10 Criminally Underrated DC Comics You Must Read

10. Before Watchmen: Minutemen

Watchmen is one of the sacred texts of the medium, so much so that it's considered to be one of the finest novels of the 20th century. So, when DC announced in 2012 that they would be doing seven prequel comics for Watchmen, the comic fandom went into the usual uproar about changing the continuity.

The resulting backlash meant that, by the time DC published Before Watchmen, not many actually went out of their way to read it. In regards to Before Watchmen: Minutemen specifically, however, those that did read it had a positive outlook on it, with the book even garnering a bit of critical success.

Did it live up to the original? No, but the sordid details that Darwyn Cooke brought to the page illustrated a clear reverence for Alan Moore and David Gibbons' text, while at the same time elevating the established canon. He told a fantastic story about Hollis Mason, the original Nite Owl, and how when superheroes aren't invincible or super-powered it is much harder to be a boy scout than a traditional anti-hero.

Plus, with Hollis Mason as the point of view, the Minutemen as a group comes to life like the reader's never seen them before - rough edges and all.