Next March will see the release of Watchmen, a movie that comic fans have been both anticipating and dreading for 20 years. Anticipating because Watchmen is arguably the most important comic work of the modern age: a turning point for the industry that proved that comics could be literate, thoughtful, and certainly not just for kids. But dreading because previous cinematic translations of Moore’s other lauded comic works (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, From Hell) have, well, sucked, and lacked almost all of Moore’s nuance and insight. The challenge of condensing the 12 issues full of tangents and seemingly unrelated background material into a two-hour movie seemed downright quixotic. Terry Gilliam, at one time attached to direct the film back in the late ’80s, famously labeled the story “unfilmable.”
All the more reason to read the story in its original state, made easier by this recently released hardcover edition. Watchmen examines the real-world implications of superheroes and costumed vigilantes. Set during the Cold War, the story starts off with the murder of a
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former superhero-turned-government agent, and the subsequent investigation by Rorschach, a masked detective. Rorschach believes that someone is targeting the former members of the hero group he and the victim belonged to, and sets about spreading the word to his former companions. Among them are the quantum-powered Doctor Manhattan, whose existence and allegiance to America have put the world on the brink of nuclear war, and super genius Ozymandias, who holds a rather unorthodox view of the crisis at hand.
There are numerous plot threads that, on first reading, seem almost totally unconnected. But Watchmen is a story that benefits from repeated readings. Things that seem random at first become shockingly important; recurring visual motifs resonate as powerful, meaningful symbols; and the “bonus” materials at the end of each chapter—pages from a hero autobiography, a pirate story told in comic form—are actually crucial to understanding the full, epic scale of the story.
Perhaps the best part of Watchmen is that it’s accessible. Anyone can read it, no prior comics knowledge required. Moore initially planned to use the Charlton characters like Captain Atom, The Question and Blue Beetle, but opted instead to use original analogues in their stead. And if you lived through the ’80s, the almost palpable sense of foreboding should feel very familiar. There’s a reason why Watchmen has continually been one of the top-selling graphic novels every year for the past two decades. With the movie coming soon, a whole new crop of fans is sure to discover the story. Get in before they do.
