I'm not a huge consumer of graphic novels or comic books, so my opinion immediately matters less. However, I feel that Watchmen is definitely a highly enjoyable, literary graphic novel. Its themes are lofty and well-expressed, and the psychosexual portrayal of its characters is really quite intriguing.
Nonetheless, as far as a wonderfully developed story goes, I'd have to hand that to Identity Crisis. The mystery plot is kind of simple, but it has enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. More importantly, I felt that the characters were far more dynamic in this story than the cast of Watchmen, and there was a great deal of emotional tension and plot/character development in Identity Crisis, versus Watchmen's (intentionally) more stereotypical presentation of superhero archetypes, with an overall lack of genuine character development, aside from Nite Owl.
Plus, Watchmen, as great as it is, sometimes gets lost in the lofty sci-fi tones and themes that it tries to carry through to the end--the disappearance of the artists and intelligentsia, for instance, was underdeveloped, and while their elimination fit in with Ozymandius' master scheme, it felt a little bit...too neat, like Moore was trying to cut off loose ends that he had intended to do more with initially but never got around to finishing.
Identity Crisis is a far quieter character piece, and everything felt much more organic and real because of this.
I'm not saying that Identity Crisis is the greatest graphic novel ever. I'm merely saying that I don't think that the title should go to Watchmen, either.
