This week is WATCHING THE WATCHMEN week on Meet At The Gate. The disturbingly compelling graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons will be released as a film on Friday, and if you aren’t currently over-curious and excited about this, it is our aim to make it so.
WATCHMEN first came out over 20 years ago as a series of single magazines published by DC Comics. It tells the story of a fragmented, bizarre group called The Minutemen, a team of ‘Crimebusters’, and the people that cross paths with them. The Minutemen used to be masked and caped vigilantes who, for a time in the mid-twentieth century, kept the streets of New York safe. Eventually, the public turned against their heroes, and The Minutemen were disbanded by force of law. Come the mid-1980s, they have drifted apart and are ageing disgracefully – apart from the psychotic yet righteous Rorschach, whose self and costume have come to identify with each other inextricably.
RORSCHACH’s journal begins the book, which brings in journals, memoirs and even other comics to form a collage of inter-referential stories. Real name Walter Kovacs, Rorschach wears a blotched black-and-white mask and is defined by his uncompromising values. He thinks nothing of walking into a dive bar, asking a question and breaking customers’ thumbs until the answer is spoken. Rorschach is paranoid, relentlessly misanthropic and the archetypal conspiracy theorist, and funnily enough, his suspicions and efforts towards finding the truth lead his fellow Minutemen to discover the most sinister (and real) plot of all.
The NITE OWLs come next. We drop in on a derelict apartment where Hollis Mason, original Nite Owl and memoirist long retired from the vigilante game, is reminiscing with Dan Dreiberg, the rookie who took on the Nite Owl identity for a few years before the ban. Nite Owl has the best gadgets, and an airship, thanks to Dan’s genius with anything mechanical (though his social skills, especially with women, are anything but confident).
The COMEDIAN’s death is, in many ways, the catalyst for the plot of WATCHMEN. Also known as Edward Blake, The Comedian is a pugilist with charisma. The reader only encounters him through the memories of the other characters, and it’s not a wholly pretty picture. He relishes the Vietnam War and brings his nihilistic bravado home with him, attempting to rape a vigilante associate and leaving behind some complicated emotional scars on those who were close to him.
Sally ‘Jupiter’ and Laurie Juspeczyk, aka the SILK SPECTRE mother and daughter, bring their no-bullshit intelligence (along with their strained relationship, unspeakable secrets and leg-baring outfits) to The Minutemen. Laurie’s affair with Doctor Manhattan illustrates the perils of living with a true super-human. A reluctant vigilante who had to fight to escape her mother’s reputation, Laurie is finally driven to the ends of the earth – and Mars – to try and save her home.
DOCTOR MANHATTAN will be known to you from film previews as the giant, blue one. After an accident in a Princeton physics lab (where he was working as Dr Jonathan Osterman), he is left with real super-powers. He can double himself, teleport and survive without oxygen; he is ageless, doesn’t need oxygen to breathe and can materialise literal castles in the air. He knows the future. But he is fast losing faith in humanity and can only see the futility of fellow Minutemen’s struggle to avert the apocalypse.
OZYMANDIAS is the most detached of the group. He is, seemingly, the only one who has emotionally ‘moved on’ from his superhero days, cashing in (as Adrian Veidt) on his spectacular physique and business sense to sell workout plans and merchandise. As a result, he is incredibly wealthy and keeps a genetically manipulated lynx, Bubastis, as a familiar/pet.
So much for the divergent, confused ‘heroes’ that populate this long, symbolic, relentlessly exciting story. By the end, they haven’t all reconciled – though we do find out that some of them are more closely related than they’d thought. Which one will you dress up as, for your trip to see them on the big screen this Friday?
