Watchmen reading order: Whether you’re in agreement with its status as the G.O.A.T. or not (personally, I am), Watchmen is the most heralded comic book in history. Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins crafted a near perfect 12 issue series, pulling superheroes into the realm of literary prestige and among Time Magazine’s top 100 novels.

Watchmen (Britannica): "Watchmen", graphic novel [...] from September 1986 to October 1987. The complex characters and mature story line were unlike anything previously seen in the superhero genre.

[...] In many respects, "Watchmen" was the first postmodern superhero comic, examining the motivations, foibles, and desires that might drive people to don garish costumes and risk their lives. The series posed the question, If a real person had immense power, how would he or she use it? In the case of the sadistic Comedian and the sociopathic Rorschach, power amplified and fed their natural violence. For Doctor Manhattan—a being with almost limitless powers—it led to a growing isolation and indifference toward others. For the “smartest man alive,” as Ozymandias is called, power forced upon him the messianic role of the world’s saviour...

Watchmen (Wikipedia): Moore used the story as a means of reflecting contemporary anxieties, deconstructing and satirizing the superhero concept, and making political commentary. "Watchmen" depicts an alternate history in which superheroes emerged in the 1940s and 1960s and their presence changed history so that the United States won the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal was never exposed. In 1985, the country is edging toward World War III with the Soviet Union, freelance costumed vigilantes have been outlawed and most former superheroes are in retirement or working for the government. The story focuses on the protagonists' personal development and moral struggles as an investigation into the murder of a government-sponsored superhero pulls them out of retirement.

Gibbons uses a nine-panel grid layout throughout the series and adds recurring symbols such as a blood-stained smiley face. All but the last issue feature supplemental fictional documents that add to the series' backstory and the narrative is intertwined with that of another story, an in-story pirate comic titled Tales of the Black Freighter, which one of the characters reads. Structured at times as a nonlinear narrative, the story skips through space, time, and plot. In the same manner, entire scenes and dialogues have parallels with others through synchronicity, coincidence, and repeated imagery.

A commercial success, Watchmen has received critical acclaim both in the comics and mainstream press. [...] In a retrospective review, the BBC's Nicholas Barber described it as "the moment comic books grew up".