Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons' Watchmen - Page 3

I'm not sure about the first, but superhero comics--and the American Romance tradition they belong to--give our imaginations access to the problem. I'd say "yes" to the second, with the proviso that you're going to have to accept that you'll never get a perfect fix on it--and by "accepting", I don't mean "stop trying", I mean "stop hoping"... As you say--I guess we're just interested in different things.

So, why do people love Watchmen? It can't be for the plot--superhero tries to take over the Earth for its' own good? "Can't make an omelette without..." The Vision had preceded Veidt into this Utopian breach two years earlier, and the Squadron Supreme were pursuing a similar objective on another version of the planet at the very same time. Granted, by using a big fake exploding Vedic alien as his cat's paw, Veidt proves that he is more devious than these others--but, really, strutting around in that purple robe, serving up poisoned bubbly to his expendable henchmen, exulting over his triumph as the snow buries his hydroponic Eden, Ozymandias certainly doesn't seem like any less of a megalomaniac than your standard "everybody wants to rule the world" character... So the line between villain and hero is pretty much nonexistant, once you start thinking that you know best? No kidding. And so what?

But it's a great series.

Why?


As far as I'm concerned--it's got everything to do with the atmosphere. Unity of effect (even if it's an effect I don't look kindly upon). That kind of stuff. (Which means that Gibbons deserves at least as much of the credit as Moore does.) The visuals, the dialogue, the voiceover media & diary commentary--it's unrelentingly grim. Even the pleasures these characters manage to snatch from the void are solemn. This isn't just a work that was shaped by cold war paranoia and fears of "The End"--it's a work that craves a punchline, wants to knock 'em dead. In the world of Watchmen, nihilism is the watchword. Or is it? At the very least, I think we can say that any ideas of order that the book presents us with are quite explicitly man-made--they have no correlation to anything outside of the minds of the characters who espouse them. We are told again and again that the Comedian is a nihilist, but how different is he from anyone else we meet? Except that he happens to be a hedonist, of sorts--and a mean one... What the hell is so funny about the Comedian anyway? "Smartest man on the cinder"? Come on! But maybe that's the point. Maybe the joke's on Blake. The Comedian isn't a nihilist. He doesn't "believe in nothing". He suspects that there's nothing to believe in, and these suspicions make him bitter. Again and again, Blake tips his hand--in attempting to play the role of "the perfect comedian", he only makes a perfect ass of himself. He blows up every single time he appears--and this is very good characterization, as far as I'm concerned: like every person I've ever met who poses as a nihilist--the Comedian can't take a joke...

Article Author: David Fiore

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