Week 13: Watchmen


On this reread of Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, I forgot how much Rorschach was against communism. The beginning monologue reminds me of a modern-day right-winger on Twitter who thinks he’s being cool and edgy when he’s really just being annoying. I still love Rorschach as a character and his purpose in the narrative, but I just had it in my mind from my last reading a few years ago that we might see eye to eye. I don’t know, rose-colored glasses I guess. Also, Rorschach is not as ugly as people in the comic say he is; maybe he’s not conventionally attractive but he’s not that hard to look at.
One thing that I’ve always loved about the Watchmen graphic novel is how colorful it is and unfortunately, none of the adaptations have brought that stylization to them. Zack Snyder’s film is mainly dark blue throughout mainly because it’s a serious story and visually dark films are expected for tonally dark stories, but I think a skilled director could work within the color pallet of the graphic novel. I doubt there are many people that would say the color choices in the book negatively impacted their reading experience or took them out of the story. Even with the brighter pallet, the panels that need to be dramatic chose intense colors like vibrant reds or deep purple, not just blues and blacks. I’m curious about the new HBO show, but I don’t have HBO and part of me is worried it’s going to take more stylistic influence from the Zach Snyder movie rather than the book itself.
I first read Watchmen in my high school science-fiction class. While I was in this class and discussing the doomsday clock within the text, there were so many things happening that were making the real-world doomsday clock tick closer to twelve: The Presidential Election, North Korean threats, school shootings, Russia, etc. Most of those are, unfortunately, still concerns four years after leaving that class. Four years should feel like a long time, but 2016 feels like just last year. Maybe we need a giant fake alien to destroy a major city and unite us against a fake common threat… Just don’t make it New York because I live there. I’m just kidding, I don’t want a real-life Ozymandias (even if certain billionaires might like to be, if not already are).

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