Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner are back with the third installment of the trippy, hippie extravaganza that is “Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre”
This week, “5 Thoughts” is brought to you by the Letter “L.”
Written by Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner
Illustrated by Amanda Conner“San Francisco, baby. The best part of the trip…is the trip.”
1. Language
While these are certainly “adult” books, this week’s issue features more than a few words you would barely find in the most lewd comics out there. However, this is a book about an impulsive teenager and, if memory serves, half of being a teenager is trying to cram as many salty words in a sentence as possible, so I assume Conner/Cooke are going for authenticity in this area.
2. LSD
Drugs are one of the most relied upon crutches in all media, and the stoned/tripping character is one of the more obnoxious and poorly written in comics. Despite that, Cooke/Conner seem to do better at this than most, even if they’re not exactly innocent in this scenario. When telling a story set in San Francisco during the Summer of Love, a little acid has to be expected, I guess, but I just wish it wasn’t where writers, even writers of this caliber, choose to go to show people struggling with their inner demons.
3. Layouts
The one benefit of Laurie’s acid trip is that it allows Conner to get insanely creative with her layouts. Reality blurs with illusion, faces change, panels split and combine, straight lines go all curvy, and your eye follows Laurie down the rabbit hole. The coloring by Paul Mounts helps distinguish truth from fiction, but the better indicator of Laurie’s mindset is the way each page is laid out. Everything “real” is some variation of the 9-panel layout, everything “enhanced” isn’t. It’s a small detail, but one that is nice.
4. Laurie
Laurie continues to be the best written character in this series. Her emotions and priorities may be all over the place, but she’s a teenage girl for crying out loud. How level headed were you at sixteen? Her motivations, emotions, relationships and situation all seem to be grounded in a reality that is, frankly, missing from most of these other books. Conner and Cooke took the least fleshed out character in “Watchmen” and made her the most complete character in “Before Watchmen.” I wasn’t expecting that, but am thrilled by it.
5. Laughs a-plenty
So, this last “L” might be a bit of a stretch, but we get to see the Comedian here, officially making him the only person to appear in every mini so far (I think). Cooke and Conner also introduce his famous smiley face button here, in a rather ingenious way. I know that people love the anti-hero, and I know that he is a rich character, but I could do without so much Comedian in this line. However, he is the least featured in “Watchmen,” so, like Laurie, perhaps it is just that he is the most featured here. It also helps that he bridges the Minutemen/Crimebusters generations, too.
