{"id":984,"date":"2016-10-28T23:40:23","date_gmt":"2016-10-29T03:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/?p=984"},"modified":"2016-11-06T08:56:32","modified_gmt":"2016-11-06T13:56:32","slug":"watching-the-watchmen-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/?p=984","title":{"rendered":"Watching the Watchmen – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve had something of a love-hate relationship with the Watchmen<\/em> comic series since it first premiered in September 1986.<\/p>\n

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This admission may seem something of a surprise given that the Wikipedia article on the Watchmen<\/em><\/a> notes that \u201cseveral critics and reviewers [consider it] to be one of the most significant works of 20th-century literature\u201d, that \u201cWatchmen<\/em> was recognized in Time’s List of the 100 Best Novels as one of the best English language novels published since 1923\u201d, and that \u201c[t]he BBC described it as \u2018The moment comic books grew up.\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard things like this since Watchmen<\/em> hit the stands in 1986 and I scraped enough money to buy it in its original serialized form (a huge task given that I was in college at the time with very little money).\u00a0 But I have never been able to fully embrace it nor to clearly explain why.\u00a0 That\u2019s 30 years of pondering what is it about this particular comic series that attracts me and what pushes me away.\u00a0 It\u2019s 30 years of wrestling with how to clearly articulate the reasons why. \u00a0Finally, I think that after all that time I can, at least, put down the basic structure behind my ambivalence towards Watchmen<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In a nutshell, I think the physical composition and narrative structure are\u00a0among\u00a0the best I\u2019ve ever seen while the underlying message and philosophy are\u00a0empty and nihilistic and vapid.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to spend this column and the next expanding on particular points that support this assertion starting with the parts of Watchmen<\/em> that I like \u2013 its physical composition and the narrative structure.\u00a0 In the next column, I\u2019ll discuss the underlying themes and messages that produce a philosophy that is both nihilistic and intellectually vapid.<\/p>\n

But before launching into the review, a quick synopsis of the plot is in order.\u00a0 For those unfamiliar, Watchmen<\/em> is set in an alternative timeline where some \u2018normal people\u2019, inspired by the pulp novels of the 1930s and 1940s, have become masked adventurers for a whole host of reasons, which, according the psychoanalysis featured in the story, include a desire to address societal woes and do good, the need to get their kicks (physically or sexually), or because they are seeking their fame and fortune.\u00a0 Being a bit of a fad, these normal folk in extraordinary costumes see their popularity rise and fall just as any fad does.\u00a0 Things change about a decade later when the physicist Jon Osterman, through fate or blind randomness, becomes the superman of his world.\u00a0 Dubbed Doctor Manhattan, Osterman is able to manipulate matter at the atomic\/sub-atomic level, teleport, bi-locate, and \u2018see\u2019 the past, future, and present all at once. His presence re-energizes the superhero movement, causing a new generation to don masks and tights and fight for justice.\u00a0 However, this new influx is ultimately viewed as a destabilizing influence on society and \u2018masks\u2019 are outlawed by the Federal government in 1977.\u00a0 The Watchmen<\/em> is set in 1985, when the only legally operating superheroes are Doctor Manhattan and the brutal, cynical holdover from the earlier days called the Comedian.<\/p>\n

The Watchmen<\/em> starts proper with the death of the Comedian at hands unknown.\u00a0 The story features the ramifications that result as the other masks \u2013 Rorschach, Nite Owl, and Silk Spectre \u2013 investigate the Comedian\u2019s murder.\u00a0 As the various threads are put together they slowly realize that the Comedian\u2019s death was engineered to hide the scheme of Adrian Veidt, a.k.a. Ozymandias, a former compatriot, who has taken on the responsibility to save the world from itself.\u00a0 Ozymandias\u2018s plan is simple; fool the people of Earth into thinking that there is a cosmic threat waiting to invade and they will unite against a common enemy. \u00a0Ozymandias\/Veidt is willing to kill millions in New York with a simulated invasion by a monstrous alien in order to drive the threat of invasion home.\u00a0 At series end he is both condemning and congratulating himself for having pulled off what he, no doubt, would term a Platonic noble lie that brings peace to the whole world.<\/p>\n

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Written predominantly as a psychological exploration, the action in Watchmen<\/em> is fairly limited but the moral and existential horrors drip from every page.\u00a0 Part social commentary, part critique of comics, part moral play, the 12-issue series was different from much (but not all as many critics believe) that was on the market at the time (the Squadron Supreme<\/em> 12-issue series from 1985 has nearly identical themes \u2013 albeit dealt with differently \u2013 and premiered about a year and a half earlier, but that is a post for another day).<\/p>\n

To emphasize that the Watchmen<\/em> was something other than the run-of-the-mill comic, writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, tried to design a look-and-feel quite different from anything that was currently in vogue.\u00a0 They did this in a number of interesting and successful ways:<\/p>\n