Ah, The Original Writer...I mean...Alan Moore. I think he's trying to be as spiteful and tempermental as Harlan Ellison, but no one can out-Harlan Harlan.

I have to admit, I have a love/hate relationship with Moore, and it typically rears both heads within the same series.

- Watchmen? Loved most of it, hated the ending.
- From Hell? Well researched, not bad, but Moore truly defecates on the mattress at the end. Completely ruined it.
- League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Absolutely loved this...until Moore decided to test the patience of his readers by getting more and more ridiculous.

I could go on, but you get the drift. It feels like Moore starts out with a great idea, and is gung-ho, pedal to the medal with writing like we've never seen before, being taken places we've never been before...

...and then...

...and then it feels like Moore either thinks, something along the lines of, "well, I got away with all of that, let's see exactly how much they'll take before the project falls apart" or else it's simply the case of, "no idea how to end this, so let's just through in some unexplained/really bizarre/left field stuff and walk away from the smoking ruins."

This starts out very well. It doesn't bring comics into a more dark, adult sphere of storytelling, it takes the entire genre and pretty much upends it. Which is good. And then Moore unleashes the darkest, unholiest hell imaginable with a truly unrepentant villain. Also good, though it's something can only be done occasionally. 

And then, Moore gets weird. The Warpsmiths. The weird talking aliens. The long long long long long long long screeds of quasi-poetic word jumbles that really add nothing to the plot, but they fill pages. 

And then Moore decides to paint in his new world as gods would remake it, which goes really hard with the heavy-handedness.

I guess what I'm saying is, in the beginning, Moore is there to show you his chops, and to entertain the heck out of you. But then he turns into that homeowner who's held a party but now decides he wants everyone out so he starts acting obnoxious and petty and loses all interest in entertaining you. Instead, he'll just annoy you until you leave.

So, yes, this was absolutely the game-changer everyone says it was, but then Moore...well, I guess the best way to say it is, he got Moored to the idea that he could do anything he wanted and we'd love it.

Some probably even do, but not this kid.

Four stars for the game-changing bits. And one star off for all the bits I had to basically skip over because they were dumb.