Who's Killing The SuperHeroes In Nixon's 1985 America?

I'm a confirmed DC Comics man. While that means nothing to most of you, hopefully, let me explain: There are two major comics companies out there: DC Comics, whose stable of characters includes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, The Justice League etc... And Marvel, whose characters include Spider-Man, Hulk, X-Men, Fantastic Four. While I generally enjoy the latter characters, I don't really follow their lives, don't know as much about them as I do my SuperFriends. THAT'S what early brainwashing will get you, folks!

So whenever something comes along in comics that I fall in love with that's OUTSIDE of DC Comics' main characters, I know that it's very good. In the mid-80's, there was sort of a comics revolution that brought not only the "dark and gritty" feel to comics, but also a proliferation of "what-if" stories and stories that tweaked the traditional look at comic book heroes. Some of the best of these include The Dark Knight Returns (a must-read for anyone who knows that the guy with the pointy ears is Batman), Squadron Supreme (a sort of alternate Justice League tale without using any of the actual Justice League characters), and WATCHMEN.

"Watchmen," written by master Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons, is a masterpiece. There's nothing else to say. Of course, I'm gonna...but remember that. If I were teaching a comics-as-literature class (and I really think there should be...it's a form of literature that's been around for 70 years, and is continually ignored by "legitimate" scholars), this would be one of the main texts. It's the most complicated story, the best mystery, the most dramatic, the most hopeless, the most bleak....and yet the most inspiring, the most awe-inducing, the most romantic...of any of the "comic books" in my collection. Which is a strong statement.

It's impossible for me to give an adequate summary of my feelings toward this book, but let me give you a brief overview of some of the characters and situations:

Who are the Watchmen? At their most basic, they're sort of a combination of the classic cheesy 1940's superheroes and the more socially aware 1970's superheroes. So they're an embodiment, in DC Comics terms, of both the Justice Society of America, which fought World War II alongside the allies, and the Justice League of America, which was the highlight of the Silver Age of comics. The Watchmen were first formed back in the forties, and then regrouped in the sixties to fight evil...but by the 1970's, they had fallen out of favor with the government and the people, and costumed superheroes, or "Masks," were eventually banned by an act of Congress and President Nixon, who in this world has been re-elected through the 1980's, having overturned the law saying he couldn't.

What heroes are members of the Watchmen?

Comedian--the Comedian was the youngest member of the 1940's group, and is one of the few to be a member of both the earlier and the later organization. He's unstable, extremely right-wing, and eventually becomes a government operative in Vietnam. He's also the man responsible for covering up Watergate in this world, and ensuring President Nixon's continual leadership. The Comedian is murdered in the first pages of the book, and the mystery surrounding his and subsequent deaths is one of three or four stories that propel the book forward.

Nite-Owl--The Nite-Owl, Dan Driberg, is basically Adam West's Batman, but based on an Owl instead of a bat. He's got an Owlship, an Owlcave, he's independently wealthy, has access to amazing technology....and he dresses up like an Owl, which is really unintentionally amusing. He became Nite-Owl in the 60's, after the original Nite-Owl retired. He's very innocent, very idealistic, and we want to protect him as much as he wants to protect The World.

Silk Spectre--Janey Slater is another second generation hero--she took up the role her own mother vacated in the 1960's. She doesn't have any super powers or gadgets, but does have martial arts skills that'll usually bring the bad guys down. She's loosely based on Black Canary in the DC Comics world, and she and her mother are both major players in the story--although they're used mainly as love interests for the boys, they're strong characters in their own right, and are key elements that couldn't be dropped from the script.

Ozymandias--Adrian Veidt is the World's Smartest Man. He's also the World's Richest Man. Ozymandias was only a Watchman for a short time before he realized that intelligence and costumed superheroing weren't going to Save The World; so he decided to retire from superheroing entirely. He still keeps in touch with the other heroes, but has decided to focus on his corporation instead of justice.

Rorschach--one of the most interesting and disturbing characters in the book, Rorschach is very violent, and very one-minded in his pursuit of justice. You could compare him to the post-1986 version of Batman that's grown up. Few words, extreme dedication/obsession--Rorschach is the one investigating the murder of the Comedian and others. He's got a cloth mask that is white with black "ink" that continually flows and changes, making parallel "Rorschach Ink-Blot" patterns, obscuring his face, but making a very interesting character visually.

Dr. Manhattan--the most powerful of all the heroes, he's the only one that really has "super" powers. He was trapped in a nuclear device decades ago, and thought dead--when he resurfaced, he was blue. And powerful. Dr. Manhattan can teleport, moves through time and space at will, can rearrange molecules, can...well, I'm pretty sure he can do anything. The only thing keeping him grounded is his relationship with Janey Slater--and if that goes belly-up, it's gonna hit the fan.
There are other characters as well, but these six combine in a variety of ways to tell the Ultimate Justice League Story...without ever using the Justice League. The major plot lines are the mystery of the Comedian's death, the relationships between Janey, Dan, and Manhattan, and the escalation of the Cold War. After all, the Americans have Dr. Manhattan---don't they? If the only thing keeping peace is an ultimate weapon...and he suddenly decides to leave...what would the Russians do?

All of these threads would be impossibly burdensome with any other writer, but Moore crafts a beautiful story, and in true serial form, has a variety of writing styles that, instead of being gimmicky, make the book entirely unique. Three examples:

1) There's a chapter, focusing on Rorschach, that is entirely....Rorschachian. Meaning, if you were able to undo the binding on the book, and lay out the story from beginning to end, the panels and the story would be a mirror image of themselves. That he does that not only with facing pages, but with the ENTIRE chapter is a stroke of genius--that he does it with the chapter ABOUT Rorschach pushes it over the top. Brilliant.

2) As the inevitable Armageddon approaches, we see two worlds unraveling: our own, and a world in a Pirate comic that a little boy is reading. The first time I read this, I didn't what the !!@#$!@#$ was going on, but the Pirate comic and the events of the Real World dovetail perfectly--and the horror in the comics becomes secondary to the horrors of our Real World. Moore is saying so many things here that it boggles my weak mind--best not to get started. Read it yerself.

3) Between the traditional comic book chapters are selections of prose--ranging from newspaper articles to Congressional reports to biography excerpts to memos from Adrian Veidt's corporation. They add so much depth, so much "reality" to the world Moore created, that it's like having the appendix or footnotes for this series built right into the story itself. Far from obtrusive, it rounds out the book.

There are many other examples of what makes this a fine book, one of the best of it's kind. I don't want to go into them here. If you've EVER been a fan of heroes, in any media, I'd suggest giving this a try. One of the benefits of being in a Brand New Universe (i.e. not in the Justice League's Hometown) is that anyone who reads it, even me, comic book geek that I am, is starting from square one. I don't know all of their histories either--there aren't any other "Watchmen" books out there besides this one. Moore CREATES the decades of backstories that give the continuity to all of those other long-running books (and sometimes really screw them up).

This book honestly made me laugh, cry, and THINK. If we can't be heroes, who are we? What will we let our world become--a succession of Jerry Springer talk shows? Or even Oprah? There's more to us than this, and this is what "Watchmen" finds and celebrates. If you have a library near you, check it out. If you have a bookstore near you with comfortable chairs, take advantage of them. It's a brilliant work that elevates "comic books" to literature.