100 Greatest Superhero Stories Ever
By Steve Lam
Image Courtesy of DC Comics
#3. Watchmen
Medium
Comic Book
Release Dates
September 1986–October 1987
Credits
Writer: Alan Moore
Artist: Dave Gibbons
Colorist: John Higgins
Editors: Len Wein, Barbara Kesel
The Reason It’s Great
Writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons deconstructed the superhero genre with Watchmen. The story represented a modern wariness of society and was a parody (of sorts) of superheroes. Watchmen isn’t just a great comic book. The story is considered one of the greatest 20th century literary achievements in general.
The story is set in an alternate universe where superheroes started to emerge in the 1940s to 1960s. Their involvement in government allowed the US to win the Vietnam War. Later, costumed superheroes became outlawed and the US gets closer to World War III with the USSR (a reflection of a feared outcome of the Cold War in the 1980s).
Gibbons also wanted the story to have a unique aesthetic. To that end, he set each page to have a nine-panel structure. Comics during that time had panels of varying sizes. Because of this, Gibbons was able to “control” the flow of the story. This gave the pacing and the visuals a much more dramatic effect.
Watchmen also had a lasting effect on culture. Because of its popularity, traditional bookstores and libraries started to devote special sections to graphic novels. The comic book industry now enjoyed a type of popularity that was once only reserved for more mainstream published works.