Alan Moore's opus

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

We need to take a minute to talk about Watchmen...

We're about a year away from the release of the Watchmen film, and I have a feeling that some of you out there aren't down with the story, so I'm here to provide something of a primer.

I'll try to avoid presenting anything in the realm of spoiler, but if I do, know that I have absolutely no inside information regarding the film itself. I've read, coveted, and now owned the collected series on which the film is to be based, and it's on that graphic novel (read: comic book) that I'll be providing commentary - with just a few thoughts on the film at the end of the post.

I've posted regarding my trepedation about the movie adaptation of Watchmen before, and it's my hope that by the end of this post, you understand enough about the original work that you can share in some of my trepedation (and excitement, too, I'll admit it) and you might even have an inkling to head over to la local biblioteca. In both of those endeavours, wish me luck.

First off, Watchmen is an outstanding book.

To call it a comic book or even a graphic novel is to sell it drastically short and to mark it as something that numerous people will dismiss out of hand. Yes, this is a tale of and about people who spend much of the book in various costumes, but it is a tale of people simply trying to make the best out of their dramatically flawed world, one that occupies a mysterious and tenuous position halfway between a Smallville-Metropolis-Gotham world and our very own.

It is a world where the Cold War is still very much in control of international relations, and the United States' position of power is due not to a willingness to outspend out rivals but because one of our scientists had an accident that turned him into the world's first true superhero, Dr. Manhattan, one who could unbuild and rebuild the entire planet with the blink of an eye but who is reluctant to change the path of time as he can see events already taking place in his future.

The world of the Watchmen is one in which the United States left Vietnam a conquering, heroic nation and where Richard Nixon has remained in the White House into the early 1980's by repealing the 22nd ammendment, where the cowboy actor RR mentioned for a possible run at Nixon is Robert Redford, not Ronald Raygun.

Their world first saw "costumed adventurers" appear in the 1940's as non-powered men and women who took up crime fighting nominally because they wanted to make the world a better place - though many of their motives are questioned throughout the course of the tale - as are the motives of the costumes villians that they initially found themselves facing until the heroes were eventually outlawed in 1977.

Theirs is a world on the absolute brink of utter destruction as the Russians have launched a full invasion of Afghanistan, putting the entire world at risk of destruction as Dr. Manhattan, whose position in the United States' strategic defense plan is found suddenly vacant.

It is this world that Moore crafted to allow him to explore such disparate subjects as the motivation of superheroes and villians, the effects of a mututally assured destruction policy to national defense, the reaction of normal people to the sight of masked vigilantes both powered and not in their midsts, the religions built up around a man who can unmake creation with not even the wave of a hand, the value of human life to such a being, the folly of punching out a gangster when the core of society is rotting from the inside, and the actions of a select few who find themselves eventually placed in a position where they must keep quiet in order to maintain the sanctity of peace for the world - as well as the effects of one who chooses truth over peace.

The tale is told in twelve issues, now collected into a single volume. Throughout the issues, Moore and Dave Gibbons - a perfect visual foil to Moore's tale - include numerous pieces that most people wouldn't remotely consider to be comic book in nature: exerpts from the memoirs of one of he retired heroes, business plans for action figures of the masked adventurers, an article abou "The Black Freigher" (a comic within the comic used as a framing device). These pieces round out the world and provide a much richer experience, allowing he characters to speak directly to the readers without breaking he fourth wall.

In addition to the addition of the false documents, Gibbons and Moore tried some pretty radical artistic decisions. In issue five - "Fearful Symmetry", for example, the entire issue focuses on the symmetry between two of the characters and has a recurring motif of symmetric images - skull an crossbones, RR logo, Rorschach images - and is, in fact, an entirely symmetrical issues with the first panel on page one being a mirror image of the last panel on the final page and many of the panels between lining up with each other. It is in visual statements such as this that take Watchmen above and beyond the realm of a novel and make the medium every bit as important as the message. Entire papers could - and have been written on the visual symbolism of Watchmen. This story simply could not be told - and if so, would not be nearly the magnum opus that it is - in any way other than in the comic book format.

And in the end, Watchmen is an exploration of so much more than superheroes. Moore and Gibbons crafted an outstanding exploration of the human condition in all of its subtle nuances, why we choose to step beyond our limitations, what happens when those limitations are brought back upon us, and what possible effect one man - or even a group of men and women - could possibly have on the entire chaotic world.

I have read Watchmen a half dozen times and am constantly amazed at how many nuances, references, and issues I have missed on each of those readings. I will be reading Watchmen dozens of times in the coming years, and I have no doubt that I will find new things on every one of those readings.

This is truly the greatest work of the greatest comic book writer. And even writing that line - with its limitations - sells the work short.

This is a great work.

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If you're interested, here are some of the sources that I consulted and recommend for further reading about Watchmen:

• Ponderings on the Watchmen film from Transbuddha...
• One of many page-by-page, panel-by-panel annotations of Watchmen...
• Wikipedia's Watchmen entry...
• Ponderings on the translation from page to screen - as well as to the possible audience for a Watchmen film...
• Another annotation collection...
• A list of Watchmen links...
• A fan site about the movie adaptation of Watchmen...
• Sequart's entry on Watchmen...including this quote...

  Watchmen is probably the best American graphic novel ever. Its greatest flaw in the eyes of many is its genre, that of super-heroes, but it radically transcends this genre, offering a tale of astounding structural complexity. Its influence on American graphic storytelling was immense and continues to be felt today.

• Time's entry naming Watchmen one of the 100 greatest English novels
• Entertainment Weekly's article about Moore and Watchmen...

I close with the freak master himself discussing his greatest work...