Review - Watchmen

Title: Watchmen
Author: Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

As with V for Vendetta, I have seen and enjoyed the movie version of Watchmen, but I had not read the graphic novel. And, as with V, Sherry gave me the original version for Christmas. I just finished reading it, so here is my review.

Synopsis:

"In a version of the U.S. not very different from ours, it is 1985, and a few costumed heroes, once a welcome distraction, are shocked by the death of the Comedian. Convinced there is a hero killer, the ruthless, uncompromising Rorschach begins investigating. As the plot darkens, so does the future of the world. In this future, the Soviet Union and the U.S. are still in a tense Cold War, and the countdown to a nuclear World War has begun."

Watchmen, the graphic novel, is not for the squeamish. Though it is brightly colored, with even more shades than most comic books, there is very little brightness in the world. From the opening pages, we feel the nihilistic resolve of Rorschach to solve the mystery, and fight evil, no matter what.

I was amazed, quite frankly, at how much the primary story from the movie was drawn so directly from the book. There is a very important plot difference near the end, and some notable but thematically non-disruptive consolidations in the film, but the core is very carefully maintained, down to much of the dialog and quite a lot of the key imagery.

Yet, there is a framework to the graphic novel which was not translated to the screen. There are documents from the lives of the heroes inserted between chapters that give a depth to the world that does not come through in the movie. And, interspersed into the main "hero" story are some important parallel stories. A newsstand vendor tries to engage his customers in conversation as the world gets closer and closer to nuclear destruction, all the while working out what his own reaction to the situation and the people should be. One of his patrons sits and reads a very disturbing comic, which we also read with him as the book progresses. A niche newspaper publishes stories that are a mix of ultra-conservatism and conspiracy theory and the truth. All of these make important points as the story draws to its unusual conclusion.

Watchmen was named one of Time Magazine's 100 Best Novels from 1923 to the present (2005 at the time.) I can appreciate the reason. This is not a typical comic book, in any sense - though comics have changed since the watershed publishing of this novel. Like many "literary" works, I am quite sure that there are large portions of the population who would not like it, because it does not follow the expected form of the "good always wins" media we consume in great quantities. Watchmen challenges our notions of good & evil, ends justifying means, the motives behind heroics, and how society would react if there truly were a super-man. And, much as V for Vendetta did, it does not tell us what the answers should be. It asks us to make up our own minds.

Though it will be a while before I would re-read Watchmen, that merely indicates that I don't know when I will be able to put myself through the challenging, disturbing emotional and visual journey again. I am quite glad I did it once, though. And from what I've heard about some of the books that are selected for Oprah's Book Club, and "literary" awards, I don't think that's an uncommon reaction to good fiction that deals honestly with tough subjects.