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Before Watchmen Becomes After Watchmen

Published Wed, 27 Feb 2013 06:00:24 -0600

The final issue of Before Watchmen: Dr Manhattan is published today.

As DC have warned retailers, the story pages do flip upside down to very literally create a different perspective. Not sure how this will read digitally. You may need to lock the gyroscope on the tablet and flip it around. PC and Mac readers may need to stand on their heads. The best experience for this? Print.

It seems like a day for interesting panel work, as Young Avengers sees characters crawling around panels too. But here, the upside down pages even turn the advert for Batman: City Of Owls upside down as well, so as not to spoil the upside down back to front storytelling journey – although it actually took me out of the experience to wonder what the production discussion regarding that house ad page would have been. Your milegae may vary.

This issues looks at the conversations from Watchmen, shown and implied, between Dr Manhattan and Ozymandias. Some we know, some are expanded, some are invented and some are given new perspectives.

But what this comic does most importantly in the realm of Before Watchmen, and it breaks a rule seemingly obeyed by all the others, is that it goes beyond the final scenes in Watchmen. We see where Dr Manhattan goes and what he does. This is After Watchmen. And it certainly signals intent of where the book might go… if it were allowed.

Oh and then we get a preview to the new Constantine comic. After Hellblazer.

Comics courtesy of Orbital Comics, London. And a special thanks to eCourier this morning.

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