Watchmen: Why It Matters

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As the hype builds for the release of Watchmen, I thought this might be a good opportunity to discuss the importance of the source material, i.e. the Watchmen comic book.

Over the last decade, comic book movies have become a large part of the American landscape.  The ‘70s gave us Superman and the ‘90s gave us Batman (I know, technically it came out in 1989).  But comic books never really clicked as a film genre until X-Men.  Much of the formula that allowed that “click” was developed in Watchmen.  Superheroes were placed in a world that was grounded in reality.  Stories were given more emotional weight and we saw, for the first time, superheroes that were not only imperfect but seriously flawed.  These were wounded creatures.  Watchmen was the first time anyone had asked (let alone explored) just exactly what sorts of people would put on costumes and fight crime.  Costumes and crime fighting were a conceit so central to comic books as a genre that no one had ever really thought to ask the question.

Originally released as 12 individual issues in 1986 and 1987, Watchmen is widely considered the greatest comic book ever written.  There are few serious challengers for the title.  Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman comes to mind as does Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns.  And, while both are stunning literary achievements, they’re not Watchmen. 

It would be easy to be dismissive of the praise that’s been heaped upon Watchmen.  It’s rare for any artistic venture to receives such rapturous praise and still live up to its own hype.  But it does.  There are few artistic achievements that are considered the single greatest work produced in their respective fields with virtual unanimity.  Mark Twain’s Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn is typically handed the title of greatest American novel.  Likewise, The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is generally considered the greatest album of the rock era.  And most film critics agree that Citizen Kane is the greatest film ever produced. 

But why is Watchmen so important?  For starters, it accomplished what most had considered impossible: it proved beyond a doubt that comic books could be not only art, but great art.  It’s a richly layered tapestry of storytelling.  A tale so densely packed that readers will still be discovering things on a fourth or fifth or tenth reading.  It’s difficult enough to construct a tale that will leave people wanting to revisit it that often.  It’s even more difficult to construct a tale that will still be offering new discoveries all those readings later. 

Comic book fans love to divide the history of the medium into “Ages.”  The Golden Age was the rise of superheroes.  While there is much debate about its official beginning, most would agree that Action Comics #1 (featuring the first appearance of Superman) kicked it into high gear.  This age lasted until 1956 with the publishing of Showcase #4.  Showcase #4 gave us an all new Flash and ushered in the Silver Age of comics.  The Silver Age was followed by The Bronze Age.  Much debate still exists as to when the Bronze Age began but most point to the death of Gwen Stacy, (Spiderman’s non-Mary Jane girlfriend).  Comics are currently in the Modern Age…an age that is usually believed to have begun with Watchmen #1.

Watchmen created the modern superhero.  Before Watchmen, superheroes were simple; the colors might have been primary but the morality was always black and white.  Watchmen introduced an ethical complexity hitherto unseen in comics.  This moral morass has most often been referred to as “grim and gritty.”   Other comics were quick to follow suit.  However, most mistook Watchmen’s nebulous morality as a call-to-arms rather than a cautionary tale; the end result being comics that confused hyper-violence with high-art.  They had mistaken satire for sadism and barreled full steam ahead.  This new direction in comics (along with copyright disputes with DC) caused Watchmen author Alan Moore to virtually abandon superhero comics for the better part of a decade.

There is virtually no current superhero comic that is unaffected by Watchmen.  Even characters that predate Watchmen by decades have been re-imagined in Watchmen’s image.  Stories became darker; villains went from jovial pranksters to full-fledged psychopaths.  And, probably most significantly, superheroes began to kill; not all of them but many.  And killing was no longer the dividing line between “good” and “evil” in the world of comics.  Certainly a character like Wolverine could never have become as popular as he is without a book like Watchmen to pave the way.

But Watchmen’s influence isn’t limited to the world of comic books.  It’s hard to read it today without drawing comparisons to Lost.  Both feature a large cast of morally ambiguous characters.  Both rely on a story-structure of revealing the main characters origins through first-person flashbacks.  Both weave an intricate conspiracy and heighten suspense by revealing plot points non-sequentially.  And finally, for the astute fan, both reveal an elaborate back story in small details that are often hidden in plain sight.

Watchmen is one of those rare artistic endeavors where it is truly impossible to understate its quality, importance and impact on pop culture.  It singlehandedly changed the face of comic books.  That change indirectly led to major shift (good or bad) in summer blockbusters.  It is the single most important comic book of the last thirty years (and maybe even longer).  Director Zack Snyder has taken on a herculean task.  If he changes too much, he’ll be ridiculed as creating the greatest blasphemy in “comic-dom” since DC gave Superman a mullet.  But if his adaptation is too slavish, we’ll be left asking what purposes the movie actually serves.

I guess we’ll all find out on Friday.

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