WATCHMEN non-post: the surrender

I had been taking notes for a massive WATCHMEN review post. Which, it became increasingly evident, would have become *ten* posts. Maybe more.

I could do entire posts on the different endings, on the effect the comic has had to modern comics for better and for worse, on how I actually kind of preferred movie!Ozymandias to comic!Ozymandias, on whether or not some/all the things Alan Moore predicted came true and/or totally didn't come true and are now quaint fears from a bygone era, on the paradox of how a totally fucked-up Objectivist with utterly reprehensible views could manage to be badass and awesome, on how this movie has affected the non-fan world at large for the better or for the worse, on how the sheer fact that this has caused millions of average people to buy the comic when they barely ever did that for the any other superhero-related comics, not even THE DARK KNIGHT...

Then I accidentally deleted the notes. Which is fine, because really, I have better things to do with my time. I think all that energy is still tapped out from THE DARK KNIGHT. Funny thing I realized: every other fan is giving WATCHMEN the same level of scrutiny that I gave THE DARK KNIGHT (while most others seemed content to just flail say how awesome it was). Being on the other end of this en masse dissection has been fascinating yet exhausting.

I will say this, though: even if you don't think WATCHMEN deserves a second viewing, see it again anyway. If nothing else, when it comes out on DVD this Fall in the super-extended 302 minute edition. For all its faults, they've pulled off some amazing feats that deserve notice and recognition, but I suspect those will only come with time and repeat viewings.

the greatest super-team ever... besides mine, of course.

Remember back when I tried to start up a meme for who would be on your asskicking super-team, if you could assemble a group of anybody, fictional or real? Your ultimate dream team, ready to have quests in anywhere from Middle-Earth to the Uncharted Territories.

I still stand behind mine, if only so I could have Bill the Butcher duel (and then have a one-night-stand) with Kitty Pryde, show Oracle helping Bub the Zombie and Johnny Go disarm a bomb, and depict Doc Holiday eating nachos with Werner Herzog. They'd be good times, I tell you.

Well, it appears comic artist Sean Murphy has similar dreams, and has drawn up his own super-team of dream characters. Oh holy hell, it is a geeksplosion of dorktastic nerdery, in the very best way possible.

( There are no words to describe the asskickery behind the cut. )

I'm behind every single choice here except for Wolverine and Gambit, just because the former is so overused and the latter is Gambit. But the inclusion of Henry Rollins and the Gray Motherfuckin' Ghost easily makes up for it.

Now if I could just him to draw up my super-team of Hal Jordan, Bill the Butcher, Kitty Pryde, Doc Holiday, Oracle, Harvey Dent, Maxwell Lord, Bub the Zombie, and Johnny Go, we'll be golden. But it's just as well, because the universe would clearly implode from the awesome.