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Astro City vs Watchmen


Both Watchmen and Astro City were very interesting reads as they are not like other comic books. These books both introduced concepts and did things differently from comics of their respective times and they have a revered place in the comic book canon. In my opinion, Watchmen far surpasses Astro City in terms of writing, ingenuity and cultural relevance.
In Watchmen, the focus was on the characters and their development as human individuals and heroes. Characters such as Rorschach and Nite Owl are examined psychological and we follow their progression up until the exciting conclusion. Real world issues are used giving Watchmen an extreme social significance in a time when threats to the health of the world were very real. Astro city seems to focus all of its energy on the atmosphere and the city, which is a very interesting approach, but the characters seem silly and lacking substance. The perspective changes often, from superhero to bystander to evil villain. While interesting, I found that this method made it hard to establish relationships with the heroes. Also, reading Astro City made me ask myself when is something a homage and when does homage turn into blatant ripoff. If I wanted to read about someone who works in a news room from another planet who can fly, I’ll just pick up a Superman book.
Overall, Watchmen just gave me more to like. The dark atmosphere, the more mature subjects, and the gritty art all set the scene of nuclear doomsday. Maybe one collection of Astro City isn’t enough to do the series justice, but I don’t see myself ever picking up any more of that series.

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