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Watchmen

Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Billy Crudup, Jackie Earle Haley

“Please! Don't all leave... Somebody has to do it, don't you see? Somebody has to save the world...” – Captain Metropolis, Watchmen

             It has been called the Citizen Kane of superheroes, the Moby Dick of comic books, and has been argued by experts in the field as possibly being the greatest graphic novel ever written. Penned in 1986 by the legendary Alan Moore (Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta, Supreme), it was one of the seminal works that moved comic books from children’s stories to tales that adults could enjoy. He turned capes and cowls comics into literature. It is the only comic book to ever win the prestigious Hugo Award for excellence in science fiction. (The rules were changed the next year to make sure a comic book never won the award again.) It is the final word on super heroes. It is Watchmen. It might be the greatest comic book ever written, and 99.9 percent of you have never read it. As Moore did repeatedly throughout his career, Moore took long forgotten, goofy superheroes, dusted them off, and turned them into gold. This long hair, bearded wonder grew up reading comics from the Charlton Comic Book Company, a publisher who for almost fifty years turned out some of the poorest written comic books ever. In 1983, they sold the intellectual rights for their superhero characters to DC Comics. Moore then went to DC executives with a revolutionary story involving the heroes of his childhood. The only problem is that the publisher believed that Moore’s story would screw up these characters so badly that they would never be able to be used again. Not wanting to blow their whole wad on a story that might not sell because it was so different than traditional capes and cowls fare, DC got Moore to make some minor changes in appearance and to give them new monikers. Charlton mainstays like Peacemaker, the Question, The Blue Beetle, Thunderbolt, Nightshade, and Captain Atom became Comedian, Rorschach, Nite Owl, Ozymandias, Silk Spectre, and Dr. Manhattan. On September 1986, the presses rolled with the first issues of a yearlong mini-series that changed comics forever, Watchmen.  

            The title comes from a line written by the Roman poet Juvenal, “Quis custodiet ipsos custods?” or in English, “Who watches the watchman?”  What Juvenal meant is that, in the perfect city as envisioned by Socrates, a class of people called the guardians were to be in charge of protecting the people, but such a position is ripe with the possibility of abuse. With no one to keep them in check, they could run wild. Plato’s answer that they will guard themselves against themselves because they will buy into the “noble lie.”  What is such a lie? That they are better than those they protect and, in turn, it is their job to protect them, who also cannot protect themselves.  Power is to be used nobly and not for its own sake. They will do what is right, not out of their desires, but because it is the right thing to do. In superheroes’ terms, we know that superheroes protect ordinary people from villains, but who protects us from them? They must be told a ‘noble lie.” Some critics also contend that the title and story are also a call to action for ordinary citizens from whom the government is almost like a superhero, that there is an underlying message “that as citizens, they should also be watching the watchmen of their world.” Others maintain that the title refers to the line from Albert Einstein, "The release of atomic power has changed everything....If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.”  Pretty heady stuff for a medium that is known for “boom,” “pow,” and “bang.”

             How did Moore change comics? He took these greater than life individuals and brought them into the real world. Think about it. For example, if Superman really existed, would his morality be ours? What kind of impact would individuals with super powers really have on the planet? Wouldn’t they want to interfere with geopolitical issues? For example, how long would Vietnam or World War II have lasted if Superman went over there to kick some butt? How would US victories in these countries have changed history? How would governments and corporations react to them interfering, often against the institutions best interest, for the betterment of humanity? For example, if a Superman like character disagreed with our invasion of Iraq, or in the 1950s with the Jim Crow South, how would the American public react? Would they regard us as equals or as an inferior creation like a pet dog? They would change the very face of our planet. Watchmen is so epic in scale and concepts that even great directors like Terry Gilliam have claimed that a Watchmen movie would be impossible, that it was too dark, too complex, and too smart for mass audiences. Still, Hollywood has wanted to make this film for almost two decades now.

             When it comes to film adaptations of his graphic novels, Alan Moore has been like a cranky old man shaking his fist at the neighbor kids.  The comics wizard is one of those people who believe in doing art for art’s sake and is greatly pained when Hollywood tarnishes something he created, and it is Moore’s depth and complexity that make it so difficult for Tinseltown to tell a Moore tale the way he would want.  Still, the movie makers wanted to include the creator in the process, even asking him to write the original screenplay backed in 1986, which he declined.  Over the years, Gilliam’s belief that Moore’s vision was so epic that it could never be made looked like it was true.  Directors, producers, actors, and screenwriters came and went.  It even changed studio hands, going from 20^th Century Fox to Warner Brothers. Yet, it was director Zack Snyder whose success with another comic book property that seemed unfilmable, Frank Miller’s 300, who finally had the muscle to get it made.

             Much like his previous film, Snyder had tried to remain as close to the source material as possible but felt that he needed to update some of the political events from the Nixon to the Reagan era while trying to maintain the ethos and look of the graphic novel.  Moore’s reaction? He asked that his name be removed from the opening credits and expressed concern over the choice of director even though he had not seen Snyder’s previous work, but had heard that 300 was homophobic, racist, and “sublimely stupid” (Hum… that was the comic book.)  And it is a shame because much like V for Vendetta, Snyder has captured the ethos of Moore’s graphic novel.

             On one level, Watchmen is a murder mystery. Who killed retired New Yorker, Edward Blake (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who at one point in his life was the Comedian, a costumed superhero who accepted governmental patronage.  But who could possibly overpower a superhero?  Yet, Walter Kovacs, the gumshoe superhero Rorschach, is on the case and he is starting to believe that someone is killing his costumed cohorts.  Is there a wider conspiracy going on?  More importantly, is there room on this planet for superheroes?  Who watches Watchmen? I will and hope you will too or at least take the time to read the graphic novel.

 Verdict: Home Run