Unbeatable Comics: Silk Spectre #1

writer: Darwyn Cooke & Amanda Conner
artist: Amanda Conner

What's the point of Before Watchmen?  Some say that it's gratuitous and disrespectful and unnecessary.  Well, two first issues later, and what I can say is: essential.

Far from ruining the legacy of Alan Moore's Watchmen, I believe, now more than ever, after reading Silk Spectre #1, that this project is going to enrich that legacy.  Cooke and Conner have already shaped a bigger and better portrait of what could be considered the token female character into something that delves deeply into her motivations, not just backstory, so that she becomes three-dimensional.

Laurie Jupiter (there's a lot of names to choose from, but this will suffice) is the daughter of a superhero.  Turns out there's not a lot of glamour in that, especially if your mother had the kind of career hers did.  Her classmates shun her, and her only real relationship is with someone who she thinks understands what she's going through, but their shared pain does not equal anymore healthy a solution than the mixed up life they've already been leading.  And that's just the beginning of this story.

This is the kind of storytelling that undoubtedly makes it worth the Before Watchmen project.  What's even better is that it's got someone like Amanda Conner behind it.  At first, she seems to be the total opposite of the creator one would expect to tackle Silk Spectre.  She's too bubbly, right?  After reading this issue, you won't think that.  Same style, new context.  But isn't that what all of this is about?