Watchmen

I recently finished reading the Watchmen graphic novel. It was very different than I expected. It is deeply psychological. I can see why it is celebrated in the comic world. The writing is suberb and the way all the different chapters fit together is amazing. What surprised me the most was the time period. It is written in the Cold War era in a parallel to what actually transpired. The "superheros" are not like other comics. They are more like Batman with no actual superpowers, just costumes which they don to fight crime. The story seems secondary to the commentary that Alan Moore is writing about the human race. Each chapter is divided by fictional documents that connect with the plot and give some details and backstory. There is also a story within the story as one character reads a comic called Tales of the Black Freighter. This tale is weaved into the novel seemlessly in a very impressing way. The whole novel is illustrated by Dave Gibbons and colored by John Higgins. Both men do a fantastic job making the story come alive. Their use of panes without text is amazing. Moore started with wanting to look at superheros in the real world and ended up looking at power and the superhero complex in the process. This theme mixed with the Cold War era setting gives Watchmen a tangible sense of unease and anxiety. Moore uses repeated symbols which "become laden with meaning" as tribute to his main inspiration for Watchmen, William S. Burroughs. Watchmen's overall message is that believing in heros is inherently dangerous because by trusting them we lose our own power. Hitler was a hero to the German people because he made the trains run and put bread on the table. The German people gave him all the power and believed in him, and when he started taking of the world and committing genocide it was too late. This idea is what Watchmen is all about. He wrote it in response to the times he lived in. The Soviet shadow was dark over America and the fear was real. America looked for someone, a hero, to protect America. Moore wrote his novel in response to this attitude. He is on record as saying he wanted to write an anti-hero story and not an anti-American or anti government story. This is why he chose to write an alternate history plot. I respect this move a lot. He didn't bash the current leaders or heros of America but said his piece just the same. Watchmen is definitely worth a read before seeing the movie, because I do not understand how they can capture a story like that on film.