loonyblog.

In preparing to sell off large portions of my comic book collection, I naturally had to go through and pick out the good stuff…that is, all the stuff I wanted to actually keep. While I am selling off about 95% of my collection, I’m keeping a nice collection of trades and graphic novels that I can’t imagine parting with. This includes my beloved complete run of Taboo, my signed & numbered hardcover collection of Dave McKean’s Cages, my nearly complete set of Cerebus phone books (they go up to “Going Home”), the complete Transmetropolitan and so on. And of course, this also includes most of the works of Alan Moore.

In pulling all of this stuff out, I got a bit nostalgic, so I recently re-read some of my favorite comics of all-time: V for Vendetta, The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. V and Dark Knight each require their own entry (which I intend to do eventually), but today I’m going to talk about Watchmen, a book that has only gotten better with age. I’m going to specifically talk in-depth about the ending and how it reads post-9/11, so if you’ve never read it, don’t click below. But if you have, read on for my thoughts on re-reading this classic of graphic literature.

Watchmen turned eighteen this year (my god, it’s legal!), and it seems like now would be a good time to reflect on the book and how it has aged. As an interpretation of superheroics, the book remains a worthwhile excercise, although it’s interesting to note that the whole concept of “realistic” superheroes has been done by seemingly everyone and their brother at this point. That’s not to say it’s not brilliant on this level, but everything from the Spider-Man movies to the monthly Batman and X-Men books does this so regularly that it’s lost some of its impact. The idea that a hero could simultaneously be a psychopath (see Rorschach) is definitely old hat these days, in an age when such anti-heroes can be found on any newsstand. One thing that Watchmen does really well that you don’t hear all that often anymore is talk about the absurdity of the costumes those people are forced to wear. They’re not only absurd, they’re impractical, and at least Watchmen embraces that.

When I first read Watchmen, I was pretty young. I was only ten when the series first came out, and I didn’t quite understand most of it. I did however recognize pretty quickly the waves it caused within the industry. That and Frank Miller’s Batman works (Dark Knight Returns and the oft-forgotten Year One) shook things up in a big way, something that cannot be understated. It wasn’t until I was 12 that I re-read Watchmen and truly started to grasp the larger concepts at work here. Having said that, there were still some parts that have become clearer with each re-reading, and in this latest read-through, one thing that stood out to me was the political aspect of the story, something that was completely over my head when I read it in my adolescent years.

The notion of a president who repeals term limits and stays in office for a decade isn’t new — it’s been done many, many times (Frank Miller did it with Dark Knight, only instead of Nixon he chose a more recent villian in Ronald Regan). I didn’t catch the references to G. Gordon Liddy as Nixon’s secretary of state until now, and that amused me to no end. Not because it’s implausible, mind you, but because when you consider that in this timeline the Watergate break-in was successful (or at the very least, undetected), it’s possible to read this as Liddy’s reward for a job well done. I also liked the off-hand reference to Woodward and Bernstein, who apparently turned up dead in their failed Watergate investigation. The fact that they’re said to have turned up in a garage suggests that rather than be tipped off by Deep Throat, they were in fact killed by their mysterious informant, who may or may not have been the Comedian.

What is most interesting to read in a post-9/11 world, however, is the ending. Personally, I never actually liked the ending. I found it implausible, and more than a bit frustrating. Post-9/11, I still think it’s a bit implausible, but for a completely different reason. To refresh your memory, Watchmen ends with Veidt teleporting a genetically-engineered monster into New York City, where it broadcasts a psychic wave, killing, or making insane, at least half the city. This tragedy brings the world together, and puts an end to the previously imminent nuclear war with a still strong Russia.

Previously, I found this to be implausible because I doubted the world would rally behind the United States in the event of a tragedy, even one of this magnitude. I still believe it to be implausible, but not for that reason. We saw in the wake of 9/11 how the world could rally together after such a tragedy. What I never could have predicted however, is how quickly that could all fall to pieces. While we’ll never know how Nixon would have reacted to 9/11, we saw how Bush reacted to 9/11, and I see no reason why this mysterious attack from beyond would have been looked at any differently.

Were Bush president during the “attack” at the end of Watchmen, he would have immediately asked the world to go shopping, to show these horrible alien invaders that they could destroy our cities, but our spirit (and economy) would stay strong. He would then begin the task of looking for alien invaders, wherever they might be, regardless of which dimension they might be in. That would mean that any groups exhibiting extra-normal abilities would immediately be suspect, and as such, they would have to be rounded up and catalogued immediately.

I’m sort of joking, of course. Seriously, I think the reaction would be a little different. Rather than provoke the kind of widespread good will that everyone in Watchmen (including, incredibly Jon/Dr. Manhattan) seems to immediately accept as being the result, I think 9/11 has shown that there would be a great deal of anger instead. And that anger, I believe, would eventually lead back to Veidt. Which would probably result in his public trial and execution, after which, the world would go back to normal. And that includes the tensions in the middle east with Russia. That’s hardly a satisfactory ending, but I do believe that would be the result. I am a bit curious to know Alan Moore’s thoughts on the subject.

Just after I finished reading Watchmen over the weekend, it was announced that the long-in-production movie had found a director. David Hayter, the screenwriter on the X-Men films and the voice of Solid Snake, wrote a screenplay that the studio apparently loves. Still, the idea of a two hour (or less) adaptation of a twelve part comic, particularly one as tightly plotted as this one, does sound a little like blasphemy. The ending was apparently changed slightly (a potentially major spoiler is available here, but I still can’t see it being filmed (assuming that rumor’s true).

In any event, Watchmen is still every bit as brilliant as it was when it was first published. It may not have the same impact as it did back then, but it is still a rare achievement for the medium. If you’ve never read it, you really owe it to yourself to do so. If it’s been a few years, go back and re-read it. You’ll be amazed how much you may have missed (be sure to check the Annotated Watchmen for even more good stuff you may have missed).