Watchmen (1986)

The collected edition (DC Comics) Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's 12-issue series from 1986 and 1987 runs to 448 pages in DC's current paperback, and it rewards the kind of close reading a long flight allows. In an alternate 1985 where costumed heroes have changed history and Nixon is still president, the murder of the Comedian sends the vigilante Rorschach to warn his retired colleagues of a plot. Gibbons's strict nine-panel grid reads evenly on a tablet, and the prose pieces that close most chapters make natural breaks between meals. It won a Hugo Award in 1988 and made Time's list of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923. Expect graphic violence and an attempted rape.