"Who watches the watchmen?" (Watchmen - Alan Moore)

Member Name: Jake Speed

Product:	Watchmen - Alan Moore
Date:	02/09/08 (210 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Complex, brilliant, absorbing

Disadvantages: Not a lot

Alan Moore is one of the most famous and acclaimed writers in comic book history. His work includes classic books such as V For Vendetta and The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen volumes I & II. His most famous piece of work though is Watchmen, a groundbreaking comic/graphic novel first published in 1986 which Moore wrote and Dave Gibbons illustrated.

Watchmen is a huge and complex deconstruction of the superhero genre and set in 1985 in a cold war world on the brink of nuclear war. It depicts a universe where costumed superheroes are real but outlawed by a government act - except for a select few the government maintains to work for them.

The story begins with the murder of Edward Blake, a mysterious playboy type character who has been overpowered and thrown out of his penthouse window many floors up. Rorschach, the nuttiest and most extreme of these outlawed heroes ("He's crazier than a snake's armpit and wanted on two counts of murder") investigates Blake's murder and makes a discovery. Blake was 'The Comedian', a former costumed hero that Rorschach worked with years ago. Rorschach suspects that someone is killing off 'masks' (former costumed heroes). This sets the story and central mystery of Watchmen in motion.

Rorschach sets of to warn his former colleagues, Dan Dreiberg aka 'Nite Owl', Adrian Veidt aka 'Ozymandias', Laurie Juspeczyk aka 'Silk Spectre' and 'Dr. Manhattan'. Dan and Laurie are retired but Dr Manhattan works for the US government. Rorschach has ignored the government ban and continues his vigilante activities as a wanted man.

In a twist on superhero comics, Dr Manhattan is actually the only character in the book who has special powers of any sort. An incredibly powerful, almost God like being who can move through time, he holds the balance of power for the US government in the cold war.

Watchmen is a multi-layered story and unravels in a very absorbing way with big revelations, a suprise villain and a brilliant and terrifying masterplan. The book is said to have been a big influence on the television show 'Lost' and you will see why this theory exists if you read it. Watchmen features a large cast of overlapping characters who we see in the past, present and, sometimes, the future.

The big twist is in presenting costumed heroes as real people. They are flawed heroes who in some cases might not even be heroes at all. These flawed heroes have to make big moral decisions. We see earlier incarnations of superhero teams in Watchmen in flashbacks as they break apart and dissolve as groups. They bicker and argue and have different objectives and political views. One member even attempts to rape another. I should point out that Watchmen is an adult comic.

Alan Moore uses themes of paranoia and authority in a very clever way in the story. We see the Watchmen in action - just before 'masked vigilantes' are outlawed by a new government act - dealing with a riot. The crowd complain that they want regular police again and not vigilantes - who have actually put the police out of work in cases. 'Who watches the Watchmen' is scrawled on a wall. The costumed heroes are political pawns increasingly regarded as fascists by the general population.

The story ties in the past and present in a very clever way and all fits together, paying off the reader and creating a complex and brilliant story. Moore, as usual, includes a lot of interesting 'extras', like extracts from the 'Under The Hood', the 'biography' of original Nite Owl Hollis Mason. There is much more nice stuff in this vein dotted through the book some of it with a clever period element. There is even a spoof ad for Watchmen action figures in the book!

There is also a sort of story within the story in the form of 'Tales of the Black Freighter', a pirate comic which features in the book. The story actually mirrors the journey of a major character in Watchmen. Another nice twist here - costumed superheroes are real so in this world comics seem to be about pirates instead of superheroes.

The characters are all distinctive and well thought out. Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl for example is a paunchy middle-aged ornithology buff. But beneath his house in a disused subway station he retains the gadgets and costumes of Nite Owl and 'Archie', his flying 'Owlship'. He is simultaneously embarrassed by and nostalgic for his old life. He wonders if it really happened but also misses it. It's this duality that makes Watchmen so interesting.

The relationships between the characters in the book are very complex and interesting. I loved the arc between Dreiberg and Laurie Juspeczyk and also his strange friendship with the scary Rorschach. Each chapter in Watchmen draws you into the story more as the retired heroes are drawn into a dangerous mystery with ramifications they can barely comprehend. I don't want to give too much away but the prison sections are excellent and frequently funny. The book has a good sense of humour. Dan and Laurie, at the start of the book, reminisce about the old days when they put strange costumes on and fought criminals. They remember one repeat offender who they finally worked out actually enjoyed being beaten. He pretended to be a super villain so he could get beat up! "Whatever happened to him?" asks Laurie. "Well," replies Dan. "He pulled it on Rorschach and Rorschach dropped him down an elevator shaft."

Rorschach is perhaps the most compelling character and was inspired by an old comic book character called The Question and Batman. He has an ink blot mask ("two viscous fluids between two layers latex, heat and pressure sensitive") which is constantly changing - a very clever idea by Moore. Moore said that regarding Rorschach, he thought about Batman and concluded that a vigilante who went out to fight crime at night in a rubber suit would have to be completely insane to actually do that. Hence Rorschach.

There are some great characters in Watchmen. The Comedian. Laurie. Dr Manhattan. The source of Manhattan's powers - an accident - is pretty scary. Manhattan is a shimmering blue superbeing who struggles to relate to people. He's based on DC comics Captain Atom and says things like "Thermo dynamic miracles...events with odds agaisnt so astronomical they're effectively impossible like oxygen spontaneously becoming gold..." Manhattan scares people because he is the only person with real superpowers. He's like a superweapon up the sleeve of the US government. It makes you think. If Superman was real would we be slightly scared of him and what he could do? Dr Manhattan's trip to Mars is a great section in Watchmen.

Alan Moore has a mad imagination and piles on the intrigue and invention. He tells his story eloquently. He makes Watchmen a real epic with trips backwards and forwards in time and locations from Antarctica to Mars. Dave Gibbons artwork is also excellent and frequently inspired. A flashbulb dissolves into a flashback. Silhouettes of embracing characters on a wall. Some spectacular one picture 'splash' pages are also used nearer the end of the story.

As it says on the back, Watchmen is peerless.

Highly recommended.

Summary: All hail Alan Moore