It's a solid story with highs and lows, but the real star here is Rude's artwork. Why he's not working on a regular series is beyond me - he's one of the best in the business. Read Full Review

Dollar Bill ends up being a tale about a man who's job made him want to be a better person. A man that overcame his limitations and decided to embrace his path and be the best he could be at it. Of course we know how that ends but it's still enough to inspire and makes for a good little single issue story that adds a little bit of depth to a tiny part of the Watchmen world that managed to stick with its readership over the years. Read Full Review

Much like the rest of this event, the art on Dollar Bill is the one redeeming factor. Steve Rude gives the book a classic feel. Dollar Bill has the look and feel of the original Watchmen. This is helped by Rude's amazing lettering. In the vein of Chris Samnee, Rude's pencils are amazingly simple, but are filled with a great deal of emotion. He doesn't follow the nine panel structure that most of the artists have been following, but the issue still works. The white framing around each page is a nice touch, adding to the retro feel. Dollar Bill might not be one of the best written issue, but Rude's art makes the $3.99 price tag a little easier to absorb. Read Full Review

Not the greatest book and not Len's finest work, but for what it is, he does a fine job that lives up to his reputation from his earlier works. I'd recommend reading it simply either for that or if you are a Watchmen fan and just want at least one good story from this otherwise pretty terrible cashing in on the original. Read Full Review

The good news is, Steve Rude draws the hell out of this issue. The life and times of Dollar Bill may not matter much, but at least they look fantastic. I couldn't care less about most of the events of this issue, but Rude manages to give every page some weight. His work is dynamic and classic, and way better than this tale deserves. Awesome coloring work by Glen Whitmore helps to make Before Watchmen: Dollar Bill one of the best looking comics that you should probably never read. Read Full Review

Before Watchmen Dollar Bill #1 is a fine story, one that I enjoyed. The problem is that it feels redundant and unnecessary. An extremely minor character in the original story, Dollar Bill's could have been better served as a backup in one of the main titles. At $3.99, the reader doesn't get much new material or insight to the character that isn't already given in Watchmen. Steve Rude's art is wonderful and makes the story much more enjoyable. Unfortunately, I fear, this issue doesn't make Dollar Bill an unforgettable character. Read Full Review

In the end, DC succeeded in making some interesting and well-crafted comics, but their goal was to create new brands. Like Dollar Bill, DC got their proverbial cape caught in a door and instead of being riddled with bullets, they will be riddled with consumer apathy. Watchmen should evoke many responses in a reader; apathy should never be one of them. Read Full Review

we read a lot of comics, and We get exposure to a pretty wide swath of them " indies, mainstream, licensed, webcomic, etc, so I think we have a pretty good grasp on the general state of comics publishing. I say that to say this: I'm pretty sure that is the least essential comic I've ever read. Read Full Review

The story from Wein isn't bad, although it's not that exciting either. Ultimately it takes the extremely limited information we have about Dollar Bill and builds a tale about the lengths someone will go in order to be a star. Aside from a sudden peppering of anti-gay slurs in the middle section said by several different characters regarding the Dollar Bill costume, there's nothing that will jump out at you for good or ill. Will anyone remember "Before Watchmen: Dollar Bill" six months from now? Probably not. But if they do, it will almost certainly be for Rude's gorgeous art. Read Full Review

Dollar Bill was always meant as a joke, and his death, brought about by the unwieldy nature of a cape, reinforces that concept. He was intended as an indictment of corporate America and as an example of why super-heroes as a real concept don't really work. Here, Wein tries to humanize the joke, but the result is a one-dimensional character with little in the way of charisma or appeal. And in the process, the joke is lost. As the original editor on Watchmen, I would have expected him to get and appreciate the joke, but in retelling it on his own, he gets it completely wrong. Read Full Review