SPOILER ALERT
I read The Watchmen for the first time over twenty years ago. I still have the graphic novel on my bookshelf - it's not in the best of shape, true, but it’s still readable. BTW: this post is not about bringing the love. Yes, The Watchmen is awesome. You will get no argument about that from me. I maybe probably definitely don’t know if I will see the movie.
The Watchmen is not my favorite work by Alan Moore. That would be his run on Swamp Thing, which I started reading my sophomore year in high school. Before that, I didn’t have a clue how good comics could be; I didn’t know that they could be art. But that’s another story.
I did not buy the individual issues of The Watchmen when they came out. Don’t remember why not. Best guess: I’ve never liked alternate universe stories, so I passed. I did buy the graphic novel. I was in college, then. It made an impression. Yes, it did: must have read that puppy twenty-five times.
I even showed it to people who didn’t read comics, like my college roommate. His reaction: wow, that’s depressing. I got mad at him, because I just adored The Watchmen. Totally. The ideas in this book were all BIG ideas. Thinking about it made my head hurt.
Nietzsche. The Ubermensch is in there – the lonely, despised genius who transcends morality. The Watchmen has four of them: Ozymandias, who saves the world; Rorschach, who destroys it; The Comedian, who laughs at it; and Dr. Manhattan, who sits back and watches.
I totally bought into The Watchmen’s worldview. You know: people are scum. To be honest: the idea of the Ubermensch and the whole ‘people are scum’ concept are linked. You can’t have one without the other. At the time I didn’t think about whether that kind of viewpoint was, you know, healthy.
Let me be clear: The Watchmen did not mess up my head, because my head was already messed up. What it did do was crystallize certain ideas I already had. A person who bought into this graphic novel’s message as deeply as I did is at least one of the following: a) sheltered, b) lonely, c) depressed, d) an English major; I was all of the above.
I paid for it. The four or five years after college were the worst years of my life. That wasn’t the Watchmen’s fault; it was my fault. It took me longer than you might think to realize that there are no Ubermensch, lonely or otherwise, and that people are just people: some good, some bad, most both good and bad. So that’s ok.
But prejudices remain: I am sick of hearing about how brilliant The Watchmen is. The only person more sick about hearing about The Watchmen than me is Alan Moore. Maybe that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Look at it this way: when you hear the same thing over and over again it gets annoying, doesn’t it? I’ve heard about how great The Watchmen is for the past twenty years. Yes, it’s great. Move on, why don’t you?
They didn’t stop making comics after The Watchmen, did they? Alan Moore didn’t stop writing; he wrote all sorts of things, some good (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), some not so good (From Hell). If you asked Alan Moore what work he’d want to be remembered for, his answer would be interesting.
The Watchmen is not my favorite work by Alan Moore. That would be his run on Swamp Thing, which I started reading my sophomore year in high school. Before that, I didn’t have a clue how good comics could be; I didn’t know that they could be art. But that’s another story.
I did not buy the individual issues of The Watchmen when they came out. Don’t remember why not. Best guess: I’ve never liked alternate universe stories, so I passed. I did buy the graphic novel. I was in college, then. It made an impression. Yes, it did: must have read that puppy twenty-five times.
I even showed it to people who didn’t read comics, like my college roommate. His reaction: wow, that’s depressing. I got mad at him, because I just adored The Watchmen. Totally. The ideas in this book were all BIG ideas. Thinking about it made my head hurt.
Nietzsche. The Ubermensch is in there – the lonely, despised genius who transcends morality. The Watchmen has four of them: Ozymandias, who saves the world; Rorschach, who destroys it; The Comedian, who laughs at it; and Dr. Manhattan, who sits back and watches.
I totally bought into The Watchmen’s worldview. You know: people are scum. To be honest: the idea of the Ubermensch and the whole ‘people are scum’ concept are linked. You can’t have one without the other. At the time I didn’t think about whether that kind of viewpoint was, you know, healthy.
Let me be clear: The Watchmen did not mess up my head, because my head was already messed up. What it did do was crystallize certain ideas I already had. A person who bought into this graphic novel’s message as deeply as I did is at least one of the following: a) sheltered, b) lonely, c) depressed, d) an English major; I was all of the above.
I paid for it. The four or five years after college were the worst years of my life. That wasn’t the Watchmen’s fault; it was my fault. It took me longer than you might think to realize that there are no Ubermensch, lonely or otherwise, and that people are just people: some good, some bad, most both good and bad. So that’s ok.
But prejudices remain: I am sick of hearing about how brilliant The Watchmen is. The only person more sick about hearing about The Watchmen than me is Alan Moore. Maybe that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Look at it this way: when you hear the same thing over and over again it gets annoying, doesn’t it? I’ve heard about how great The Watchmen is for the past twenty years. Yes, it’s great. Move on, why don’t you?
They didn’t stop making comics after The Watchmen, did they? Alan Moore didn’t stop writing; he wrote all sorts of things, some good (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), some not so good (From Hell). If you asked Alan Moore what work he’d want to be remembered for, his answer would be interesting.
I am not convinced that he would say The Watchmen.
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