For better or worse, Brain Azzarello seems less interested in replicating the tone and feel of the original Watchmen series with his two Before Watchmen books. But while Before Watchmen: Comedian is less redundant than it might have been, it also isn't managing to provide a compelling narrative or a cohesive look at what makes this dark vigilante tick.
Issue #3 jumps forward again to explore an America wracked by anti-war protests and race riots. Azzarello attacks the story from a novel angle. The issue opens with an upset Bobby Kennedy calling Blake and then segues into a series of flashbacks to recent events. Unfortunately, the novel format mostly disguises an underwhelming narrative. I'm still not sold on Azzarello's general thesis that Blake was really an okay guy at heart until the dark days of Vietnam and social upheaval corrupted him for good. There's a lot of that in this issue, as Blake is confronted by militant war protesters and then has a psychological meltdown in the midst of a race riot. Granted, Azzarello does a good job of conveying The Comedian at his darkest and most depraved. Azzarello's tendency towards wordplay and sight gags serves the book well here. But at the end of the day, this depiction of Comedian just isn't fully convincing. Amanda Conner did more with far less in last week's Silk Spectre issue.
J.G. Jones' artwork is solid enough. The sense of mood and general level of detail are stronger than they were in issue #2. On the other hand, the page layouts are fairly bland compared to many of the other Before Watchmen books. This is one case where the decision to distance the book from the nine-panel grid format didn't exactly pay off.
Jesse is a writer for IGN Comics and IGN Movies. He can't wait until he's old enough to feel ways about stuff. Follow Jesse on Twitter, or find him on IGN.
Source : ign[dot]com
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