So crowded with these miracles that they become commonplace...

Watchmen by Alan Moore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Watchmen made me want to scrub my mind with bleach, to throw the book across a room, and to flip back to the beginning and read the whole thing over again. Massive yet succinct, the story is woven into a meticulously-imagined, self-contained parallel universe that I became immersed in almost effortlessly. The little details that make the world so believable - newspaper clippings, tattered signs, overheard conversations - also form hints about characters' hidden thoughts and activities. Many of these hints turn out to be pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that I could half-solve on my own, but whose ultimate conclusion I couldn't anticipate. Every word and penstroke counts, and even the few things that I thought were superfluous flourishes turned out to be pivotal.

Watchmen takes themes of superhero-ness that are familiar even to those of us who aren't comic book aficionados - the costume, the hidden identity, the violent exaction of justice - and explores their practical, psychological, and political consequences. What kind of person wants to punish wrongdoing so ardently? How does it feel to have a superhero for a parent? Why would someone with superpowers even care about the rest of humanity? The answers to these questions are difficult, as seen in the spectrum of attitudes taken by the book's leading characters, and in the shifting backdrops of public opinion.

The core of the story is that someone is out to destroy superheroes. In a world where they hold the balance of the Cold War, their elimination could have disastrous consequences. Following the murder of The Comedian, the remaining superheroes Rorschach, Silk Spectre II, Nite Owl, and Dr. Manhattan are forced to grapple with mysterious developments that throw their positions in the world (and the world itself) into jeopardy. Along the way, we learn about their histories and become acquainted with their varied perceptions of morality. I think it's worth pointing out that even the "minor" characters are presented as complex, significant individuals, and in many ways they are the people that the story is really about. Sometimes, it takes a careful look to appreciate the interconnections between them. The story is dark and bloody and shocking, which make its touching moments stand out even more.

But, it's not without its faults. My biggest criticism is that the female characters seem defined mostly in terms of their ties to the male characters. (Although, I give the book credit for capturing, and often critiquing, the double standards of a sexist society, especially when it comes to treatment of women in the public eye.) This book also didn't make my jaw drop quite the same way that V for Vendetta did. However, Watchmen is free of the convoluted sideplots that encumbered VFV, so my enjoyment of the two books was almost the same.

All in all: an extremely well-constructed story of characters who are horribly flawed, and perfectly fascinating.

[Read for the Read Harder Challenge: a graphic novel.]

View all my reviews