Watchmen: the graphic novel

Watchmen

by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

Description

• 12 issue comic book series
• created by Alan Moore (writer) and Dave Gibbons (artist); colourist John Higgins
• published by DC comics 1986 - 1987
• stories were used to “reflect contemporary anxieties and to critique the superhero concept.” (Wikipedia, 2010)
• Watchmen depicts an alternate history where the superheros helped to win the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon is still in power
• story is told by traveling back and forth in time
• each chapter ends in a quote by a familiar personae

Main Characters




The Comedian - Edward Blake (1924-1985)

• it is Blake’s murder that sets the plot in motion
• a cigar smoking narcissistic son-of-a-bitch that appears to kill without emotion
• kills his pregnant mistress in Vietnam (p. 14 - 15)
• tries to rape Sally Jupiter when she turns his advances down (p. 6-7)

Doctor Manhattan - Jonathan "Jon" Osterman (1929- )

• pushed by his watch maker father to become a physicist, he studies quantum physics and goes to work for the government. While retrieving a watch from his lab coat pocket, he gets locked in the “Intrinsic Field Chamber" and is disintegrated. “Within a few months and after several attempts, his disembodied consciousness managed to reconstruct a physical body for itself, assisted in part (it is implied) by his childhood training in watch repair and a solid understanding of precision assembly and disassembly.” (Wikipedia, Characters, 2010)
• the States thinks Doctor Manhattan is their biggest asset
• due to his part, America won the Vietnam war, changing history forever
• works for the US government doing work on quantum physics
• most of the time is fully nude
• by moving particles of matter around, he is able to create and destroy anything

Nite Owl - Daniel Dreiberg (??)

• a boring older, retired superhero
• reminds you of Clark Kent
• lives alone, above his lair
• he is the second Nite Owl, inheriting the name and costume from Hollis Mason

Ozymandias - Adrian Viedt (1939 - )

• Veidt sees himself as Alexander the Great, following his footsteps and continuing his work
• inherited a fortune at 17 but gave it all away to prove that he could make something of himself on his own
• said to be the smartest man in the world
• spends his days running all of his businesses

Rorschach - Walter Joseph Kovacs (1940-1985)

• wears a white mask with black splotches over it that constantly change
• son of a prostitute, spent much of his life in a home for troubled youth
• sees himself as Rorschach rather than Walter Kovacs
• leads us through the story with his journal writings
• violent vigilante, killing criminals at will
• works with Nite Owl II to try and save the world from Veidt

Silk Spectre II - Laurie Juspeczyk (1949- )

• second Silk Spectre
• daughter of Sally Jupiter, first Silk Spectre
• ongoing relationship with Doctor Manhattan
• discovers halfway through book that Blake Edwards is her real father
  

Summary of Watchmen

• story told in a back and forth motion and through the memories of the main characters.
• begins with the death of The Comedian or Eddie Blake;1985 - Edward Blake, retired superhero and government agent, is found dead.
• it is at Blake’s funeral that we go back in time in each person’s memory and they tell their side of the story.
• depicts an alternate history where superheroes began showing up in the 40s and 60s.
• this changes history as we know it.
• United States used superheroes to win the Vietnam War.
• as the US moves closer to a nuclear war with Russia, vigilantes have been outlawed and most superheroes have retired (Keene Act, 1977) (p. 23, panel 1).
• as retired superheroes begin to show up dead, those left are concerned and are considering coming out of retirement.
• with the exception of Doctor Manhattan, these superheroes do not have any special powers (however, they do seem stronger than the average guy and Veidt can catch a bullet).
• two superheroes remain as government agents: Doctor Manhattan and The Comedian.
• once the Keene Act in in place, one outlaw remains - Rorschach. He leaves a note with a body on the steps of the police station saying “Never” (Chapter 4, p. 23, panel 6).
• vigilante, Rorschach feels that superheros are being killed off and begins his own investigation and lets other masked adventurers know what he thinks is going on.
• after Blake’s funeral, Doctor Manhattan is accused of causing cancer to those he comes in contact with. At the same time, Laurie leaves him and he decides to exile himself to Mars.
  with Doctor Manhattan out of the picture, the United States is seen as weak and Russia invades Afghanistan.
• at the same time, another retired superhero narrowly misses being assassinated (Veidt) and Rorschach gets framed for the murder of Moloch, “a former super-villain” and member of the Minutemen.
• with Doctor Manhattan gone, Juspeczyk, lover and companion of Doctor Manhattan, is now booted out of her government housing and finds company with Daniel Dreiberg, aka Nite Owl II.
• Juspeczyk and Dreiberg become close and they spend more time together.
• they begin to think there is some truth to a conspiracy to kill all the old superheroes and decide to don their old costumes and free Rorschach from prison.
• Doctor Manhattan teleports himself back to earth to bring Laurie to Mars with him to discuss why he should save the earth for her. It is only after she realizes that Edward Blake was her father, that he understands the importance of humanity and agrees to help her out.
• meanwhile, on Earth, “Nite Owl and Rorschach continue to uncover the conspiracy surrounding the death of The Comedian and the accusations that drove Doctor Manhattan into exile.” (Wikipedia, Watchmen, 2010) They discover that Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandia may be behind everything in an attempt to throw everyone off of his scent. Rorschach writes his thoughts in his journal and sends it off to a newspaper in case anything happens to him.
• Rorschach and Nite Owl make their way to Antarctica to confront Veidt. Veidt confesses that in an attempt to save the world from a nuclear war, he has designed an attack by “aliens” on New York City to force the warring nations to band together against this attack. Rorschach and Nite Owl try to convince Veidt to stop, but it is too late, he has already enacted his plan.
• when Juspeczyk and Doctor Manhattan return to earth, the alien attack has taken place and many are dead and dying. Doctor Manhattan, sensing where the emmissions are coming from, teleports himelf and Laurie to Antarctica and Veidt’s fortress.
  Once there, they confront Veidt and he shows them that his plan has worked; he wanted to save the world from a nuclear world and now hostilities between the countries are coming to an end.
• to keep Rorschach from telling the world what has happened, Doctor Manhattan must kill him.
• Juspeczyk and Dreiberg release some of their built up tension and Doctor Manhattan takes himself back to Mars.
• Back in New York, the paper where Rorschach sent his journal is still standing and the boy who works there is reaching for a filler for the paper and his hand hovers over Rorschach’s journal.
• as this story takes place, there is another story within this story: The Tale of the Black Freighter. We do not find out the name of this character until the very end, but a young man comes and reads a comic at the newspaper stand each week and this tale is told alongside the main story.
• voice bubbles are in different colours: yellow for Rorschach's journal comments, blue for Doctor Manhattan, sandy brown for The Tale of the Black Freighter and white for everyone else.
  

Art and Composition

• Watchmen designed to be read four or five times
• will pick up something new or different with each reading
• was designed to stand out as a comic book and be recognized for its individualistic traits. “Gibbons said he deliberately constructed the visual look of Watchmen so that each page would be identifiable as part of that particular series and "not some other comic book". He made a concerted effort to draw the characters in a manner different than that commonly seen in comics” (Wikipedia, Watchmen, 2010)
• panel layout deviated from the norm for that time period
• nine-panel grid system
  

References

Annotated Watchmen. (1999). Character Guide. Retrieved from http://www.capnwacky.com/rj/watchmen/characters.html

Moore, A. (1986). Watchmen. New York, NY: DC Comics.

Wikipedia. (2010). Character of Watchmen. Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characters_of_Watchmen

Wikipedia. (2010). Watchmen. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen

Other References

Cover photo taken from http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/watchmen.jpg

Photo of main characters taken from http://www.bigshinyrobot.com/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/watchmen-new-cover.jpg