Alan Moore's Watchmen: My Thoughts and Musings

Since I read Watchmen for the first time several years ago, I have read Watchmen in its entirety at least five times, and this was my sixth time taking it in. In addition to that, I have visited passages and images from this comic countless times, and when I saw that Watchmen had made the list I am currently journeying through, I was ecstatic to explore the intricacies of the story once again. Why? Because Watchmen is unquestionably the Citizen Kane of the comic book medium, and there hasn't been a single reading where it hasn't yielded new wonders and ideas that I hadn't read in my previous explorations of its pages.

Overview

Watchmen is set in an alternate reality 1985, where Richard Nixon has been re-elected several times and is still the current President, the war in Vietnam was incredibly brief and was a victory for the United States, and while superheroes were once prevalent, they have been forced into retirement by government legislation. The mystery of the tale begins when one of the two government-endorsed crime fighters, The Comedian, is beaten and murdered. This prompts an amateur investigation into the identity of the killer by Rorshach, a sadistic vigilante who never gave up his super-hero career and now dispenses of criminals while evading the law. In the course of his travels Rorschach encounters several of the costumed avengers he worked with in the past, some of whom challenge his objective and others whom reluctantly work with him to discover the truth and motives behind The Comedian's murder.


What I Enjoyed

Characters, characters, characters! If I had to single out one factor that makes this story so endearing to me it would have to be the amazing cast of players that comprise the story we know as Watchmen. None of them feel like stock characters or tired cliches. Even the few that are depicted in a way that makes you feel they will be relegated to stereotypes defy those conventions. Take Dr. Manhattan, the classic "god among men" hero. Yes, there are the typical Christ-like images that are associated with the figure, and the wide breadth of ability the character possesses. But he is also a study in how such a figure would begin to lose touch with his humanity, and mankind in general. In fact he becomes so far removed from human nature as a result of his omnipotent stature that he spends much of the novel nude (clothes are of little concern to him, as is the human form in general) and even isolates himself on Mars for a time. Rorschach, the "hero" of the novel, is another fascinating figure. He is easily one of the most beloved figures in the novel, and he is completely psychotic. And yet, out of everyone in the comic, he is the only person who consistently has a moral code he strictly adheres to, and possibly the only figure in the book who never chooses to compromise his objectives. Regardless of how questionable and outrageous his behavior is, there is a purity to his actions that makes him alluring. And of course, then there's The Comedian himself. A superhero who was honored by the President and became a media darling as a government-sponsored costumed figure. He is also an attempted rapist, chauvinist, murderer, and general opportunist when it involves his own selfish ideas. This perfectly illustrates one of the central themes of Watchmen; superheroes are susceptible to the same human flaws as regular people. Some are vile violent people, other are criminally insane, others hate the superhero life but feel pressured to from outside influences, and some live for the thrill of the superhero life regardless of what good it does for the world. This story revealed that superhero tales are actually effective when you can look at the mask of the hero and see a living, breathing human being underneath.

What else is there to gather from the text of the novel? An unrelenting wealth of concepts and philosophies, but I will limit to to only a handful for the purpose of this observation. One of the ultimate questions the story poses is if a heroic act is really that heroic if atrocious actions have to be taken to bring that heroism to fruition. This is one of the few stories where the world has become a safer, more civil place at the conclusion of the tale, and yet the conclusion is still crushingly depressing and unjust. I also appreciated even more the scenes involving the therapist who is trying to reach Rorschach and reform his disturbing behavior. The scenes revealing the erosion of his marriage and personal life as a result of the disturbing nature of his patient and his obsession with trying to understand him seemed very effective and believable. This takes up an entire issue of the series and never ceases to be dull or distracting. In fact, Watchmen has very minimal action, especially for the world of superhero comics. This is, at its heart, a noir set in more recent times, and has much more in common with Dashiell Hammett than Stan Lee.

What I Didn't Agree With

It is very difficult for me to have a critical eye on a work that I admire and love as much as this one, but even some of the most engrossing stories have areas that could use improvement. Though I think the ending of the story is incredible, a few of the elements that are a part of the ending I could have done without or altered slightly. Beyond that, there are likely other issues with the book, but they have not been observed effectively by this reader.

Does It Belong on the List?

I am not exaggerating when I say that seeing Watchmen on this list of the most important novels since 1923 is a detail that overjoyed me. I love the rich world of literature, and I love the world of comics as well, and I feel there are those beautiful moments where those two converge to create a truly exceptional work of fiction. Watchmen may seem on the surface a simple crime story involving costumed heroes, but at its core it is a character study of a collective of complex, colorful, deeply flawed individuals and how their interactions and decisions can have such a powerful impact on the shape of society. I find myself very insulted by the few elitist voices in literary circles who claim that Watchmen doesn't belong on these sort of lists simply because it incorporates images into the storytelling process. Watchmen is an original story, a fascinating story, and one that manages to incite deep thought and fascination every time I return to it. It's spot on this list and its fixture in literary history is well-deserved.

Next on the List

The science fiction story Ubik by Philip K. Dick. While I am very familiar with Philip K. Dick (author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which was adapted for the screen as Blade Runner, and We'll Remember It For You Wholesale, the inspiration for the film Total Recall. It's apparent one thing Dick could not write was an effective film title), I had actually never heard of Ubik until I discovered this list, so I am interested to see how it is.