This works so well as a follow-up to Watchmen, because it’s such a forceful contrast — totally different style of art, completely different layout, documentary instead of fiction, etc. But there are unexpected resemblances: both investigate political conflict and situations that seem hopeless; both feature multiple storylines in a kaleidoscopic sort of way (though Watchmen is ultimately much tidier in bringing them all together); both test the limits of unlikeability in central characters.
I haven’t read it in quite a few years, and it was actually much better, and more interesting, than I’d remembered — in particular, in the way that it really insists on making Joe the character deeply problematic; callous, self-centered, cowardly. And doesn’t give him a redemptive arc to comfort the reader with. My students had a really hard time with this, which only heightened my appreciation for the book’s complexity.
Kasia Reads 