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Watchmen
So I finished Watchmen today, not quite a week before the release of the movie. While I'm still looking forward to the movie, and certainly appreciate the literary genius of the graphic novel and its importance on the medium, there are still several things on which I'm not sure how I feel.
Thoughts are under cut-tag for those who haven't read the graphic novel and don't want to be spoiled before the movie.
I appreciate Watchmen as a commentary on the superhero/costumed vigilante genre. Under different circumstances, I could certainly see Rorschach and Batman becoming the same person. Granted, Rorschach is more absolute in his beliefs -- definitely bordering on psychotic -- but the motif is similar. One or two changes in Bruce Wayne's life, and maybe he has the same mindset.
In that regard, it's not surprising Alan Moore originally wrote Watchmen with the idea of using DC's already-existing characters. DC, seeing what he wanted to do, balked at the idea, but the similarities are there if one knows where to look.
Nite Owl II left me a bit apathetic; that character just didn't speak to me. I wasn't even all that moved by his crush on Dr. Manhattan's ex, the Silk Spectre -- and I always side with the guy with the unrequited crush. I guess I saw all along that he'd wind up with the girl, even if he had a gut that meant he had no business putting his costume back on. Hard to feel for a guy's plight when you realize it won't stay as such.
Ozymandias -- while I understand the plot ramifications of him being the one who killed The Comedian, orchestrated Dr. Manhattan's exile to Mars and all that, the whole thing failed to really grab me. Maybe because I didn't think the series did a good job of properly establishing Ozymandias beforehand -- sure, Rorschach met with him at the beginning to ask about The Comedian and there was the assassination attempt later on, but nothing else. We never really got to know who Ozymandias was before we found out he masterminded the whole thing.
On a related note, I have a hard time believing a former costumed hero can seriously kill half of New York and just shrug it off. Even Rorschach thought it was fucked up -- and that should tell Ozymandias something.
The argument between Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre on Mars was, in my opinion, the highlight of the book. I loved how deep and philosophical it was, and on some level it felt like a conversation Superman and Lois Lane might've had at one point. Really powerful stuff, one that stuck with me even in the closing pages.
Dr. Manhattan was particularly fascinating to me; to see someone who was at one point quite human become so ... alien. This character struck me as what Superman might've been like had be not had an entire childhood in Smallville, Kansas being raised by the Kents. So distant, detached from everything ... which I guess is prone to happen to someone who can literally see everything and understand how it all works. How does one connect emotionally with all that knowledge? If Dr. Manhattan is a gauge, the answer's no.
I hope the original series had a warning about mature content; the slew of dead bodies in the opening pages of the 12th chapter were particularly gruesome -- well, considering the series was originally published in 1986, anyway. There were also bits of nudity within the book -- including several full-frontal shots of Dr. Manhattan -- who is both quite blue and has no costume. Wonder if that'll be in the movie, too.
Then again, Moore's done this sort of thing before -- I've noticed several bits of nudity like that in V For Vendetta, and there was even a little bit of it in the Batman story he wrote, The Killing Joke (yes, let's show Barbara Gordon all bloodied and naked after Joker shoots her! Marvelous!).
The alternate view of the country in this film -- Nixon serving a fifth term? -- was interesting and it served the story. I can't help but think the fear over the Russians and all that was part of what led the costumed heroes to fall out of favor with everyone, and I really like how said heroes weren't superpowered gurus. This really felt like a book that asked the question, "What if actual people really decided to do this?" Fascinating take on the genre.
All in all, a really good read, and it has me looking forward to the movie even more. I can see why everyone reveres this book, even with my questions and minor issues. It is, though, easily the heaviest and deepest comic I've ever read -- to the point where I could make the argument that high school and college literature classes need to start assigning it.
So I finished Watchmen today, not quite a week before the release of the movie. While I'm still looking forward to the movie, and certainly appreciate the literary genius of the graphic novel and its importance on the medium, there are still several things on which I'm not sure how I feel.
Thoughts are under cut-tag for those who haven't read the graphic novel and don't want to be spoiled before the movie.
I appreciate Watchmen as a commentary on the superhero/costumed vigilante genre. Under different circumstances, I could certainly see Rorschach and Batman becoming the same person. Granted, Rorschach is more absolute in his beliefs -- definitely bordering on psychotic -- but the motif is similar. One or two changes in Bruce Wayne's life, and maybe he has the same mindset.
In that regard, it's not surprising Alan Moore originally wrote Watchmen with the idea of using DC's already-existing characters. DC, seeing what he wanted to do, balked at the idea, but the similarities are there if one knows where to look.
Nite Owl II left me a bit apathetic; that character just didn't speak to me. I wasn't even all that moved by his crush on Dr. Manhattan's ex, the Silk Spectre -- and I always side with the guy with the unrequited crush. I guess I saw all along that he'd wind up with the girl, even if he had a gut that meant he had no business putting his costume back on. Hard to feel for a guy's plight when you realize it won't stay as such.
Ozymandias -- while I understand the plot ramifications of him being the one who killed The Comedian, orchestrated Dr. Manhattan's exile to Mars and all that, the whole thing failed to really grab me. Maybe because I didn't think the series did a good job of properly establishing Ozymandias beforehand -- sure, Rorschach met with him at the beginning to ask about The Comedian and there was the assassination attempt later on, but nothing else. We never really got to know who Ozymandias was before we found out he masterminded the whole thing.
On a related note, I have a hard time believing a former costumed hero can seriously kill half of New York and just shrug it off. Even Rorschach thought it was fucked up -- and that should tell Ozymandias something.
The argument between Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre on Mars was, in my opinion, the highlight of the book. I loved how deep and philosophical it was, and on some level it felt like a conversation Superman and Lois Lane might've had at one point. Really powerful stuff, one that stuck with me even in the closing pages.
Dr. Manhattan was particularly fascinating to me; to see someone who was at one point quite human become so ... alien. This character struck me as what Superman might've been like had be not had an entire childhood in Smallville, Kansas being raised by the Kents. So distant, detached from everything ... which I guess is prone to happen to someone who can literally see everything and understand how it all works. How does one connect emotionally with all that knowledge? If Dr. Manhattan is a gauge, the answer's no.
I hope the original series had a warning about mature content; the slew of dead bodies in the opening pages of the 12th chapter were particularly gruesome -- well, considering the series was originally published in 1986, anyway. There were also bits of nudity within the book -- including several full-frontal shots of Dr. Manhattan -- who is both quite blue and has no costume. Wonder if that'll be in the movie, too.
Then again, Moore's done this sort of thing before -- I've noticed several bits of nudity like that in V For Vendetta, and there was even a little bit of it in the Batman story he wrote, The Killing Joke (yes, let's show Barbara Gordon all bloodied and naked after Joker shoots her! Marvelous!).
The alternate view of the country in this film -- Nixon serving a fifth term? -- was interesting and it served the story. I can't help but think the fear over the Russians and all that was part of what led the costumed heroes to fall out of favor with everyone, and I really like how said heroes weren't superpowered gurus. This really felt like a book that asked the question, "What if actual people really decided to do this?" Fascinating take on the genre.
All in all, a really good read, and it has me looking forward to the movie even more. I can see why everyone reveres this book, even with my questions and minor issues. It is, though, easily the heaviest and deepest comic I've ever read -- to the point where I could make the argument that high school and college literature classes need to start assigning it.