Before Watchmen: Ozymandias
Writer: Len Wein. Artist: Jae Lee This six part series starts just before the final events of Watchmen takes place. Ozymandias sits in his Antarctic fortress of Karnak completing his personal journal of the events that led to his master plan. With the Ozymandias mini series, I'm still on the fence regarding just how much I liked it. A large amount of that is because much of the ground here is already well trodden in the original Watchmen. Additionally for all the time spent on Ozy building his financial empire, hating Edward Blake and recounting how he continually betters himself, I often wished more time was spent with the building of the squid, taking out Edward Blake or the specifics of his plan. I know, its a little unfair to criticise a title for whats NOT on the page, even more unfair considering all of the stuff I wanted more of is still explored quite well enough but thats how I always felt with Ozymandias. It always seemed like we were running out of time to delve into the good stuff or hovering around minor incidents for a few too many issues. With that said, I loved how the comic looked. Jae Lees art was perfect for Ozymandias. Also how Len Wein wrote Ozy was spectacular in places. His tension around Dr. Manhattan was perfectly played and his frustrations with Edward Blake even more so. I said in my original reviews, Ozymandias is a title that works better when read in one long sitting as opposed to the monthly (or more) gaps between individual issues and while it doesnt quite achieve everything I feel it could have, it still ends up being a fine companion to the original Watchmen, especially for those that want more Ozymandias as his master plan plays out in the original series finale.