Watchmen
- For the Canadian band, see The Watchmen.
| Watchmen | |
|---|---|
 The cast of Watchmen. (Clockwise from top: Doctor Manhattan, the Comedian, Ozymandias, Nite Owl II, Rorschach, Captain Metropolis, the Silk Spectre II.) Art by Dave Gibbons, coloured by John Higgins | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Maxiseries |
| Publication date | September 1986 – October 1987 |
| No. of issues | Twelve |
| Main character(s) | Nite Owl II Doctor Manhattan Rorschach Silk Spectre I and II Ozymandias The Comedian |
| Creative team | |
| Created by | Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons |
Watchmen is a twelve-issue comic book written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. A limited series, originally published monthly by DC Comics in 1986-1987, it was later republished as a graphic novel.
Along with Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Art Spiegelman's Maus, Watchmen was considered a landmark of the genre, helping to bring back the adult audience comics mostly lost in the 1950s. Don Markstein wrote, "What The Maltese Falcon did for detective stories and Shane did for Westerns, Watchmen did for superheroes. It transcended its origins in what was previously considered a lowbrow form of fiction to provide a rich reading experience for all, whether they came in as fans of the genre or not."[1]
Watchmen won numerous Kirby and Eisner awards from the comic industry, and won a special achievement Hugo Award in 1987, the only graphic novel to do so. In 2005, Time magazine included it on a list of the 100 best novels from 1923 to the present.
Title
The title Watchmen refers to an excerpt from Juvenal's Satire VI Against Women:
- noui consilia et ueteres quaecumque monetis amici,
- "pone seram, cohibe".
- sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes
- cauta est et ab illis incipit uxor
A quite literal translation echoes the tone found in Moore's Watchmen:
- I hear always the admonishment of my friends:
- "Bolt her in, and constrain her!"
- But who will watch the watchmen?
- The wife arranges accordingly, and begins with them
Composition
Set in an alternative history in which superheroes are real, Watchmen is an adventure and crime drama that incorporates moral philosophy, popular culture, history, art, and science.
Watchmen is composed of 12 chapters, which reproduce the original comic book issues. The beginning of each chapter, excluding the first, shows a clock face which progresses by a minute each issue; the second chapter begins at 11:49 ending at 12:00 in the final chapter. Each clock face may be seen as edging closer to the end of the world, in the vein of the Doomsday Clock. Quotes act as a footnote at the end of each chapter, their meaning pertaining to the events and tone of that chapter.
At the end of each chapter of Watchmen, essays and documents are included which serve to elaborate various aspects of the Watchmen world. Fictional newspaper reports, personal journals, and other articles help to clarify the myriad of backstories, and are utilized by Moore as a device to create a larger context within which the main narrative takes place. These include Rorschach's psychiatric medical records, the EC Comics-style pirate comic book running as a counterpoint to the larger narrative, and the fictitious far right-wing magazine, The New Frontiersman, which demonstates the political climate of this alternative United States history.
Plot summary
In October 1985, Walter Kovacs (Rorschach) investigates the murder of New York citizen Edward Blake and learns that Blake was also The Comedian, a longtime costumed adventurer/government agent. Forming a theory that Blake's murder is the first in a plot to eliminate adventurers, Kovacs extends warnings to four others still living in New York; Jon Osterman (Dr. Manhattan), Laurel Jane Juspeczyk (Silk Spectre II), Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl II) and Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias). Veidt, Juspeczyk and Dreiberg are long retired from crime-fighting, the last two because of the 1977 passage of the Keene Act, banning costumed vigilantes (an act which Rorschach ignores). Osterman remains exempt, being (like Blake) a U.S. government agent, though he no longer engages in crimefighting. Veidt had retired voluntarily in 1975 and publicly disclosed his identity, using his reputation and intelligence to build a large personal fortune.
The world of Watchmen is dark and violent, with the United States and the Soviet Union edging toward a nuclear showdown. Since the 1959 nuclear accident that transformed Osterman into the super-powered Dr. Manhattan (the only super-powered character in Watchmen), the U.S. has enjoyed a distinct strategic advantage, allowing it to force the Soviet Union in a series of defeats, most notably in Vietnam. This imbalance has dramatically increased global tension. In seeming anticipation of global war, American society has a general sense of fatalism about the future. Signs of this in daily life range from "Meltdowns" candy to graffiti inspired by the Hiroshima bombing to the designation of many buildings in New York as fallout shelters.
Veidt, observing Osterman's increasing emotional detachment from humanity, formed a hypothesis as early as 1966 that military expenditures and environmental damage will lead to global catastrophe no later than the mid-nineties. As part of an elaborate plot to avert this, Veidt acted to accelerate Osterman's isolation by secretly exposing "more than two dozen" former Osterman associates to harmful radiation, inflicting various cancers on them, while manipulating the press into speculating that Osterman himself was the cause.
With the public revelation of these cancer suspicions, Osterman teleported himself to Mars to contemplate the events of his life. His break with the U.S. government prompted Soviet opportunism in the form of an invasion of Afghanistan, greatly aggravating the global crisis. With nuclear war only days away, Kovacs, Juspeczyk, Osterman and Dreiberg confronted Veidt at Veidt's Antarctic retreat, too late to prevent the final phase of his plan: using a teleportation device to move a massive genetically-engineered creature into the heart of New York City, knowing the resulting explosion and psychic shockwave will kill half the residents. Within that psychic flash was imagery designed to convince survivors worldwide that the creature was the first of a potential alien invasion force. Thus presented with an external threat, the United States and Soviet Union withdrew from the brink of war and formed an accord to face this apparent menace.
The murderer of Blake was Veidt himself, after Blake had uncovered details of Veidt's plot. Veidt had also eliminated numerous employees and minions (few of whom knew the entire plan) to keep the plot secret. At the end, the only people aware of the truth were Veidt, Dreiberg, Juspeczyk, Kovacs and Osterman. Dreiberg, Juspeczyk and Osterman agreed to keep silent out of concern that revealing the plot could re-ignite U.S./Soviet tensions, but Kovacs refused to compromise and was killed by Osterman, who then left Earth permanently.
Before confronting Veidt in the Antarctic, however, Kovacs mailed his journal detailing his suspicions to The New Frontiersman, a right-wing magazine he frequently read. The final frame of the series shows a Frontiersman editor contemplating which item from the "crank file" (to which Kovacs' journal had been consigned) to use as filler for the upcoming issue.
Character background
In the early 1980s DC Comics, who had acquired a number of existing characters from Charlton Comics, commissioned a treatment from Moore for a mini-series about them. Watchmen is the resulting story, recast with new heroes to avoid continuity problems with the existing DC Universe and previously established characters. While the Watchmen characters were initally inspired by various Charlton Comics characters, it's worth noting that Moore borrowed elements of other comic book characters as well, and also drew upon his own imagination. Below is a list of Watchmen characters, and their Charlton Comics counterparts.
Adaptations from Charlton Comics
- The Comedian (Edward Blake), adapted from the Peacemaker with elements of Marvel Comics' Nick Fury.
- Doctor Manhattan (Jon Osterman), adapted from Captain Atom.
- Nite Owl I (Hollis Mason), adapted from Blue Beetle (Dan Garrett).
- Nite Owl II (Dan Dreiberg), adapted from Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) with elements of DC Comics' Batman.
- Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt), adapted from Thunderbolt.
- Rorschach (Walter Kovacs), adapted from The Question.
- Silk Spectre I and II (Sally Juspeczyk, and later Laurie Juspeczyk), adapted from Nightshade with elements of DC Comics' Black Canary
Character overview
The Minutemen era
- Main article: Minutemen (comics)
The Minutemen were a group of superheroes that was formed before the events of Watchmen, between 1939 and 1949.
Post-Minutemen era
The Crimebusters were a group of superheroes who in 1966 attempted to form a successor to the Minutemen, but failed.
The Comedian is a cynic who exhibits nihilistic qualities and believes that most individuals are powerless to affect geo-political realities, The Comedian is often motivated by his own desires. He is inclined to be autonomous, only aligning himself with others if their motives are similar to his own. A possible sadist, The Comedian often engages in violent activities such as rape and becomes a government agent during the Vietnam War. Near the end of his service in Vietnam, he was attacked and injured by a Vietnamese woman who was pregnant with his unborn child; angered when the Comedian stated his intention to leave her behind when he returned to the United States, she slashed his face with a piece of a broken glass bottle. In retaliation, the Comedian murdered her (and thus his unborn child) with a single gunshot. The injury healed badly and left the Comedian with a large scar across his right cheek, from the corner of his mouth to the outer corner of his right eye.
Initially, his "morally correct" actions when fighting crime are contrasted against his abrupt and cruel personality, which portray him as a person lacking empathy for others. However, his actions upon his discovery of Ozymandias' "Alien Island" suggest that The Comedian is not merely a selfish egotist, but someone who is concerned for the well being of the many. His conduct could denote a belief in utilitarianism, suggesting that, in the case of the Vietnam War, his violent conduct was justifable (in his mind) as he was merely acting for his government, and America as a whole.
During Rorschach's independent investigation of an Edward Blake's death, he discovers that Blake was the secret identity of the Comedian.
An extreme example of moral absolutism, Rorschach (Walter Kovacs) is uncompromising in his answer to evil: it must be punished, whatever the cost. His staunch opposition to crime is equalled by his total lack of empathy for criminals, whom he treats as non-human; his disdain for conventional law, government, and the police causes him to become a vigilante, as, in his belief, the law does not do enough to combat crime. He shows little reverence for "conventional morality", willing to take drastic measures to achieve his goals, such as the torture or even the execution of criminals. His "law and order" attitude, coupled with his readership of The New Frontiersman, make clear he values strongly-held and -expressed views of society; however, the punishment of crime is the only thing relevant to his personal crusade, and is thus the only thing he expresses. Rorschach is determined not to spend his life as a bystander, thus, like Batman, crime has driven him to become a crusader. Additionally, subtle elements of his interaction with other male heroes and his condemnation of homosexuality hint that he himself may have sexual issues driving him to channel his discomfort in extreme morality.
In Rorschach's case, it was the murder of Kitty Genovese (and the inaction of her neighbors) that inspired him to fight crime. Kovacs fashioned a mask out of a section of Genovese's unbought dress, its unique shifting white and black pattern originating from a special material created by Dr. Manhattan. The clear division between black and white in the mask mirrors Rorschach's absolutist outlook: things are either right or wrong, black or white; there is no middle ground, no "grey area". Yet his mask also betrays how the world views him, while some men believe he can be saved, others find him a lost cause, upon closer examination of his character one is repeatedly forced to change their opinion of him. In very many ways, he as a character is a rorschach test for the reader. However, he was just another masked adventurer, content to leave punishment to the legal system, until one of his investigations led him to discover the brutal murder of an innocent girl. The girl was butchered and fed to two German shepherds by her kidnapper. This heinous act sent Rorschach into an ire; no longer satisfied with merely stopping crimes, Rorschach decided that he would also discern the punishment, where once he was content to simply leave perpetrators of crimes bound and gagged for the police to find. This event is described as the point where Walter Kovacs died, and Rorschach was born. Laws no longer mattered to Rorschach, and he was the only masked adventurer to continue to operate without government sanction after the ratification of the Keene Act. His stance toward the Keene Act was epitomised in his killing of a rapist: he subsequently deposited the body in front of a police station, along with a note saying "NEVER!"
Although an intellectual elitist who believes in utilitarianism and is willing to murder millions of innocents in the attempt to improve the lives of billions more, Ozymandias seems to be the most outwardly "good" member of the Watchmen cast. Like Rorschach he believes himself to be exempt from the limitations of conventional behavioral norms and puts himself beyond that of normal human experience. His behavior and self-belief suggest that he may be a megalomaniac, whilst his idolisation of Alexander the Great leaves him with something of a "chip on his shoulder." Not even his philanthopy, inventions, or huge, multi-million dollar business ventures can appease his desires for greatness. This viewpoint enables him to have an apparently callous disregard for the lives of "ordinary" people (though he later confides to Dr. Manhattan about his responsibility to shoulder the terrible guilt). If Dr. Manhattan is seen as God, then Ozymandias can easily be seen as the apollonian aspect of Nietzsche's philosophy.
Ozymandias retired from superheroism several years before the Keene Act to start building his "empire"; very successful businesses thanks to his intelligence, whose income would be used to fund his plans.
After an accident as a scientist, Jon Osterman was transformed into something non-human, and the only character in Watchmen with superhuman powers (except for possibly those characters whose psychic ability is alluded to). Throughout the series, he becomes increasingly detached from humanity as a whole. As the story progresses, he disavows any interest in human affairs and rejects the validity of any notion of morality. His ability to see the world outside of time leads him to embrace determinism. Doctor Manhattan is identified as something of a God-figure as Watchmen progresses; after dying and resurrecting himself, he gains near omniscient knowledge and almost omnipotent powers, and in his final scene walks on water and leaves to create human life somewhere else. For all his god-like power, he is as flawed and human as the rest, having difficulties with relationships. He personifies intellect over emotion. Because of his aloofness and somewhat nihilist philosophy, he is vilified by several characters throughout Watchmen. He represents Nietzsche's übermensch in the sense that his actions are completely beyond good and evil, in contrast with Rorschach whose actions are completely driven by the concepts of good and evil.
Silk Spectre II
A reluctant hero, Laurie Juspeczyk was pushed toward the vocation by her mother, the first Silk Spectre, who had been a successful crime fighter prior to her daughter's birth. Somewhat reluctantly, she ends up in a relationship with Doctor Manhattan. During the story she becomes increasingly upset with Manhattan's detachment with humanity, and after their break-up, Dr. Manhattan leaves Earth. In the end, she plays a pivotal role in making Manhattan realize the value of human life.
Nite Owl II
Something of a recluse, Dan Dreiberg's strong interest in ornithology manifests itself in some of his inventions, which relate to owls in some way. Detached from his parents, he struggles to find purpose with his life, thus glamorizing the notion of being a costumed crimefighter. He admits to idolizing the exploits of the original Nite Owl and also being quite taken with childhood notions of nobility and adventure. However, he does not have a resolute purpose, such as that of Rorschach, and is quite contingent, often relying on others to tell him what to do rather than following his own desires. Dreiberg seems out of all the heroes to represent the everyman, the pragmatist driven by a waxing and waning standard of ethics that seeks ultimate good but is willing to compromise on specifics. Additionally, his crimefighting pursuits reflect most clearly the ineffectiveness of the costumed heroes of his world, as he spends immense amounts of funding to craft vehicles and specialized garments ready for missile warfare, sub-zero temperatures, radar invisibility, etc. to catch what he dismisses as "hookers" and "purse snatchers." But when he, Silk Spectre, and Rorschach (especially he and Rorschach) begin uncovering the mastermind behind recent events, all his inventions suddenly become integral to their pursuit.
Publication details
Editions
Originally published as twelve individual issues (with the last nearly a year after the others), Watchmen was later printed as a graphic novel (ISBN 0930289234).
A special hardcover edition was produced by Graphitti Designs in 1987, containing 48 pages of bonus material, including the original proposal and concept art. DC did not distribute the book in quantity as planned, but a small quantity were printed and can still be found for sale occasionally.
On 5 October 2005, DC released Absolute Watchmen (ISBN 1401207138), a hardcover edition of Watchmen to celebrate its upcoming 20th anniversary. The book features a slipcase as well as restored and recolored art by John Higgins at Wildstorm FX, under the direction of Dave Gibbons. The new book also includes the bonus material from the Graphitti edition, marking the first time this material has been widely available.
Related products
In 1987, Mayfair Games produced two adventure modules based on Watchmen for its DC Heroes role-playing game. These modules, entitled "Who Watches the Watchmen?" and "Taking out the Trash", included background information about the fictional Watchmen universe, approved by Alan Moore. His approval made these publications valuable to fans as the only outside source of supplemental information about the characters in the story (especially minor characters, such as the Minutemen and Moloch).
DC Comics also released a limited edition badge set featuring characters and images from the series as well as a replica smiley badge. This badge set was to cause friction between Moore and DC - DC claimed that they were a "promotional item" and not merchandising, and therefore DC did not have to pay Moore or Gibbons royalties on the sets.
A sequel of sorts was proposed with a Tales Of The Black Freighter mini series or one-shot as the most likely possiblities. Unfortunately, this never happened; Alan Moore fell out with DC Comics over censorship issues, and promptly stopped any potential new work he was planning to submit to DC Comics. This also put a halt to a proposed series of Watchmen action figures to be released by the company's DC Direct toy line, even though prototypes of some characters, notably Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre II, had already been created.
Parody
Watchmen (along with Crisis on Infinite Earths and other crossovers and "event" comics of the period) was parodied by Simpsons Comics' Radioactive Man series: Radioactive Man #679 (Sept 1994), entitled "Who Washes The Washmen's Infinite Secrets Of Legendary Crossover Knight Wars?" by Steve Vance.
Film Adaptation
A film adaptation has been under development for many years with the earliest attempt in 1989 with Terry Gilliam and Sam Hamm attached. The project was abandoned after trouble adapting the story.
In 2003 Paramount Pictures attempted to revive the novel with a highly acclaimed script written by David Hayter. Darren Aronofsky was attached to direct but dropped out and was replaced by Paul Greengrass. The film was scrapped in June 2005 because of budget concerns. The project was open for any studio to purchase.
In December 2005, the project found a home at Warner Bros. The studio's interest was piqued after audiences reacted positively to screenings of the adaptation of another of Alan Moore's properties, V for Vendetta (2006). Paul Greengrass and David Hayter have reportedly dropped out.
External links
- Watching the Detectives - Hypertext Annotations and Commentary from the University of Baltimore
- Watchmen - by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
- Links to Alan Moore Fansites
- Ralf Hildebrandt's Annotations
- Doug Atkinson's Annotations
- Toonopedia entry
- Spanish article about the comic, its authors and its repercussions
- Alan Moore Interview
Notes
- ^ "Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Watchmen". December 3.
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