Watchmen - Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

Twenty years ago Watchmen was undoubtedly the peak of the comic art form, a defining and influential work that gave credibility to the format of the graphic novel with its multiple overlapping narratives, its post-modern deconstructive outlook on the nature of comic superheroes, given psychological depth through realistic characterisation and documentary interludes, using them as a metaphor for covert US activity in the wider political world – a force with no accountability (“Who watches the Watchmen?”) that can either deter or precipitate an international crisis.

Twenty years later as it is about to finally make its way onto the screen after numerous abortive attempts, Watchmen is however starting to show its age. The wordplay, juxtaposition of imagery, visual links and overlapping narratives that once seem sophisticated in the world of comics now seems very arch and even cheesy, but it’s the dark tone of dread of an imminent nuclear Armageddon that dates the novel the most.

Watchmen’s place in the history of comic art is assured, Moore almost single-handedly shifting the whole concept of graphic novels onto a more sophisticated adult level, but in comparison to modern indie, autobiographical, and European works, Watchmen’s heavyweight treatment of the superhero theme now seems more than a little pompous.