'Watchmen'

I truly can't imagine there being a more worthy piece included in the 1,001 books I have to read before I die.

And I dare anyone to argue otherwise. You wouldn't find a more compelling story, set of characters and message if you combined the bulk of books of the past 2,000 years.

It's a comic book. A set of 12, actually. It starts with the murder of an aging superhero in his high-rise apart. Thus, a string of world-altering events unfold -- on two fronts.

There are the circumstances surrounding the history of the superheroes that functioned in the United States in the 1940s and 1960s as part of his alternate universe.

Also, there are the very real circumstances surrounding the Cold War and the Soviet Union's activities in southern Asia.

All of these events tie together as the moral obligations of these "heroes" are redefined. A group of anti-heroes are created as they weigh the cost that goes along with saving the world.

In these comics, the enemy are ourselves and there aren't these over-the-top contraptions that are created to undo the superheroes as they fight a clear-cut foe, someone evil.

No Bat signals or utility belts. It's raw human emotion, doubt and frailty balled up into a story as real as any piece of nonfiction or documentary. More important anything else you'd read.