Watchmen
by Alan Moore
illustrated by Dave Gibbons, John Higgins
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DC Comics (New York): 1986. Trade paperback: 464 pages. ISBN-10: 0-930289-23-4 Tags: Graphic Novel; murder; superheroes Tactical strength: [5/10] |
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Watchmen takes place in a close alternate universe where in the early 20th Century groups of vigilante heroes dressed up in costumes and fight crime. These heroes, with one exception, have no superpowers, and like Batman, fight crime with their own physical strength. This development of real caped crusaders alters the flow of history just that we recognize the main political events and personalities, but we notice differences that Alan Moore want us to believe lead up to political tensions even higher that those of the Cuban Missile Crisis. As we find out in several flashbacks, a nuclear physicist in the 1950s accidentally gets irradiated, and he does develop real superpowers. The press names the scientist Dr. Manhattan, and his advent most of the older costumed heroes out of business, and he changes the balance of power in the cold war for the United States. Dr. Manhattan brings a quick end to Viet Nam, and in the 1970s, Congress passes a law banning vigilante heroes except for those working directly for the government.
The main story line takes place in 1985. Most of the original costume heroes have either retired or died, but someone seems to want to kill off the rest of these aging crusaders. Several of the old heroes team up to investigate the chain of murders and attempted murders. Interspersed throughout the narrative, Moore gives a feet-on-the-street view with a running commentary by a news stand agent, and interspersed with his commentary we see a pirate comic book narrative. Since real costumed superheroes exist in this universe, the comic industry developed series of pirate narratives. The comic-in-a-comic describes a man shipwrecked on an island who uses the dead bodies of his mates to make a raft. The pirate comic -- through blatant symbolism -- represents a commentary on the events in the main story arc. On the last page we read the quote from Juvenal, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes (Who watches the watchmen)?" Clearly congress thought the superheroes needed watching by passing a law against their unlicensed vigilantism, but as the events of the graphic novel play out, we see that possibly more oversight might have been warranted.
I found the ending less than satisfactory. The first eleven chapters built up the suspense to a pretty good level, but the ending in the twelfth chapter doesn't provide a big enough punch. In spite of the tragedy that takes place, we only see a minute portion of the impact, and events just wind down without any satisfaction. The main characters themselves essentially disagree with the conclusion, but through some odd logic they choose not to take any action.
Visually, Watchmen bored me. Every page gets divided into a three-by-three grid. Although illustrator Dave Gibbons might occasionally merge two or three of the frames for a larger combined image, he never violates the essential lines of this grid. We never see a frame with a diagonal line. Gibbons also draws all of his characters as Titans. These physically impressive giants all appear nearly seven feet tall with well-developed musculature. Gibbons seems so set on drawing over-muscled heroes, that he cannot draw a reasonable child or adolescent. At several points, the story calls for teenage characters, and in every case, these characters look like normal thirty-year-old adults. Yes, in contrast to their titanic parents, the teenagers look small, but just from looking at the art, you could never guess the age of the younger characters. Even small children have enormously developed arm and leg muscles.
If you read other commentary about Watchmen, you will find a lot of superlatives, but most of the superlatives compare Watchmen to other works in the comic genre. Yes, Watchmen does have fairly well developed characters and a complex plot. One reviewer says that Watchmen has elements "as good as any novel." I think such comments come from people who have mostly read comics and only a few novels. While Watchmen does take a step up from the simple superhero comics in both artistic and narrative complexity, I don't find it hard to imagine an English-language comic work that would surpass Watchmen and think that Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo, written about the same time, already has surpassed Watchmen with a better plot, more interesting art, and a more satisfactory experience overall.
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