Before writing about this grapic novel I guess I should say that I’m not a frequent reader of graphic novels, and an even less frequent reader of comic books. I think the last comic book I read was a Futurama comic book, part of the Time Bender Trilogy. I can count on one hand the graphic novels I’ve read: The Complete Concrete, The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, The Dark Knight Returns, and now Watchmen. I think I’m warming up to the format, because even more than movies, the pictures and frames are so thought out that they can tell as much of the story as any of the dialogue or other text does. When I was young and read comic books, I looked for the glossiest, most extreme action and lacking that I wasn’t interested.
In Watchmen, it’s a good thing that the artwork tells so much of the story and that the characters are so great because looking at the actual story, it’s kind of lame. The underlying theme (which I gathered to be the irony of mankind’s violently aggressive attempt at peace and prosperity) that is trying to be communicated through the story is interesting. The story plot and arc I wasn’t too fascinated with, especially the ending. All except for one of the heroes have no supernatural powers, and the black-and-white morality of superhero stereotypes isn’t here. Ozymandias (smartest man in the world) even calls into question the use of dispatching small-time thugs or even criminal enterprises, because it addresses the symptoms and not the disease. All the characters seem to have their own personal philosophies and are certainly not perfect, the heroes at times seeming to come off as the villains.
I wasn’t reading to find out what happens next in the story. I was only reading on to find out where the characters would be at the end of the story and that was just barely enough to keep me reading to the end. Rorshach was my absolute favorite character in the book, and they conveyed his voice well with the squiggly speech bubbles. The Comedian was excellent. If Captain America is what the U.S. government would like us to believe it is like, then the Comedian is what the U.S. government actually is like. Nite Owl was great as well. He was probably the most relatably human character in the book. The most super powered hero in the book (Dr. Manhattan) was actually the least interesting to me.
Watchmen is definitely worth reading, although be prepared for a dark and grim story. There is another graphic novel set inside the world of the book that is superimposed at different parts of the story. It is called Tales of the Black Freighter. A young man in the Watchmen novel sits near a newstand reading it, and that embedded graphic novel is really dark and gruesome.
I’m going to see the movie this Friday in IMAX. I read a Wired article that said the ending is different, which won’t bother me a bit. I hope the movie is good, and if I do enjoy it, I can’t possibly see myself enjoying the movie for the same reasons I enjoyed the graphic novel.
