Watchmen

I just finished reading Watchmen, a graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. The story is set in a kind of alternate New York in 1985 where superheroes (or at least "costumed vigilantes", because almost none of them have any kind of super powers) have been public knowledge since the 1940s, and where the existence of one super-powered human has been widely known since the 1960s. The story opens with the murder of one of the few costumed vigilantes still operating, The Comedian. Investigating the murder, psychotic vigilante Rorschach (who wears a mask with a design like a Rorschach ink blot) becomes convinced there is a plot to kill or discredit the vigilantes, who have now mostly either retired or given up their crime-fighting careers.

It's a very complex book actually, detailing the world that might have evolved if super-powered humans were discovered (similar but with various differences), it also deals with the psychologies of people who might become masked crime-fighters. Interspersed throught the book are fragments from fictional autobiographies of super-heroes, text-books, magazine articles and press cuttings, as well as the events of a fictional comic book that is read by a character throughout the story.

It is a superb piece of work, although it was written in, and set in, the mid-1980s and that's reflected in a lot of the political elements in the story. It's being turned into a film which should be out next year, directed by Zack Snyder (who did the Dawn of the Dead remake and the film of 300).