Frank Miller's Ronin is BETTER Than Alan Moores Watchmen

I'll say it again: Frank Miller's "Ronin" is better than Alan Moore's "Watchmen".

Any comic book fan, in fact, anyone paying attention to Hollywood, has by now heard that Watchmen by Alan Moore is considered to be the single greatest graphic novel ever written. But today I will debate why.

Watchmen is brilliant, no doubt there. The book is a testament to what Alan Moore sought out to do, and that was to completely turn the comic book world on it's head. Moore's writing is strong, brilliant, and the attention to detail in both the art and the writing is astounding. The device of the "comic-in-a-comic" with The Black Pearl, as well as the multiple layers of stories and back story... amazing.

But in comparison, Frank Miller's Ronin does much of the same, only streamlining it and making it a lot more entertaining.

Miller's influence in the book was Manga, and the result was astounding. The series pre-dates Moore's by about 2 to 3 years, and at least 1 year before Moore began writing it. Ronin took the comic book genre and took it not just for a spin, but it basically did things no one could imagine. The book actually was one of the most popular titles at the time, inspiring the creation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The book centers around a 13th-Century Ronin who is reincarnated in a dystopian New York City. He is reincarnated into the body of a amputee named Billy within a massive bio-mechanical "living" structure name Aquarius. The story is simply brilliant, has a million twists and turns, and really, it does the book an injustice for me to try. I bought the book on name alone and knew nothing about it. It's a great read and the ending is simply amazing!

Now, why would I say it's better than Watchmen? For starters, Ronin actually kept me entertained. Yes, it may seem odd, but it keeping me entertained means a lot. Example: "High Society" by Cerebus. I don't know why I bought it, but I actually sat down and read the entire thing in one sitting. The book is over 1000 pages long. AND I have ADD. Keeping me still and entertained is hard, and Ronin did that at over 400 pages. Yes, it matters.

Not only that, but the writing was more interesting. Why Alan Moore took a much more academic approach, question the human psyche and how and why super hero's would act, Ronin was the same... only when asked about robots and mankind's mindset about creating artificial life. The way the machine reacts to the reincarnation was incredible.

At the same time, the comparison is, in a sense, apples and oranges.

Watchmen deals more about Superheros and deconstructing them while Ronin is about a failed Samaurai in a dystopian future. Each authors take on their respective genre is brilliant, and neither book is lesser for it. But Ronin is better in my eyes because it had less filler, streamlined the story while still pulling at the heart strings.

Ronin was really just more fun and a more thought-provoking read to me. The book asks not only if a machine would rise up against us... but what would this artificial technology do? What would it's motives be? How would it act? The story of the Ronin is, in fact, not the point and the more you read, the more you see why. The book contains love, betrayal, beauty, horror, action and drama... admittedly, it has some weak moments, and Frank Miller's art was only second to the story in this case (We were all young once, right?), but overall.... BRILLIANT!