Watchmen

I never really got into superhero comics, and while Watchmen is quite a bit more sophisticated than most of the ones I’ve been exposed to, it indulges in enough of the genre’s brash fantasy to keep me from being as excited about it as a lot of people are. That said, I did really enjoy it. Alan Moore’s alternate 20th century is more interested in its (mostly) mortal heros’ politics and relationships than their powers and gadgets, and through their trials, it asks some good questions about social reform and the complex nature of human conflict. It is literate, well-structured, rich with subtext, and strikingly rendered.