Watchmen Review- By David Vargas

Written By Alan Moore and Illustrated By Dave Gibbons

            Watchmen is a story about a set of superheroes that unravel the truth behind a murder, the possibility of a massive catastrophe, and the humanity under their superhero personas. The comic covers the accounts of six different superheroes. These superheroes include Doctor Manhattan, the second Silk Spectre, The Comedian, the second Nite Owl and Rorschach. Each one of these characters has a connection to the death of the government employed superhero, the Comedian. As time goes on, these characters learn that behind this murder is a plan that would result in millions of more deaths. The characters are placed in an alternative version of the year 1985, where superheroes have become vigilantes, but the comic also travels back to events that occurred in the 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. Many historical events that we have come to know as truth have been changed due to the impact of super heroes. For example, in the Watchmen universe, the United States actually wins the war in Vietnam, President Richard Nixon is elected for 5 consecutive terms, and the hypothetical Tachyon Particles in theoretic physics have actually been harnessed. All of these events are due mostly to the result of superheroes. The story presents the historical importance of superheroes, but it also presents their humanity.

In the comic, the superheroes are confronted in the form of a crime investigation. Each character brings an interesting point of view to the central story. The character the Comedian, who’s actual name is Edward Blake, was a super hero who was one of the original members of the Minutemen and Crimebusters. Considered to be a vigilante, the Comedian was responsible for bringing the war in Vietnam to a brutal end, but he also was responsible for sexually assaulting the original Silk Specter. Consequently, the Comedian is the father of the second Silk Specter. After traveling over an uncharted island, Blake realized the horrible purpose for its existence. On this island, Blake learns about writers, scientist, and artist that are all working on a horrible creation. This discovery would ultimately lead to his death. In order to discover the truth behind the murder, the character Rorschach begins his own investigation. Rorschach is a tough, troubled, merciless super hero. He has been in and out of jail and has always been getting into fights. Rorschach is wanted by the police during the process of the story, but unfortunately for the police, Rorschach believes in his own type of justice. He gives no second chances and believes in finding out the truth no matter what the cost. Through his investigation, Rorschach finds out that the Comedian was actually killed by the hands of Adrian Veidt, who is also known as the super hero Ozymandias. The story reveals that Adrian Veidt is the one responsible for creating the plan that would eventually kill millions. His ultimate plan involves the nations of the world being tricked into believing that there is an alien attack, which would evidently bring all of the nations of the world together in order to combat this unknown foe. In order to accomplish this, Veidt works with the government sponsored super hero Dr. Manhattan.  

The character Doctor Manhattan was once a normal scientist, but after a nuclear experiment gone wrong, he becomes a god-like being. With this new found power comes a lack of interest in human affairs and emotions. Along with the Comedian, Doctor Manhattan plays a major role in our success in the Vietnam War. His connection with his former identity continues to drift as he separates from his wife, for the much younger Laurie Juspeczyk, who is actually the second Silk Spectre. Eventually, his connection with Laurie begins to fade along with his interest in humanity as a whole. It is at this time that Laurie starts a relationship with the second Nite Owl, who is named Dan Dreiberg. During their relationship, Laurie and Dan decide to go against the government’s rules and become crime fighters once again. In the end, the plan to destroy millions of people is unable to be stopped. In consequence, the world is made to believe that some other worldly creatures created this devastation. The character Rorschach is unable to live with the idea of the world not knowing the truth and is killed for not agreeing to stay silent. Because of this event, peace is brought between the nations of the world. In the final panels we meet a character named Seymour who works for the news paper. He eventually comes across Rorschach’s Journal in the files. In this Journal are Rorschach’s ideas and suspicions behind the project that killed millions. We are left with a cliff hanger not knowing for sure what Seymour will actually do with the Journal. It is left to the reader’s imagination.

The comic is filled with many meanings and themes that help to make the story exceptionally interesting. One of the main themes of Watchmen is determinism. This basically means that whatever exist and whatever happens was meant to be because of a prior action or state. The idea that Dr. Manhattan becomes a super hero who can witness events that have not physically happened yet expresses the idea of determinism. Another theme presented in the comic Watchmen is the concept of morality. Each main character in the comic has their own personal beliefs on morality. Rorschach, to one extreme, believes that all criminals should be punished for their crimes. On the other end of the spectrum is Ozymandias, who believes that the ends ultimately justify the means. His goal of killing millions will ultimately be justified by the peace he creates between the nations. Disconnected from these two extremes is the characters Dr. Manhattan who reflects on the theme of nihilism. To him, there is no such thing as morality, there is just knowledge and information. His drift from humanity allows him to lose interest for ideas on morality.

Watchmen is written by one of the most critically acclaimed graphic novel writers, Alan Moore. The writer Alan Moore, is well known for being the writer of other famous comics such as V For Vendetta, Miracleman and Swamp Thing. He has worked for and has had fall outs with both Marvel and DC. At this point, Alan Moore is working independently from both companies and has published comics such as Lost Girls and Neonomicon.  During his creation of the story Watchmen, Alan Moore originally wanted to use existing superheroes, so that they would have more resonance with the comic book readers. Eventually he was convinced to develop his own character. Even so, the characters of Watchmen, pull influences from pre-existing comic book characters. The superhero Dr. Manhattan was inspired by the superhero Captain Atom, who shares similar powers to Dr. Manhattan and also had a similar experiment gone wrong that gave him his powers. The Nite Owl was inspired by the Blue Beetle who was an original crime fighter and then a predecessor. Ozymandias was inspired by the superhero Thunderbolt, who used mind over matter and had enhanced use of the brain, just like Ozymandias. The Silk Spectre was inspired by the superhero Black Canary who was also tough young crime fighting female. Rorschach was inspired by the superhero the Question, who wore a very similar outfit to Rorschach and also works as an investigator. The Comedian was based on Peacemaker and also Nick Fury, who are tough military based crime fighters. Many of these superheroes happened to be pulled from Charlton’s Comics, which was an interest of Moore’s. Watchmen was illustrated by the artist Dave Gibbons. Dave Gibbons was a contributor to 2000AD and also was an artist on the Doctor Who Comic in the 1980’s. Since Watchmen, Gibbons has drawn comics for DC including superman and batman. He has also completed a graphic novel called the The Originals. Watchmen was colored by John Higgins, who decided to use a secondary color palette instead of primary colors for this comic. This creates a grittier and darker mood for the comic book imagery. Along with being the colorist for Watchmen, John Higgins has done covers for 2000AD and Marvel UK.

The Watchmen comic follows a complex combination of word and pictures. The comic includes additive combinations where the words expand on what is going on in the picture. This is mostly used when the character is recounting a past memory or is expressing an inner dialogue. Sometimes what is going on in the picture differs from what is being expressed by the character, which is considered a parallel combination. The Watchmen comic follows many different realities and points of views at once. At some point the dialogues mix, and what is being expressed visually and what is being said literally are from two different perspectives. This allows the viewer to use their imagination to find out the meaning behind the message. The comic also has interdependent combinations of word and picture. In this combination, the words and the pictures alone are ambiguous, but when they are combined they are able to express a specific idea. At some points, the dialogue becomes heavy and overpowers the image and other times, the words are expressed in simple phrases and the picture is the main impact. The comic also has a secondary story mixed in with the central comic called Tale of the Black Freighter, which flows as a narrative separate from Watchmen. The Watchmen imagery is drawn in a style reminiscent of the classic comics of Jack Kirby from the 1960’s, which features characters with strong dynamic lines. Watchmen also seems to be inspired by the classic horror comic such as Tales from the Crypt with its use of dramatic lighting of the characters and graphic imagery. The characters are drawn realistic enough to be read as actual people, but facial expressions are usually exaggerated. This helps to further express their feelings of humanity. 

Watchmen works as a comic that allows the reader to dive into the minds of flawed and sinful superheroes. Each character has their reasoning for their actions and a sense of humanity. The fact that the story is told from so many different points of views, makes the comic exciting and fast paced. The reader is constantly being taken from one scene to another and being presented with new information that helps to unravel the story. While the characters have interesting points of views, they are hard to admire. Most superheroes are built for the reader to connect with. The Watchmen comic is not meant to create superhero idols for us to worship, rather it is an attempt to humanize the idea of a superhero and also exposes the insane mind of those who have been granted so much power.

Watchmen is considered to be one of the most important graphic novels of all time by comic book readers and publications like Time Magazine and the Wall Street Journal. It will be remembered along with other important Comics of the time such as the Dark Knight Returns and Akira. The Dark Knight Returns was published the same year as Watchmen and is a darker and more ruthless account of the Batman story. Akira on the other hand was made 4 years prior to Watchmen, but presented a Manga that had the ability to express an eerie, disturbing, and emotionally involved science fiction story. Both these comics share the brutality of Watchmen and both comics make an effort to dive into the minds of their characters. Watchmen ultimately was given credit for setting the dark, bleak, brutal style of contemporary comics into motion. For many readers and critics Watchmen proved the great amount of sophistication that the comic book medium had to offer and the legitimacy of the comic art form itself.