I think one of the appeals of Before Watchmen for many creators was the chance to do things that they'd never be able to get away with on an ordinary DC book. This cover is a prime example of that. It goes a bit too far for my personal tastes. Plus, it's incredibly misleading. Nothing remotely like this happens in this issue. We do see several women almost dressed like this, sort of. But that's where the similarities end.
I love this Phil Noto variant. It's an ad for Veidt Industries that showcases his charismatic, flamboyant CEO side, while simultaneously drawing allusions to his bisexuality. It's a simple, neat and tidy cover that manages to be sexual without resorting to the base overtness of Jae Lee's.
Our story resumes on Oct. 11, 1985, with Adrian resuming the recording of his autobiography while exercising with Bubastis. Last issue, he told us that dirty drugs killed his girlfriend, which I took to mean that the drugs had been tainted somehow. But this issue, Adrian describes her death merely as an accidental overdose. I guess the word "dirty" was just a generic descriptor.
Adrian recounts how it took four days for him to learn where those drugs came from, and Len Wein goes into intricate — exceedingly boring — detail about Ozymandias interrogating random thugs and trailing others through the streets and eavesdropping on conversations in fancy clubs. It gets rather exhausting. One note of minor interest, though, is the complete lack of Moloch in this issue, despite his rather imposing presence in Ozymandias #1. All we get of him here, is a brief mention in passing about how he's taken an "extended vacation." And Ozymandias oddly seems content with apprehending the drug dealers allegedly working beneath Moloch and leaving it at that.
The climax of this issue is Ozymandias' raid on the drug dealers' warehouse. This is also, unfortunately, the part where Lee's artwork hurts the story the most. For starters, the man in charge of the operation is described as "a grotesquely fat man in a pristine suit." But we never actually see his fat body or his suit — just oblique shadows from a distance and the occasional uncomfortable close-ups. Is Lee just really bad at drawing fat people and decided to hide it as much as he could?
Even worse, though, is Lee's inability to stage a satisfying action sequence. He tried something unique with a two-page spread of a small, black silhouette of Ozymandias flipping around against a yellow background. But I found it underwhelming. It certainly didn't help matters that Wein oddly decided to have Ozymandias toss his headband around like Wonder Woman's tiara. Apart from that one spread, it really felt like Lee was doing everything he could to avoid having to actually draw the main character in motion. This is bad for any comic book, but it's especially heartbreaking for Ozymandias. His fight scenes in the original series were the most breathtaking, fluid and beautiful sequences of action Dave Gibbons could provide. What a shame that we ended up with perhaps the absolute worst artist for this miniseries.
And Wein's not off the hook, either. He's now fully moved on past the massive monologues of Alan Moore, and it shows. Some of his dialogue is either accidentally bad, or is intentionally so in order to make us doubt Adrian's reliability as a narrator. For example, Adrian recounts how time "literally stopped" right before he took on the drug dealers. Not figuratively — literally. Look, I know Ozymandias has near-superhuman abilities, but he's not that good. He can't actually freeze time! Right?
Anyway, that one outing was apparently enough to satisfy Adrian's need to avenge the death of his girlfriend, and he quickly moves on to the fun and thrilling life of a costumed vigilante. After taking down a handful of random, gimmicky criminals, Adrian begins to consider the long-term effects of this lifestyle. This prompts him to investigate the history of the Minutemen, and he's instantly drawn to the mystery of Hooded Justice's disappearance. He eventually investigates the pier where the Hooded Justice was last seen, but he's promptly attacked by the Comedian.
Well, it sure was nice of Wein to give Adrian a girlfriend so she could immediately be killed and forgot about even quicker. This whole issue was such an enormous letdown — so much potential just flushed down the toilet. With the exception of Minutemen #2, all the second issues of this first wave were a disappointment. I'm not sure how that happened. Was it because all these writers really didn't have enough story for a full miniseries?
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