Watchman

Watchmen (Vigilantes in Spanish) is a series of comic books Created by writer Alan Moore, penciler Dave Gibbons and inker John Higgins. The series was published by the American company DC Comics during the years 1986 and 1987 as a limited series of 12 numbers. It has been reissued several times and translated into different languages, including Spanish, in addition to obtaining prestigious awards, such as the Hugo. Watchmen originated from a story pitch by Moore to DC featuring superhero characters the company had acquired from Charlton Comics. As Moore's proposed story would have rendered many characters useless for future stories, editor-in-chief Dick Giordano convinced the writer to create original characters in his place.

Moore used the story as a means of reflecting on contemporary anxieties and criticizing the concept of the superhero. Watchmen presents an alternate history where superheroes emerge in the 1940s and 1960s, helping the United States establish world hegemony through Operation Condor and the Vietnam War. The country is drifting toward nuclear war with the Soviet Union, costumed vigilantes have been outlawed, and most of the former superheroes are in retirement or working for the government. The story focuses on the personal development and struggles of the protagonists as an investigation into the assassination of a government-sponsored superhero brings them out of retirement, and eventually leads them to confront a plot that averts war. nuclear killing millions of people.

Creatively, the focus of Watchmen lies on its very structure. Gibbons uses a nine-panel grid layout throughout the series and adds recurring symbols, such as a bloodstained smiley. All but the last chapter feature fictional documents that add to the background of the series, and the story is intertwined with that of the other story, a comic about pirates titled Tales of the Black Ship, which one of the characters reads. Structured as a non-linear narrative, the story leaps across space, time, and plot. Watchmen has received critical acclaim both in comics and in print and is considered by critics to be a seminal text in the comics medium, being placed on the Best 100 Novels List. i>Time. After several attempts to adapt the series into a feature film, Watchmen by director Zack Snyder was released in 2009.

In November 2017, Geoff Johns and Gary Frank created a sequel series titled Doomsday Clock as part of the DC Rebirth initiative.

Gestation

Wanting to break away from the common perception of comics as a genre intended for youth consumption, Alan Moore created Watchmen as an attempt to make “a superhero Moby-Dick; something that had that kind of weight, that kind of intensity.” Moore cited William Burroughs as one of his “major influences” during the work's gestation. The author commented that he admired Burroughs' use of "repeated symbols that would end up bursting with meaning" in the only strip he ever produced, published in the British magazine Cyclops .

Alan Moore, author of the play script.

Moore and Gibbons envisioned a story that would take "conventional and old-fashioned superheroes into a whole new realm". Moore originally looked to Mighty Crusaderes, the defunct MLJ superhero series, for inspiration. Comics. He thought that featuring the death of one of those unconvincing superheroes from the 1960s or 1970s was a good starting point for a comic that wanted to show an unusual image of these characters.

Dick Giordano, who had worked for Charlton Comics, suggested using a cast made up of old Charlton characters, who had recently been acquired by DC Comics. However, Charlton's heroes were gradually being integrated into the DC Universe. Since Moore and Gibbons wanted to work on a serious script, in which some of the leads would die, using Charlton's heroes was not feasible. Giordano then suggested that the two authors start from scratch, creating their own characters. Thus, although several of Watchmen's heroes are loosely based on Charlton's (Doctor Manhattan was inspired by Captain Atom, Rorschach was based on the Question, and Nite Owl was loosely based on in Blue Beetle), Moore decided to create characters only ultimately reminiscent of Charlton's.

Originally, Moore and Gibbons only had material for six installments, so they opted to "insert between the issues dedicated to directing the plot others that make a biographical portrait of one of the main protagonists". During this process, Gibbons had a great deal of autonomy to develop the visual appearance of Watchmen. He introduced details into the work that Moore did not notice until later because, in the latter's opinion, Watchmen was written to be understood only after several readings.

Title

The title of the comic is taken from the phrase quis custodiet ipsos custodes? ("who watches the watchmen?", in English: "who watches the watchmen?"), belonging to the Satire VI of the poet Décimo Junio Juvenal (1st century - 2nd century). The composition is about women. In its original context, the quote alludes to the difficulty of forcing women to have adequate moral behavior due to the corruptibility of the men who guard her:

audio quid ueteres olim moneatis amici,
"is seram, cohibe."
sed Who cares?

I hear what you have advised me for a long time, my old friends:
"Put the lock and keep it locked."
But who will watch the vigilantes themselves?

Young man, satires, VI 346-348

Juvenal shows in his satires the vices of the Ancient Roman society. For their part, in Watchmen the authors focus on exposing the weaknesses of masked superheroes, which contrasts with the traditional focus of most comics on their powers and strengths. In this sense, Moore tries to take a more "brave" point of view than what is usually found in the genre.

Grafiti “who watches the vigilantes?”

The “who watches the guards?” graffiti it appears several times in the story written on the walls of New York City (although the full sentence is never seen, but is always partially hidden, cut off at the edge of the panel, or unfinished). These graffiti occur due to the existence of a law, the "Keene Law", which prohibits the activities of heroes. This law arose prompted by citizen protests and a police strike. Therefore, the graffiti is a sample of the change that has occurred in public opinion on this matter. In one of the scenes of the comic, after a confrontation with protesters opposed to the masked men, the Nite Owl II asks the Comedian: "From whom are we protecting them?", to which the latter replies: "From themselves."

Structure and point of view

Provision of vineyards in the central pages of the chapter Awesome symmetry.

This series of comic books is divided into twelve chapters. Each of them constituted a delivery of the limited series chosen to edit the work for the first time. The first numbers began to be published in 1986. Each chapter starts with a close-up of some detail from the first cartoon, which serves as the cover of the original edition. There is also an epigraph at the beginning of each issue, which is abbreviated and used as the chapter title. The quote is reproduced in its entirety at the end of the number, mentioning its author: it then fulfills the function of summarizing the events that have just taken place.

Watchmen contains a series of fictitious documents about the biography of the protagonists that appear as appendices at the end of each chapter, with the exception of the last one. Writings such as the retrospective Bajo la máscara (in English: Under the Hood), dedicated to the first Nite Owl, help the reader to chronologically situate various events to which the characters allude and to understand the changes that occurred in the perception of the masked by public opinion over the decades. These documents sometimes reveal personal details of the adventurers' private lives, such as Rorschach's arrest reports and psychiatric evaluation. Military reports and newspaper and magazine articles are also included.

When reading Watchmen, the reader is mostly from an objective point of view: they are allowed to know the actions, dialogues, facial expressions and body language of the characters. However, unlike most comics at the time, Moore did not use speech bubbles to show the main characters' thoughts, however, many chapters include long sections that show the characters' memories or include journal entries, which, together with the documents in the appendices, helps to clarify the thoughts and feelings of the protagonists throughout the novel. This option is a sample of the cinematic approach with which the action is presented in Watchmen.

First person narrative is used in the novel, although less frequently. Thus, flashbacks are used to help the reader understand the events that take place in the narrative, but also to compare the differences between the alternative history of Watchmen and the real one. For example, Dr. Manhattan's recollections of the Vietnam War highlight how his existence and that of the Comedian contributed to altering world history.

On each page of Watchmen the panels are usually arranged in a three-by-three mosaic, with few concessions. The goal is to “give fewer clues to the reader about how they are going to react to each scene; in the same way, the sensation of realism is increased and the novel is distanced from the usual standards in comics". Chapter V, Terrifying Symmetry is drawn in such a way that the arrangement of panels the first page is the mirror image of the layout of the last, the second is of the penultimate, etc. The effect culminates in the two pages that are shown when the chapter is opened in the middle, pages 14 and 15, which are also reflected in this sense. Also, the first and last panels of Terrifying Symmetry are practically identical.

In Watchmen it is common for two different sequences of events to develop in parallel with some relationship. For example, the moment that a character lives and what he is remembering or the comic that a character reads and what happens around him. The bullets of one of the sequences are inserted between those of the other and, frequently, the dialogues or comments that belong to one of them appear in the second. In these cases, the text makes full sense in both sequences, although its meaning differs in each one.

History

Watchmen takes place in an alternate reality that accurately reflects the contemporary world of the 1980s. The main difference is the presence of superheroes. The point of divergence occurs in the year 1938 and shows how their existence has dramatically affected or altered the outcomes of the Vietnam War and the presidency of Richard Nixon. In keeping with the realism of the series, though the costumed vigilantes of Watchmen are commonly referred to as "superheroes", the only character possessing superhuman powers is Dr. Manhattan, whose existence has given the United States a strategic advantage over the Soviet Union, which has increased tensions between the two nations. Over time, superheroes become unpopular with the police and the public, causing laws to be passed in 1977 banning them. While many heroes are retired, Dr. Manhattan and the Comedian operate as government-sanctioned agents, and Rorschach continues to operate outside the law.

The novel's cast was initially based on old MLJ Comics characters and later on Charlton Comics. The Comedian (Edward Blake) is based on Peacemaker, Dr. Manhattan (Jon Osterman) was based on the Captain Atom character, while the two Nite Owls (Hollis Mason and Dan Dreiberg) were based on the first two Blue Beetles. Peter Cannon was the inspiration for Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt), while the Question and Mr. A were for Rorschach (Walter Kovacs). Finally, the two Silk Specters (Sally Jupiter and Laurie Juspeczyk) only have in common with Nightshade the condition of being women. Moore has claimed that the two Specters are more related to different aspects of Black Canary and the Phantom Lady.

Plot

In October 1985, the New York police are investigating the murder of Edward Blake. With the police having no good results, costumed vigilante Rorschach decides to investigate further. Discovering that Blake is actually the Comedian, a costumed hero and government agent, Rorschach believes he has uncovered a plot to take down the costumed vigilantes and decides to warn to his four retired companions: Dan Dreiberg (formerly the second Nite Owl), the super-powered and emotionally distant Dr. Manhattan (formerly human Jon Osterman) and his lover Laurie Juspeczyk (the second Silk Specter), and Adrian Veidt (the once hero Ozymandias, the smartest man in the world and owner of a business empire).

After Blake's funeral, Dr. Manhattan is accused on national television of being the cause of his friends and former colleagues' cancer. When the US government takes the allegations seriously, Manhattan exiles himself to Mars. In doing so, he throws humanity into political chaos, with the Soviet Union invading Afghanistan to capitalize on America's perceived weakness. Rorschach's paranoid beliefs are justified when Adrian Veidt survives an assassination attempt and Rorschach is framed to frame him for the murder of Moloch, a former supervillain.

Unsatisfied with her relationship with Manhattan, Juspeczyk moves in with Dreiberg, with whom she begins a romance; they put on their old costumes and resume their work as watchmen, while becoming more and more involved. When Dreiberg begins to believe in some aspects of the Rorschach conspiracy theory, the pair take it upon themselves to break him out of prison. Dr. Manhattan, after looking back on his own personal history, places the fate of his involvement in human affairs in the hands of Juspeczyk, whom he teleports to Mars to justify the investment concept. emotional. During the course of the argument, Juspeczyk is forced to come to terms with the fact that Blake, who once tried to rape her mother, was actually her biological father after a second consensual relationship. This discovery, which reflects the complexity of emotions and human relationships, reawakens Dr. Manhattan's interest in humanity.

On Earth, Nite Owl and Rorschach continue to investigate the conspiracy surrounding the Comedian's death and the accusations that led to Dr. Manhattan's exile. They then discover evidence that Adrian Veidt may be behind the plan. Rorschach writes his suspicions about Veidt in his diary, and sends it to New Frontiersman , a small right-wing New York newspaper. The pair confront Veidt in his Antarctic refuge. Veidt explains that his ultimate plan is to save humanity from the impending atomic war between the United States and the Soviet Union by faking an alien invasion of New York City, which will wipe out half the city's population.. He hopes the two nations will unite against a supposed common enemy. He also reveals that he was to blame for the Comedian's death, Dr. Manhattan's friends contracting cancer, and Rorschach's imprisonment by Moloch. in order to prevent his plan from being exposed. Finding his logic cruel and repugnant, Nite Owl and Rorschach try to stop him, but discover that Veidt had already incorporated his plan thirty-five minutes ago.

When Dr. Manhattan and Juspeczyk arrive back on Earth, they are faced with destruction and large-scale death in New York. Advised by Dr. Manhattan that their abilities are limited by tachyons emanating from Antarctica, the pair teleport there. They discover Veidt's involvement and confront him. Veidt shows news broadcasts from around the world confirming the cessation of global hostilities and cooperation against a new threat, causing almost everyone present to agree to hide the truth from Veidt to keep the world together. Rorschach refuses to relent and leaves, intending to reveal the truth. Dr. Manhattan stops him on his way back, and Rorschach tells him that he would have to kill him to prevent him from revealing Veidt's actions, to which Manhattan responds by vaporizing him. Manhattan walks around the base and is met by Veidt, who tells Manhattan if he did the right thing in the end. In response, Manhattan says that Nothing ends before leaving Earth for a different galaxy. Dreiberg and Juspeczyk hide under new identities and continue their romance. Back in New York, the editor of New Frontiersman complains about having to pull a two-page column on Russia because of the new political climate. He asks his assistant to find some filler from the crank file, a collection of rejected proposals on paper, many of which hadn't even been reviewed. The series ends with the young man reaching the pile of discarded proposals, where Rorschach's Journal is located.

Tales of the black ship

Tales of the Black Ship is the name of the comic read by one of the minor characters in the Watchmen story. It constitutes an example of postmodernist metafiction. The issues of this comic that show the desperate attempts of a castaway to return home and warn his family of the imminent arrival of the Black Ship, a pirate ship manned by the souls of the dead. In order to leave the desert island he is on, the castaway uses the bodies of his former crewmates to build a raft. After a stormy journey, in which he even has to face the attack of a group of sharks, the man finally manages to reach a beach close to his destination. Thinking that his city must already be under pirate control, he murders a couple on horseback and goes undercover wearing the man's clothing. In order to save the family from him, he attacks a supposed night watchman at his house. However, this guard turns out to be his own wife: the castaway realizes that there has been no attack and that his despair and anger have made him lose his mind. The man returns to the beach, where he finally spots the Black Ship approaching him. He then understands that the only life the ship wishes to claim is his own.

The idea of a pirate comic was conceived by Moore because he and Gibbons thought that since in the Watchmen story superheroes are part of the daily lives of citizens, they "probably wouldn't they wouldn't be interested in superhero comics at all." Gibbons suggested the idea of a pirate theme, to which Moore agreed as he was a big fan of Bertolt Brecht. «Navío Negro» alludes to the song Seeräuberjenny, from the play with a libretto by Brecht Die Dreigroschenoper. An actual comic book artist, Joe Orlando, is mentioned in Watchmen as one of the main authors of Tales of the Black Ship.

The comic is read by a teenager who sits next to a kiosk, whose owner often appears talking about the latest news and discussing it with his customers. As already mentioned, various fragments of the comic are juxtaposed with events that take place in the main story of Watchmen and the comments of the former are often included in the panels corresponding to the latter. Moore has commented that the ship's story ends by describing the story of Adrian Veidt himself, who in his final dialogue with Jon admits to having a recurring nightmare in which he "dreamed that I swam into a filthy... [ship]". the comic's story is also related to "Rorschach and his capture, is related to Dr. Manhattan's exile to Mars; it can be used as a counterpoint for all of these parts of the story.” Moore commented that he thought the opening panel of the third chapter, featuring the symbol of radioactive contamination, resembled a “stylized drawing of a black ship”. Thus, said symbol would represent "a black ship under a yellow sky."

Characters

With Watchmen, Alan Moore's intention was to create four or five "radically opposed ways" of perceiving the world and give readers history the privilege of determining which was morally the most understandable. Moore said: "What we wanted to do was show all these people, with all their flaws. Showing that even the worst of them had to do something for them, and even the best of them have their flaws."

• Edward Blake / The Comedian (The Comedian): One of the two heroes sanctioned by the government (together with Dr. Manhattan), who remains active after the Keene Law is passed in 1977 to ban superheroes. His murder, which occurs shortly before the first chapter began, establishes the argument Watchmen in motion. The character appears throughout the story in flashbacks and the aspects of his personality are revealed by the other characters. The Comedian is based on Charlton Comics Peacemaker's character, with added elements of Marvel Comics Nick Fury's spy. Moore and Gibbons saw the Comedian as "a kind of character of Gordon Liddy, just a lot bigger, a tougher guy". Richard Reynolds described the Comedian as "speaked, cynical, nihilistic, yet capable of deeper knowledge than others in the role of disguised heroes". Although he tried to rape the first Seda Wraith in the 1940s, the number nine reveals that, years later, he is the father of his daughter Laurie as part of a consensual sexual relationship.
• Jon Osterman / Doctor Manhattan: A being with superpowers that is hired by the U.S. government. The scientist Jon Osterman won power over matter, when he was trapped in an "Intrinsic Subtractor Camp" in 1959. Dr. Manhattan is based on Captain Atomo of Charlton, which in Moore's original proposal was surrounded by the shadow of the nuclear threat. However, the writer discovered that he could do more with Manhattan as "a kind of quantum superhero" of what he might have with Captain Atomo. In contrast to other superheroes who lacked scientific exploration of their origins, Moore tried to delve into nuclear physics and quantum physics in the construction of the character of Dr. Manhattan. The writer believes that a character living in a quantum universe does not perceive time with a linear perspective, which influences the perception of the character of human affairs. Moore also wanted to avoid creating a character without emotions like Star Trek Spock, so he looked for Dr. Manhattan to keep "human habitats" and to grow far from them and from humanity in general. Moore had created the blue character Rogue Trooper, and explained that he would reuse the motif of Manhattan's blue skin, as it resembles the tone of the skin, but with a different tone. Moore incorporated the color into history, and Gibbons pointed out that the rest of the color range of the comic made Manhattan unique. Moore recalled that he was not sure whether DC would allow creators to represent the completely naked character, which in part influenced the way he interpreted the character. Gibbons wanted to be of good taste in the representation of Manhattan's nakedness, selecting a care when the frontal shots are filled and doing "discreet" genitals - like a classic sculpture - so that in principle the reader would not notice it.
• Daniel Dreiberg / Night Owl II (Nite Owl): A retired superhero using gadgets with the theme of owls. Nocturno II owl was based on the version of Ted Kord's Blue Beetle. In parallel to the way Ted Kord had an antecedent, Moore also incorporated an old adventurer who used the name of Nocturno Owl, the fighter against retired crime Hollis Mason, in Watchmen. While Moore designed notes for Gibbons to work, the artist gave him a name and costume design for Hollis Mason that he had created when he was twelve. Richard Reynolds pointed at Superheroes: A Modern Mythology that despite having roots of Charlton's character, the modus operandi by Night Owl II has more in common with the character of DC Comics, Batman.
• Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias: With the inspiration of Alexander the Great, Veidt was once the superhero Ozymandias, but retired to devote his attention to the management of his own companies. Veidt thinks he's the smartest man on the planet. Ozymandias is based directly on Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt; Moore liked the idea that his character uses the "100% of his brain" and "has under control his physical and mental well-being." Richard Reynolds pointed out that by taking the initiative to "help the world", Veidt shows a trait that is normally attributed to villains of superhero stories, and in a sense, he is the "villain" of the series. Gibbons pointed out that "One of his worst sins is a kind of looking down on the rest of humanity, underestimating it."
• Walter Joseph Kovacs / Rorschach: A vigilante wearing a white mask containing a pattern of symmetrical ink stains, but in constant change, continues to fight crime, despite his condition outside the law. Moore said he was trying to "take this quintessence of Steve Ditko's character, someone who has a funny name, whose last name begins with a "K", which has a strange mask designed." Moore is based on Mr. A for the creation of Rorschach; the Charlton character of Ditko Question also served as a model for the creation of Rorschach. The comic book historian Bradford W. Wright describes the view of the character's world as "a set of black and white that takes many forms, but they never mix in grey tones, similar to the ink stains of its homonym." Rorschach sees existence as random and according to Wright, this view leaves the character "free to scribble his own design in a morally blank world." Moore said he did not foresee Rorschach's death until the fourth edition when he realized that his rejection of commitment would not last much longer in history.
• Laurie Juspeczyk / Silk Wraith II: The daughter of Sally Jupiter (the first Wraith of Silk, with whom she has a tense relationship), and the Comedian. She had been Dr's lover. Manhattan for years. While Silk Wraith was based on Charlton Comics, Nightshade, Moore was not impressed with the character and attracted more heroines such as Black Canary and Phantom Lady.

Topics covered

Watchmen is characterized by the realism with which it approaches the world of superheroes. The themes that are dealt with in the work highlight before the reader the human condition of the protagonists. One of them is the social perception of authority, especially in the US context (see Militia Movement in the US). The novel's treatment of this theme can be summed up in the phrase "who watches the watchmen?" From the Weberian point of view, the exercise of authority is rarely morally approved by those who do not possess it; institutionalized authority is simply tolerated because of its social power. The Watchmen adventurers, prior to the passing of Keene's law, are the representatives of the superhero institution. At first, his authority is respected, although it is eventually questioned and claims of responsibility arise. This questioning of authority is inspired by the opposition to the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement, discussed in Watchmen.

These ideas also appear in the "anti-veneration" with which, in the words of postmodernist Gregory J. Golda, the superheroes in the novel are portrayed (as "irritable and inept, old-fashioned"). According to Golda, anti-veneration "places direct responsibility for destructive social norms on the reader by attacking the principles most cherished by society. This lack of respect for the past is the crux of Watchmen."

The work shows how superheroes are perceived at first as authentic gods deserving of adoration, especially Dr. Manhattan, to later carry out a deconstruction of said characters, which reveals defects that make them less valuable in the eyes from the people. In one of the appendices included at the end of each chapter, Osterman's former boss, Milton Glass, notes that upon learning of Dr. Manhattan's existence he declared that "God exists and is American." However, despite the criticism that is emerging around the figures of the heroes, there is still room for their cult in the form described by the essayist and historian Thomas Carlyle, collected in Watchmen. Carlye, who influenced early fascist philosophy, believed that heroism did not lie in a person's flaws or lack of "moral perfection", but in the person's ability to face these difficulties. For Carlyle, to attack to heroes for their weaknesses is the behavior of those who seek solace in the conventional (of the "servants", in accordance with the phrase "no man is a hero to his servant"). In line with this point of view, in the novel Rorschach even goes so far as to describe the Comedian's attempted rape of the first Silk Specter as "moral lapses of a man who died for his country". when Ozymandias, during a conversation with Rorschach, refers to the Comedian as "a Nazi". Also, to add to this presentation of superheroes as fascists, the far-right publication New Frontiersman is listed as the most ardent defender of his activities, going so far as to publish an article on its cover with the headline "Honor is like the hawk: sometimes it must go hooded".

The end of civilization and conspiracy theories are present in the plot of the series. The threat of a nuclear war that will bring humanity to an end is palpable throughout the novel. According to film director Darren Aronofsky's interpretation, "Ozymandias's entire motivation is to prevent the end of the world". On the other hand, the plot is driven by a main conspiracy plot. Rorschach is obsessed with these kinds of theories, which he seems to have become familiar with through the New Frontiersman. Aronofsky argues that Watchmen's treatment of this subject was pioneering, although it has since "become very popular because of JFK and The X-Files, has become part of popular culture, so Rorschach's thinking is not so eccentric anymore."

Another of the themes dealt with in the work is that of determinism. Golda describes the relationship between this philosophical doctrine and Dr. Manhattan, who "lives the immortal life of him perceiving time and events as inevitable. It becomes the symbol of determinism." Alluding to the analogy of the watchmaker, used by William Paley to defend the existence of God, Dr. Manhattan was educated to perform that profession. Often, it is Manhattan himself who He weighs in on the issues of determinism and free will, such as when he comments to the second Silk Specter: "We're all puppets, Laurie. I only see the threads."

Megalomania is addressed in the novel, but not through the conventional villains. In his place, Ozymandias is portrayed as an idealist who looks to the past for inspiration in order to better use his intellect to help humanity. Veidt idolizes Alexander the Great and Ramesses II, whose Greek name he adopts for his secret identity. Another DC character, Hawkman also believed to be the reincarnation of an Egyptian prince.

A final theme that the novel deals with is that of morality, particularly the debate between absolutism, consequentialism and moral relativism. Each of the adventurers seems to take a different stance on this conflict. Rorschach is a radical follower of the absolutist doctrine: he believes that all criminals must be punished for their crimes and does not hesitate to resort to extreme methods to achieve this (for example, he murders a multiple rapist). He also denies any influence of culture or context on his actions. Proof of this is the mantra that he utters several times throughout the book: “Not even before Armageddon. Never surrender". Veidt has this to say about Rorschach: "I think he's a man of great integrity, but he sees the world in black and white, in Manichean terms."

The Comedian takes opposite stances from Rorschach. The moral code of this character receives different qualifications throughout the novel. Dr. Manhattan describes him as "deliberately amoral" and at times the character seems almost nihilistic. At the first meeting of the Watchers, the Comedian himself takes a picture when he explains that trying to fight organized crime is pointless since "within thirty years the nuclear ones are going to fly like insects".

Ozymandias represents the utilitarian vision in the novel. His views seem to be reaffirmed at the end of the play: despite the fact that his plans required the deaths of three million New Yorkers (and a hundred talented artists and scientists), the other adventurers agree to remain silent. Only Rorschach refuses to compromise: his fidelity to his principles ends with his death at the hands of Dr. Manhattan.

Illustrations

Dave Gibbons, cartoonist Watchmen.

Pencil and ink illustrator Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins brought the different characters of Watchmen to life. For this they used a series of innovative techniques, they made use of a style that contained elements of the American comics of the 40s and 50s and they transmitted a dose of realism to the work. Gibbons, who had worked with Moore before (for example, on a notable number of Superman: For the Man Who Has Everything), avoided resorting to genre conventions and developed a style inspired by the storyboards to embody the script written by Moore. Virtually every panel contains significant details or symbols, such as triangles and pyramids, related to the plot. Gregory J. Golda describes the illustration work as "a tribute to the styles of the golden and silver eras of superhero comics".. He also notes that "there are symbols included in this work that take a whole book to figure out". Gibbons used other cinematic techniques, such as hiding the main characters behind objects or other people, or even leaving them out of the panel, concentrating on other environmental elements, in order to avoid the extreme focus on the main characters that often occurs in most comics. In addition, he used minimal strokes to indicate movement, another common technique in the comics industry. In Watchmen, there are only lines of movement accompanying small actions, but they are not present in the fight scenes. Instead, Gibbons uses "pose and gore" to infuse the characters with action, which "adds to the sense of realism [...] and is another way to distance Watchmen from conventional comics". The usual onomatopoeic sounds are also not included.

Gibbons claimed that the appearance of the characters was his own making, taking Moore's notes as his starting point. For his part, Moore credited Gibbons with creating many of the icons that appear in the work, such as the smiley worn by the Comedian on his uniform. Regarding Rorschach, Gibbons argued that it is the subtle character's body language and not his Rorschach-inspired mask that indicates the character's mood. Additionally, the color employed by John Higgins relied primarily on primary colors rather than using a broader range, from new in an attempt to mimic the style of the classic comics.

Gibbons, who was not educated in any art institution, lists Norman Rockwell and Jack Kirby as sources of inspiration. His work also shows influences from other predecessors, such as Will Eisner and Wally Wood (both mentioned by Gibbons), but without ceasing to be less original. He is considered the forerunner of more recent comic realist artists such as Alex Ross.

Allusions to icons, art and history

The bloodstained smiley is an image that recurs throughout the story, both in its original form (as a badge worn by the Comedian, and the face of the comedian afterward). getting cut by a Vietnamese woman or on a ketchup-stained T-shirt) as suggested (appears in the Galle crater on Mars, where Dr. Manhattan's vehicle collapses. It also appears on the blood-stained electrical outlet of the vehicle charger located next to the kiosk and on the radar screen of a military base where Nixon goes. In addition, the shark in Tales of the Black Ship is wounded in the eye, just where the shark smiley has the bloodstain). In the fictional assassination attempt on Adrian Veidt, it is also seen in the yellow rose on his jacket.

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  Smiley with a blood stain in your right eye, similar to that used by the Comedian as a badge.

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  The martian crater of Galle, shown in this NASA image, appears in Watchmen suggesting the recurring motive of smiley.

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  Image of a smiley in the back of a jeep.

The covers of the original issues featured a clock that went forward one minute per issue to twelve o'clock (midnight). This is a reference to the Doomsday Clock, which appears in the University of Chicago publication The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and is a symbol created to alert society to the dangers of nuclear weapons.. In one of the cartoons, a newspaper can be seen on top of Adrian Veidt's office desk stating that this clock has been set to five minutes past midnight.

There are many references to watches in history. For example, Jon Osterman was originally educated to be a watchmaker, his father's trade (in the quote from Albert Einstein that accompanies chapter IV, this physicist confesses to the dangers of atomic energy that "if I had known, I would have made watchmaker"). Also, the accident that causes Jon Osterman's transformation into Dr. Manhattan occurs because Janey Slater forgets her watch. There are also many clocks showing 11:25 just at the moment the "alien" is teleported. On the other hand, the teleportation technique used by Veidt uses tachyons, hypothetical particles very popular with science fiction authors.. The tachyons would travel at superluminal speeds and have an imaginary "proper time." In the work there are several clocks indicating 11:55, in reference to the time of the Clock of the Apocalypse. The smiley is also reminiscent of a clock; the elongated bloodstain would be the minute hand and would be indicating the 55 minutes.

In the comic, Adrian Veidt mentions the fact that Richard Nixon was in Dallas the day President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. This actually happened. In addition, it is suggested that journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were murdered, which prevented the Watergate scandal from occurring in the novel's story.

Laminate with the poem The tiger William Blake.

Throughout the chapter Terrifying Symmetry there are some allusions to symmetry, such as when you see a poster for the album Aoxomoxoa, whose name is a palindrome, by the group Grateful Dead. Furthermore, given Moore's interest in narrative structure, magic, and British history, it is possible that this chapter is an homage to the book Fearful Symmetry: A study of William Blake, written in 1947 by Northrop Frye, a brilliant theoretician and literary critic. In the book, Frye reveals the occult system on which the works of William Blake are based, influenced by John Milton's poem Paradise Lost and the Bible. Although Blake's work was despised because the author was considered to be crazy, Frye's work managed to revalue it. The epigraph at the end of the chapter is a fragment of Blake's poem The Tiger:

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Tiger tiger, of fiery brightness,
in the woods of the night:
What immortal eye or hand
Could he conceive your terrifying symmetry?

The tiger William Blake's epigraph.

Kitty Genovese, whose story Rorschach tells, was a real person who was stabbed to death without the numerous witnesses to the crime doing anything to prevent it. The behavior of Genovese's neighbors in the face of her rape and murder inspired psychological studies on what would come to be known as the bystander effect. Precisely, in another work by Moore, V for Vendetta, the Milgram experiment on obedience to authority is mentioned, another well-known study on social psychology.

There are other cultural references in the work. For example, among the objects seen on the floor of Hollis Mason's house after the mob broke in, is a copy of the novel Gladiator, by Philip Wylie, considered a source of inspiration in the creation of Superman. There are also several advertisements and even comments regarding the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still. Finally, Nova Express, Veidt's magazine accusing Dr. Manhattan of causing cancer, is the title of a novel by William Burroughs.

In the Activision video game Spiderman 2: Enter Electro he makes a clear reference in the newspaper Dealy Bugle with the phrase Who Watches The Watchmen? Said newspaper is shown in the penultimate mission on the game's loading screen next to the headline Zeus's Tear.

Reception and criticism

Its commercial success helped DC briefly outsell Marvel Comics, drawing praise from across the American comic book industry, including those who worked at other publishers, such as Stan Lee, who stated that it was his "favorite non-Marvel comic of all time".

In Anglo-Saxon criticism, it gained fame as the novel that allowed comics to be recognized as an art in its own right, rather than a minor or alternative medium. Time magazine, which stated that Watchmen was, by consensus, the best of the new generation of comics at the time, he praised the series as "a milestone in the imagination, combining science fiction, political satire, nods to the past of comics and daring reformulations of current graphic formats in a story of mystery and dystopia".;.

The series was also the target of some criticism. Tom Shone questioned the complexity of Watchmen, as well as Gibbons' involvement in it, criticizing both the influence exerted by the work and Moore in general, wondering if the "genre of comics really had to grow up". ». Moore himself acknowledges that the plot is very reminiscent of an episode of Beyond the Limit entitled The Architects of Fear. According to him, when he was working on the tenth installment, he came across a cult TV show guide that featured the episode and was surprised to see how it resembled the ending he had already planned. In the latest issue of Watchmen an allusion to the episode is included: a television promotes it. Moore also accepts responsibility for the proliferation of grim stories starring classic comic book characters that occurred after the publication of the series. In his criticism on the occasion of the reissue of the work, Dave Itzkoff, of The New York Times, affirms that Moore surely never pursued that purpose, but that "it is a ground that has largely ceded to writers and artists who share his fascination with brutality but not his interest in its consequences, his impatience to break down old frontiers but not his instinct to find new ones."

Awards

The work was honored with various awards across various categories and genres, including: the Kirby Award in the categories of "Best Limited Series," "Best New Series," "Best Writer," and "Best Writer/Artist"; the Harvey Award for "best writer", "best cartoonist", "best continued or limited series", "best number within a series", "best graphic novel", "best colorist" and "the Harvey Award for Excellence in the production"; the Eisner Award in the categories of "best limited series", "best graphic novel", "best writer" and "best complete author"; a Hugo Award in the category of "other forms".

Watchmen became, in 1988, the first comic book miniseries to win a Hugo Award, an award given to writers in the science fiction and fantasy genres. In addition, it is the only work of his genre that appears in the list prepared in 2005 by Time magazine 100 best novels. 1923 to the present, which includes a selection of one hundred English-language novels published since 1923, stating that it was "told with ruthless psychological realism, in a fugue of intertwining plots and magnificent, richly-moved vignettes." with recurring themes... a throbbing reading that takes your breath away and marks a milestone in the evolution of a young art». Watchmen was the only graphic novel included on the list.

Reissues

Watchmen was originally published as a limited series consisting of twelve installments. Later, it was republished as a graphic novel. Graphitti Designs published a special hardcover edition in 1987, which includes an additional 48 pages of original proposals submitted by the artists, excerpts from Moore's script, and sketches by Gibbons. On October 5, 2005, nearing the 20th anniversary of the work, DC published Absolute Watchmen, a hardcover edition in the Absolute format of the editorial. This book includes new color work by John Higgins under the direction of Dave Gibbons. In addition, the additional material present in the Graphitti Designs edition is collected.

The work was published in Spain for the first time by Ediciones Zinco at the end of the 80s in twelve staple-bound magazines. Subsequently it has seen various editions:

• An incomplete version of Glénat España in three albums that included the first six original numbers (1993 - 1994).
• I take in cartoné by Norma Editorial (July 2000).
• Volume in Absolute format by Planet DeAgostini (May 2007).
• I play in rustic by ECC Editions (May 2013).
• I take in Deluxe edition by ECC Editions (December 2015).
• I take in cartoné by ECC Editions (June 2018).

Commercial items and adaptations

Before Watchmen

In 2012 DC Comics released a series of prequels based on the Watchmen characters. Each of the prequels focused on a different character and is the work of a different author, such as J. Michael Straczynski, Brian Azzarello, Darwyn Cooke, or Len Wein. The choice of artists linked to the independent circuit has been interpreted by critics as a sign of respect for Moore's line of work.

Role Playing

In 1987, Mayfair Games released two modules and a sourcebook based on Watchmen for their role-playing game DC Heroes. The modules were titled Who Watches the Watchmen? and Taking out the Trash and provided approved information. by Moore about the fictional comic book universe. The source book, Watchmen Sourcebook (1990) included even more information about the characters. In 1987, Grenadier Miniatures made a series of metal miniatures for use in role-playing games. The figures included the characters the Comedian, Nite Owl, the Silk Specter, Ozymandias, Rorschach, Captain Metropolis, Dr. Manhattan, Masked Justice, Moloch, and the Archimedes ship. Moore's endorsement made these products valued by Watchmen followers as the only external source of information about the work (especially regarding minor characters, such as the Minutemen or Moloch)..

DC Direct Dolls

DC Direct, a division of DC, was going to produce a line of dolls based on Watchmen for the 15th anniversary of the work. Specifically, it was planned to make reproductions of Dr. Manhattan, the Silk Specter and the Comedian. Prototypes were even shown at Comic-Con in 2000. However, the line was eventually canceled due to lack of support from the limited series authors. DC stated in a press release that they would not proceed without their approval.

Despite the previous controversy, in early 2009 DC Direct was planning to sell a new range of figures. This time they were advertised as dolls from "Watchmen, the movie".

Other products

DC Comics also released a limited edition of badges featuring characters and scenes from the series, as well as a replica of the Comedian's bloodstained smiley. These badges sparked a dispute between Moore and DC Comics, as the publisher maintained that they were "promotional items" for the comic and not commercial merchandise, and therefore should not pay royalties to Moore or Gibbons. In addition, DC also released a wristwatch, again with the "smiley". In 1988 DC published a set of twelve 25 x 38 cm plates, including six covers of the French edition and six promotional posters.

Movie

Warner Bros. confirmed in June 2006 that Zack Snyder would direct a big-screen adaptation of Watchmen, which will open on March 5-6, 2009, depending on country and genre. time change. The cast includes Patrick Wilson, Malin Akerman, Jackie Earle Haley, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Previously, directors such as Paul Greengrass, Terry Gilliam or Darren Aronofsky and screenwriter David Hayter had been linked to the project.

Although Moore thought Hayter's script was fairly faithful to the play, he stated that he still did not intend to see the film if it were to be filmed, arguing that it was unnecessary to adapt a story that works naturally well in one medium into another medium. just at the whim of Hollywood and to make money from his work. "Moore refuses to have his name associated with any film".

The first trailer for the film was released in July 2008 on Apple's website. Opinions were divided after the film's premiere, some critics reacted very well, pointing out that it transcends the original format (the comic) to become one of the most outstanding superhero movies of recent years. While others agreed with Moore and preferred that something that works perfectly not be adapted into a medium just to make money.

TV series

On June 21, 2017, HBO announces the production of a television series based on the popular work by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, with Damon Lindelof as head. Lindelof has acted as showrunner for an important television production on the payment platform, such as The Leftovers.

On January 31, 2018, producer and showrunner Damon Lindelof (The Leftovers) announced the signing of one of the directors of that television series, Nicole Kassel, to direct the pilot episode of Watchmen that the streaming platform HBO finally premiered on October 20, 2019.

Watchmen in Literature

The book La piel del vigilante (2005) by Spanish poet Raúl Quinto is based on Watchmen, each poem in the volume being inspired by a comic book character.