Before Watchmen: Minutemen | Silk Spectre
Writer: Darwyn Cooke
Artists: Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner
The Minutemen story provides an excellent history for the first generation of superheroes, and while the Silk Spectre story had flaws, it was still okay…
Ranking: 4 stars
When it comes to prequel stories, the biggest risk that they run is upsetting fans of the original story. This is often the result of numerous factors, particularly opinions that the original is fine as a stand-alone story and needs no expansion or improvement, that it’s lesser in comparison of quality, or that the prequel contains elements that contradict those of the original. This is a problem not just to prequels of classic books or comics, but in all forms of media. However, I feel that a majority of the hate directed at prequel stories is somewhat unjustified, as while I can understand some of the anger, I feel that hype towards the original story can often blind individuals to the aspects of prequels that are actually positive (which is why the STAR WARS prequel haters annoy me so much!).
Such is the case with the BEFORE WATCHMEN series, which is one of the most recent cases of extreme controversy surrounding a prequel project. As I have stated on numerous occasions, Alan Moore’s WATCHMEN is quite easily one of the most important comics ever published. The story was not only a phenomenally written masterpiece that explored the complex psychologies of its characters, but it was so grounded in its realistic and mature themes that it helped allow comics to be taken seriously as a literary medium (it’s also one of my top 5 favorite comics of all-time). With such a reputation behind it, it’s perfectly understandable as to why DC would want to create a series of prequels or follow-up story lines. But because of editorial interference and struggles over ownership rights between Moore and DC, the project was supposedly abandoned until it was revived as the BEFORE WATCHMEN series in 2012. Ever since its release, BEFORE WATCHMEN has been one of the most controversial comic series recently published, with even Alan Moore openly denouncing the project as “completely shameless.” But because I consider WATCHMEN to be a near-infinite masterpiece, I couldn’t help but check out the prequels in order to see how they held up in comparison to the original. Having read all of them now, I can easily say that the BEFORE WATCHMEN prequels are hit-or-miss. Unlike some people, I personally found the OZYMANDAIS, NITE OWL, and MOLOCH stories to be great, whereas the DR. MANHATTAN story was mostly forgettable, the COMEDIAN and RORSCHACH ones were not very good (which I contribute to Brian Azzarello writing them more than anything else), and CRIMSON CORSAIR to be was simply awful. And it’s finally time that I talk about the last two prequels from the BEFORE WATCHMEN series, MINUTEMEN, which was an excellent backstory for the first generation of superheroes in WATCHMEN’s universe, and SILK SPECTRE, which despite having serious flaws is still a decent read.
BEFORE WATCHMEN: MINUTEMEN Review:
One of the most interesting aspects about WATCHMEN in my opinion is that there is never a team of superheroes that refers to themselves as “the Watchmen.” Instead there are two groups of superheroes, the Minutemen of the 1930’s and 40’s, and the Crimebusters of the 60’s and 70’s. The term “watchmen” is instead utilized to refer to the famous Latin quote, “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes,” which translates to “Who watches the watchmen?” I bring this up because the term “watchmen” applies to the concept of superheroes in general, meaning that both the Minutemen and the Crimebusters were the “watchmen” despite being a generation apart. However, because the plot of WATCHMEN was told primarily through the eyes of the Crimebusters (which consisted of Rorschach, the Comedian, Dr. Manhattan, Nite Owl II, Ozymandias, and Silk Spectre II), all the reader knew about the Minutemen was from flashbacks conveyed by elderly former members of the team. So while we knew about the general history of the Minutemen, we were mostly left in the dark about its members (aside from the original Nite Owl and Silk Spectre, as well as the Comedian, who was a member of both generations of superheroes). BEFORE WATCHMEN: MINUTEMEN serves to not only explain the full details of the Minutemen’s history, but also provides further depth to its lesser-known members. The plot of MINUTEMEN is told from the perspective of Hollis Mason, the original Nite Owl, who is preparing the final draft of his book “Under the Hood,” which detailed the true events surrounding his team. The events that would lead to the Minutemen’s formation began in 1939, with the emergence of the first costumed crime-fighter, Hooded Justice. Other individuals, including Mason, soon become inspired by Hooded Justice and begin creating their own bombastic identities as well. With the trend of costumed heroes growing in America, Captain Metropolis (Nelson “Nelly” Gardner) decides that forming a team of them would help benefit in the war against crime. This leads to the formation of the Minutemen consisting of individuals such as Sally Jupiter (Silk Spectre I), Edward Blake (the Comedian), Byron Lewis (Mothman), William Benjamin "Bill" Brady (Dollar Bill), and Ursula Zandt (the Silhouette). While Mason is initially hopeful that the team will be a effective force against criminals, he becomes doubtful as he gradually discovers that the Minutemen are more concerned with marketing, ratings, and public relations rather than actually solving society’s problems. His doubts become further fueled as the team begins to gradually decline, with members either leaving the team, getting killed, or revealed to be hiding dark secrets. All these events and revelations will forever change Mason’s perceptions on what makes the crime-fighters any better than the criminals that they are fighting.
In my opinion, the most important functions of any prequel should be to provide an expansion of the history of the character’s universe, as well as development for both old and new characters. MINUTEMEN definitely succeeds in this regard as it not only details the full history of the first generation of superheroes, but it expands the depth and psychologies of both already developed and less developed characters. Just like the OZYMANDAIS story, MINUTEMEN explains the backstory of the team through the autobiographical perspective of one of its members. The narrative style particularly works here by being conveyed through Hollis Mason, as in the original WATCHMEN, Mason had wrote a book called “Under the Hood,” which detailed the history of superheroes in America. I felt that this allowed the story to remain faithful to the essence of the original comic as “Under the Hood” was a major element of the WATCHMEN universe, and was said to be an accurate account of the Minutemen’s exploits. The decision to tell the story from the original drafts of Mason’s book also prevents plot points that contradict those of the original comic from hurting the story. A prominent aspect of Mason’s book was that while “Under the Hood” was supposedly an accurate account of the Minutemen’s history, there were subtle hints that Mason had left out certain elements of the team’s backstory, particularly the darker ones. This conveyed the idea that what he wrote in “Under the Hood” was either an incomplete truth, or fabrications designed to cover up what had actually happened. As a result, the events conveyed in MINUTEMEN that may contradict those of the original comic do not hurt the story as they help add on to the ambiguous nature surrounding Mason’s book.
While MINUTEMEN definitely succeeds in telling the actual backstory of the team, it also further fleshes out characters that were already explored in WATCHMEN, as well as ones who were previously reduced to figures in the background. The character who is gets the most psychological analysis in this story is quite easily Hollis Mason, the first Nite Owl. Ironically, while the second Nite Owl, Dan Dreiberg, was my least favorite Watchman in the original graphic novel, Hollis Mason was one of the more compelling characters in that story. I felt that what made Hollis such an interesting character was that once he retired from crime fighting, he was conveyed as both optimistic yet doubtful. While his optimism in WATCHMEN was fully expressed through his belief that Dan would be a better Nite Owl than he was, his feelings of doubt were conveyed in a subtler manner, as the reader knew that they were directed towards his own generation of crime-fighters, but not what he exactly felt towards them. MINUTEMEN expands the more doubtful side of Mason’s character through his gradual realizations about the corruption within his team, and his increasing desire to do what was genuinely right. This was expertly conveyed through his friendship with Silhouette and attempts to help her stop child pornography rings, as well as him later standing up against Hooded Justice when it’s revealed that he was possibly conducting criminal activities. MINUTEMEN helps provide completion of Mason’s character by showing how his growing doubt and pessimism towards his own generation of superheroes led to his increasing optimism that the next one would be better. The rest of the Minutemen’s members are also heavily fleshed-out in this story, providing further details and backstory to several characters who were once background elements in other character’s flashbacks. While characters such as Hooded Justice, Silk Spectre I, and Captain Metropolis were greatly expanded upon, the one who I felt received the best treatment was Ursula Zandt, the Silhouette. What particularly drew me to this character was how she came across as more noble than the rest of the Minutemen as she was intensely focused on stopping more serious crimes such as child pornography. This not only conveyed her as a strong-willed woman dedicated to bringing society’s worst criminals to justice, but also served as a great literary foil to rest of the team’s materialistic concerns, as well as a major contributor to Hollis Mason’s own character development. MINUTEMEN is a prime example of how to successfully add three-dimensional depth and development to characters that originally started out with very little.
BEFORE WATCHMEN: SILK SPECTRE Review:
The other story in this collection focuses on Laurie Jupiter, the Silk Spectre. Similar to Nite Owl II, Laurie is actually the second individual to take on the superhero name Silk Spectre. Unlike Nite Owl II however, who had looked up to the original Nite Owl as a hero and was inspired to take on his identity, the first Silk Spectre was actually Laurie’s mother Sally Jupiter. This was an interesting aspect of Laurie’s character, as she did not become a superhero of her own choice, but rather her mother forced her to as a means of living out her own dreams through her daughter. As a result, it was conveyed in WATCHMEN that Laurie had a strained relationship with her mother, but was ambiguous to the exact extent that it reached. The SILK SPECTRE story goes further into this element of Laurie’s character by exploring her early attempts to distance herself from her mother’s pressure, and discover her own path in life. The comic focuses on Laurie’s teenage years, where her mother continuously attempted to pressure Laurie into training to become the best superhero possible. The intense amount of focus put into her training put a heavy strain on her social life however, as she was unable to develop friendships or go on dates. Things become harder for her when she begins to develop a crush on her classmate Greg, but is restricted from hanging out with him due to her mother’s stubborn nature. It all reaches to a boiling point when Sally unexpectedly attacks her daughter while disguised as a burglar, as well as Laurie’s friends mocking her for her mother’s promiscuous behavior when she was a superhero. This prompts Laurie to run away from home, traveling to San Francisco with Greg and a group of hippies. Life suddenly starts to turn in Laurie’s favor as she begins to spend more time with Greg and her friends, becoming more involved in the Hippie Counterculture movement, while also fighting crime of her own free will. But what started out as an attempt to dream of developing freedom and independence soon transforms into a nightmare when Laurie’s friends soon fall prey to the malicious intentions of a crime lord attempting to make a profit by selling LSD to kids. While racing to stop the drug dealers and free her friends from the web that they’ve been entangled in, Laurie will be forced to learn the harsh realities that accompany surviving alone in the real world.
The SILK SPECTRE story is odd one for me as while the story is well structured and the character’s motivations ring true; the writing is what prevents it from being a great book. I feel that this primarily due to the fact that throughout the story, the writer provides random cutaways to images taking place inside Laurie’s mind in response to current events in the story. While I understand that this was meant to give an emphasis on how Laurie was feeling towards what was going on around her, I mostly found them distracting as they were unnecessarily cartoonish and over-the-top in their imagery (for example, when Laurie first meets Greg there’s suddenly a cutaway to her imagining getting married to him). The other problem that I had with these cutaways was that some of the images conveyed in Laurie’s imagination didn’t make sense in context to what was going on in the story (such as when she’s feeling groggy after an accidental acid-trip, there’s a cutaway to an image of “The Scream” painting, and then back to her groaning). The pacing of the comic also felt off to me as well as while the plot was actually pretty compelling; it felt as if it flowed by too quickly for me to become completely immersed in the events taking place. Fast pacing is one of my pet peeves when reading comics as it makes it difficult for me to fully invest myself into the story when it doesn’t flow naturally. Despite SILK SPECTRE’s narrative shortcomings, the story itself is actually fairly entertaining, and the characters feel fleshed out and all necessarily contribute to the plot. While SILK SPECTRE is not the best of the BEFORE WATCHMEN prequels, it still manages to be a decent read despite its flaws.
Overall, I feel that BEFORE WATCHMEN: MINUTEMEN | SILK SPECTRE is definitely worth checking out despite the controversy surrounding the prequels as a whole. MINUTEMEN is an exceptionally well-told story that provides the complete details surrounding the team’s past while staying true to the original story’s subtle and ambiguous atmosphere, while also providing depth to previously established characters such as Hollis Mason, as well as lesser characters like the Silhouette. SILK SPECTRE on the other hand, while possessing flaws in it’s writing and pacing, is still a fairly compelling read with an interesting story, compelling characters, and intriguing themes. Having now read all of the stories produced under the BEFORE WATCHMEN series, I can safely say that while none of them are able to match the quality of the original graphic novel (which was a near-infinite masterpiece), that doesn’t mean that they should be dismissed or overlooked. Quite a few of them such as the OZYMANDIAS, NITE OWL, MOLOCH, and MINUTEMEN stories are fantastic and serve as great expansions to the original comic, while ones such as SILK SPECTRE and DR. MANHATTAN were decent but nothing phenomenal. On the other-hand, the COMEDIAN and RORSCHACH stories had potential but were ultimately ruined by confusing writing, and the CRIMSON CORSAIR story was simply terrible. Regardless of the mixed quality of the stories, I feel that as a whole, BEFORE WATCHMEN was a project worth investing in, as it took the opportunities to expand on the characters and stories from one of the greatest comics ever made. Even if it doesn’t match to the grandeur of the original work, no prequel should automatically be dismissed as they can open up gateways to ideas and concepts worth exploring.
“Expansion. That is the idea the novelist must cling to. Not completion. Not rounding off, but opening out.”
― E.M. Forster, ASPECTS OF THE NOVEL
