Percy Shelley's "Ozymandias"I met a traveller from an antique landWho said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert... near them, on the sand,Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,Tell that its sculptor well those passions readWhich yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;And on the pedestal these words appear:'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;Look on my works, ye Migh...

http://2aughlikecrazy.wordpress.com/2...We begin with Ozymandias describing his accomplishments and how history has the final word of whether something is right or wrong. We are given brief description of the reason his parents decided to emigrate to America and the timeline thereof. Then Adrian tells of his exceptional acumen from an early age. When his intelligence begins to draw attention, like The Incredibles, his father had to teach his son to "slow down" so as not to draw attention to hims...

One of the persistent failings of the Before Watchmen series is the lack of unity among them, in the sense of no apparent guiding principle or conceit (other than the contemporary conceit of DC to grab quick bucks at the expense of integrity and one of their most valuable "possessions" that shouldn't be their property anyway). I am referring to the absence of a guiding principle along the lines of purpose or identity, as in "the purpose of the Before Watchmen series is ..." is what? to fill in t...

Before Watchmen is a series of prequels to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s much-lauded book, Watchmen, with each character from the book given their own mini-series. This volume collects the Ozymandias and Crimson Corsair mini-series and the Dollar Bill one-shot. Having a strong background in comics as the creator of Wolverine and Swamp Thing, as well as editing the original Watchmen comics, writer Len Wein is a good fit for this series. For those who’ve read the original Watchmen (and why would yo...

Had a hard time with this. The Ozymandias story really benefits from the beautiful artwork by Jae Lee, but besides that, there's nothing going on in the story that we didn't already know. What's the point? I had that thought about most of these "Before Watchmen" collections, and this one was one of the most pointless, it seemed to me. Other than some truly remarkable artwork by the aforementioned Mr. Lee (although even that gets to be a bit ridiculous sometimes--does everyone have to have a cowl...

Ozymandias ★★★★★ - Story by Len Wein. Art by Jae LeeMan, the art in this is superb. Jae Lee gives the book an alien look that worked very well with the origin story of the emotionless smartest man in the world. I really like how as the story progresses it dovetails into what happens in Watchmen. It's almost a "behind the scenes" story for Watchmen.The Curse of the Crimson Corsair ★★★ - Story by Len Wein. Art by John HigginsThis ran as the back 2 pages of each comic book. It's really difficult to...

I have always been a fan of Watchmen ever since it was introduced to me while I was at uni. Therefore to see that there was to be commissioned a series of prequels focusing on the various members of the Minutemen I was utterly intrigued and keen to see what tales were to be told. Of course there was the comments by the original creator of Watchmen denouncing the whole project and in the process separating themselves from it all. Now I will admit the who concept of Watchman is a tangle of politic...

Worthy of the source material. Blending seamlessly into the time before Watchmen, it tells the tale of Ozymandias, explaining everything from his background, his motives, to the pronunciation of his name.Though nothing beats the original of course, I have to give the nod here in regards to clarity. Alan Moore throws us in to his world and has us figure it out ourselves. Author Len Wein tells us exactly what is going on, and solves the mystery of how the alternate universe came to be.Also note th...

One thing I cannot deny from this book is when I wasn't reading it,I wanted to. A wholly enjoyable story about the most mysterious of theWatchmen. This story travels through all of Adrian Viedt’s life before the events of Watchmen. My thoughts on this book are mostly split.Besides Rorschach this is the most imperfect Before Watchmen story that was actually entertaining. The art by Jae Lee is impressive, but did not fit the Watchmen universe in my opinion, being the strangest of the series. I can...

Len Wein's "Ozymandias" was awesome. Of all the "Before Watchmen" stories, IMHO, this one is by far the most "important" to the lore of the entire series.Ozymandias' tale, while covering the entirety of his life, truly shines when it fills in the "holes" from the original Alan Moore work. The fascinating Comedian-Moloch-Ozymandias link is explained and you see the entire plot develop. Superbly done! Also kudos for getting Jae Lee to do the art-it's gorgeous. This story made the entire volume and...

Very nice back story tales before the main series. Good art and plotting. recommended

This was a strange collection of stories. Ozymandias is a very interesting character to me. On one level I understand what he is trying to achieve, and on the other hand I think he is psycho. I liked learning about his past and how bullies made him want to fight back, but went a bit further and became what he was. I think this is a case of being too smart and going over the top, which is not surprising as Alexander the Great is his inspiration. Dollar Bill was a fun read! I love how he got th...

I was not the biggest fan of this. Dollar Bill at the end was probably the only piece that I really liked. Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias' story was more of a "During Watchmen" rather than a "Before Watchmen". His years growing up and becoming Ozymandias was very short. Most of the attention was given to his lone crime-fighting ventures (that served minimal purpose) and his cognizance towards the rest of the Watchmen. I enjoyed the foreshadowing in the artwork and that Veidt was chosen as the narrator....

This Review is Part of a Comics Roundup: http://thefoundingfields.com/2013/08/....Story: Lein Win, John Higgins | Art: Jae Lee, John Higgins, Steve Rude | Cover: Jae Lee, John Higgins | Collects: Before Watchmen: Ozymandias #1-6, Curse of the Crimson Corsair backup issues, Before Watchmen: Dollar Bill #1Writer Len Wein and artist Jae Lee delve into the mind of the smartest man in the world: Ozymandias. How does one grow up to become the world’s smartest man? Adrian Veidt begins his journey, both...

Well, that was boring. The first half, Ozymandias, was dull but okay. Basically the entire thing is Ozymandias giving a monologue about his success. Fairly nice art, especially the portrayal of motion. 3 stars.I don't even remember who Crimson Corsair was later, and his backstory gave me no impetus to find out. Which was the Pirates of the Caribbean movie where they kind of gave up on having the plot make some kind of sense? Anyway, if you liked that film but thought it needed fewer hot people a...

Pretty good. I liked the Ozymandias storyline. Crimson Corsair, not so much. In general, these Before Watchmen titles aren't as good as the original, and will probably be remembered, at best, as a footnote to it. While the stories are enjoyable, the fact that DC is publishing these makes it even less likely that Moore and Gibbons will ever regain their copyright on the original Watchmen graphic novel.

I kept this collection for last (out of the 4 Before Watchmen books) because I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as the other three. This prediction ended up being correct for 40% of the book. While the Dollar Bill one-off is pure filler (2 stars), and though I liked the Crimson Corsair story despite its being pointless and, yes, also filler (3 stars), the overall rating of this book is 4 stars (like the other three Before Watchmen books), thanks to the 6-part Ozymandias (5 stars) by Len Wei...

I started, and within a few pages, it was just way too much verbosity. Ozymados or whatever, super smart kid, parents die, yadda yadda yadda, nuclear war launch to make everything well.I realized based on not liking the last collection of before Watchmen, I was leaving this unread for the whole 3 weeks I had it...maybe I'm burnt out or maybe I've just had a stack of shitty comics to read lately...?

This was difficult because the Ozymandias section was arguably some of the beautifully constructed comics I have ever seen. Len Wein demonstrates, as always, a concern for playing with the form so that even when two pages share the same structure, there is enough artistry to keep the reader from falling into complacency. And as for the writing, Wein manages to capture the arrogance and sublime intellectual majesty of Ozymandias showing a real growth of the character as he muses about his own gra...

So I finished the four-volume set of Before Watchmen in four days and yay for me, but I remain underwhelmed and I understand why Alan Moore doesn't have anything good to say about the revamp/prequel to his brilliantly cynical post-modern revamp of the superhero comic. Watchmen itself is five stars and pure gold. Moore and Gibbons' graphic novel made the world rethink how we view superheroes and read comic books. This reboot nearly 30 years after the original is mostly meh with a whole lotta knob...