a pirate comic in it. From what I remember, the plot was centered around an English sailor who encountered cursed pirates, and was forced to travel around the world to find treasures so that he could escape death. I barley remember the story as it was poorly written and extremely hard to follow. While it started out strong, the book quickly fell into a mess of convoluted plot holes, as New pieces of exposition were continuously introduced, making the experience more frustrating. At a certain point I stopped caring about the plot or characters, and only kept on reading just because I feel a need to finish whatever I start reading. It was simply a terrible comic, that's all there really is to say about it. While under normal circumstances, the CRIMSON CORSAIR would have demoted points from this collection, the superb quality of Ozymandais's story completely overshadows the other's serious flaws. It still doesn't compare with Moore and Gibbon's work(it would take a lot to reach the levels of that near-infinite masterpiece), but BEFORE WATCHMEN: OZYMANDAIS is indeed a faithful continuation to the original graphic novel, and is quite easily the best that its prequel series has to offer. I know that most of the reviewers from Amazon.com have given this volume negative reviews, which I think is highly unfair. I understand that it's primarily due to the CRIMSON CORSAIR story, which I agree is indeed terrible, but OZYMANDAIS was so good that I just had to give it a five-star rating. The entire BEFORE WATCHMEN project itself has been heavily controversial, and while the stories it produced have been hit-or-miss for me, I feel that one's like BEFORE WATCHMEN: OZYMANDAIS, prove that the project was one worth investing time and money into. "Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." -James Madison
