In comic books, it used to be real simple. You had a good guy, and you had a bad guy. Good guy fought bad guy, and good guy was triumphant. By good guy you meant a good guy, one whose integrity was never called into question and was clean and straight laced; a bad guy was a bad guy.

All this began to change in the '80's. A new generation of writers and artists began telling stories of heroes who weren't as perfect as they should be, sometimes even more vile than the villains they fought. These heroes didn't have the answers and couldn't solve all the world's problems. Sometimes the bad guy won in the end. No one book better exemplifies this than The Watchmen.

First appearing in 1987, The Watchmen, helped change the landscape of contempoary comic books. Written by Alan Moore, who a few years earlier broke down barriers with his run on Swamp Thing, and penciled by Dave Gibbons, the book won numerous awards. It received accolades from all sides, even the mainstream press, which often depicts comics in an unfavorable light.

The Watchmen tells the story of the Minutemen, a group of heroes who were many years ago forced into retirement by a law that banned all super hero activity, save those working for the government. The group consists of: Nite Owl, a second generation hero who uses high tech gadgetry to fight crime; Rorschach, a psychotic vigilante whose face mask resembles a Rorschach ink blot; Dr. Manhattan, a former nuclear physicist who received near god-like powers in an accident in the 60's; Ozymandias, a self made hero who after his retirement used his image to build a corporate empire; The Comedian, an unscrupouls assassin for hire whose "kill them all let God sort em out" philosophy stems from his belief that all life is a joke; and the Silk Spectre, another second generation hero who is married to Dr. Manhattan.

The story is set in the mid 80's and the backdrop of an impending war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The world inhabited by these characters is a twisted version of our own, and accurately reflects what a world would be like if super heroes existed in it. The US won the Vietnam War, thanks to the unlimited power of Dr. Manhattan, and super hero comics are virtually non existent and crime and pirate comics are the most popular types of comics.

The Comedian has just been murdered, and Rorschach mounts an investigation into why. Eventually Nite Owl and Silk Spectre come out of retirement to help him, despite the risk to themselves and their disgust with Rorschach's methods. The deeper the group gets into their investigation, the more they come to realize that there is far more to the Comedian's death than they could ever imagine. Seemingly unrelated elements begin coming together: the Comedian's death, Dr. Manhattan's being blamed for the cancer deaths of those close to him and his subsequent exile to Mars, and the disappearance of a large number of scientists, artists and thinkers. All of these come together to form one gigantic, complex and disturbing picture.

Part of the power of The Watchmen lies in its implications: if super heroes really did exist, their activities would be regulated and they would be co opted by a corrupt beauracracy, that sometimes even the good guys don't have the answer, that they are powerless before a paranoid and corrupt world, and that sometimes even noble goals must be achieved through less than honorable means. It asks a question that has always plagued comic book readers: should super heroes step in and interfere in the destiny of mankind?

Another part of the book's appeal lies in its complexity. Levels upon levels of meaning can be found in the book. Everything in it carries some significance to the overall whole. A seemingly unrelated " comic story within a comic story" about a man who fears his family killed by pirates ties into the book in a way that leaves the reader speechless. In one particular issue, Rorschach is captured by the authorities and is left in the care of a noted psychologist. As he continues to probe deeper and deeper into Rorschach's mind, the more he comes face to face with the ugliness and hatred that exist within the world and to which he had been previously naive. At the issue's end he is left questioning his faith in humanity and its heroes, much like the book itself does to the reader. The story of Alexander the Great, the cutup method of William S. Burroughs, and quotes from Blake and Albert Einstein all enhance the story and work together to weave an epic that has never been equaled in the comic's field.

As much as I would like to tell you more about The Watchmen: about how that once all is revealed in the end how far the reader will be shocked, of the intensity of the work rivals anything one might study in their literature class and how subsequent readings reveal even more depth and meaning, I can't, for it would spoil the book for you, and much of the pleasure of reading The Watchmen is discovery.

The impact of The Watchmen was immense. It helped cement what had been a growing trend in comics: the shift towards darker, grittier stories and characters. Anti-heroes, such as Marvel's The Punisher and Wolverine, killed their protagonists and didn't even blink. This trend lasted for well over a decade, and only now does it show signs of being reversed.

As for the creators, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, they would go on to greater things. Gibbons has done much work since, yet none have ever earned him the acclaim of The Watchmen. Moore, who later left DC Comics over creative differences, would do very little comic book work for almost six years. Ironically, the comic books Moore now writes, while still maintaining the intelligence and depth that was a hallmark of the series, focus more on heroes who are just that: heroes. It has earned him a whole new generation of admirers.