Fearless Symmetry (Watchmen - Alan Moore)

Member Name: Diaz

Product:	Watchmen - Alan Moore
Date:	29/03/01 (76 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A classic that works on all levels

Disadvantages: Style can be a little difficult to read

Watchmen was recommended to me by a friend who had his hair cut into pointy horns and sported a very long, very dodgy goatee, I’m clearly mixing with the right people. Alan Moore’s “Watchmen” is probably about the most important comic ever released, it changed the way people view comics as an art form and as literature. I think it’s one of the few comics that actually deserve that awful 80’s term, Graphic Novel.

The reason that the Watchmen works so well is that it works on so many levels, it has the intellectual clout of a genuine novel using flashbacks, themes and very serious issues. It has the accessibility of a comic but the artwork uses the similar methods to a novel in the imagery and it also uses methods of storytelling unavailable to a novelist, the images are often arranged in such a manner that allows one persons narrative to illustrate another’s actions adding a symmetry to the story. That symmetry is mirrored in the artwork itself the page is often laid out in the standard nine panels per page for instance a scene in a room may have a flickering neon sign outside so panels are alternately blue and red. In fact the symmetry is taken to an extreme in one chapter where the entire comic is symmetrical in imagery and in the story itself. The end of each chapter, 12 in all as you would expect from a watch, has written excerpts from books or magazines that often serve to fill in the back-story. There is also another entire comic within the comic which acts as a chorus for the main characters. As you can see this is no ordinary beast.

To illustrate how cinematic and how serious it is I’ll start at the beginning; it all starts with the death of the Comedian. Over this is a narrative from Rorschach’s Journal “Dog carcass in the alley, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me I have seen its true face.” The focus is on a smiley badge with a red splash acros
s one eye.

“The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over the vermin will drown” Focus pulls back to show a gutter the gutter is full of blood.

“The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout save us, and I’ll look down and whisper No.” The focus pulls back further to reveal a prophet of doom carrying a “the end is nigh” banner and a man washing away the blood.

“They had a choice, all of them. They could have followed in the footsteps of good men, like my father or President Truman. Decent men, who believed in a days work for a days pay.” The focus pulls up further; the prophet leaves bloody footprints in his wake.

“Instead they followed the droppings of lechers and communists and didn’t realize that the trail led over the precipice until it was too late. Don’t tell me they didn’t have a choice”. Up and up until the glass building stretches out below.

“Now the whole world stands on the brink staring down into bloody hell, all those liberals and intellectuals and smooth talkers…. And all of a sudden nobody can think of anything to say.” We finally reach the window from which the Comedian took his final bow. A detective leans over and “That’s quite a drop” he says surveying the pin prick of blood on the street below.

As you can imagine Rorschach is not a balanced individual….

The Watchmen, are, or were a group of super heroes, though actually the term super can really only be applied Dr Manhattan. The others are costumed heroes who, for their own reasons dress up to fight crime, the sexual and psychological implications of this behavior are explored throughout the comic in sometimes funny sometimes sad asides.

T
he primary characters in the story are Rorschach; a brutal fascist who happens to be a good guy, Nite Owl; an inventor long since retired, Sally Jupiter; raised by her own hero mother to follow in her footsteps and Dr Manhattan; a parahuman with the power to manipulate space and time to his every whim. Dr Manhattan is in fact godlike in his power, to the extent that he is powerless. You see all events are predestined; the good Dr knows the future and so is doomed to act it out, puppet like.

As Rorschach investigates the Comedians murder we are introduced to the other characters and the alternate history of this world unfolds, the influence of Dr Manhattan being the major deviation from our own. The US won Vietnam with Manhattan’s help and reign as the major superpower. As a result Nixon is still in power, having changed the rules to allow a third term. America’s possession of Manhattan doesn’t stop Russia amassing arms of its own and the world is teetering on the edge of a third world war. To reveal any more of the plot would be an injustice to the book.

The story has more twists and turns than a twisty turny thing, events are often retold from different perspectives adding more depth to the situations and peeling rings off the onion as does Rorschach’s investigation. The plot raises huge moral questions and may lead you to question your own actions or inactions when faced with adversity.

The art is ably supplied by Dave Gibbons, prior to rereading this for the review I’d thought that this might be the one bad thing I have to say about the book, but I can’t the artwork is superb, particularly the attention to the ever-present symmetry of the piece. I think the reason I found the artwork lacking from memory is that the colouration is in primary colours, but if you bear that the book was published in 1985, comics were very rarely painted in those days.

I suppose one criticism I might raise
is that the book can often be a little confusing. The speech bubbles for some of the characters have certain styles and when that person is talking over another image it could confuse someone who isn’t used to this style of writing.

Watchmen is a very intelligent book worthy of the classic status it has gained, If you only read one comic in your life read this one.

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