After a long time of not reading this novel, and after reading the first 50 pages of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' "Watchmen," I immediately thought of another recent "superhero" story of sorts, "Hancock," and a quote Cherlize Theron said very matter-of-factly in the film - "(We've been called) gods, angels, and different cultures and different eras have called us many things - in this place and time we are called super heroes."
Alan Moore's depressing and outright blasphmeous story of the "superhero" and their struggles with humanity, as they also deal with the after-effects of modern day god-worship, the ordinary people's eventual fear and hatred of them, etc. made me wonder if Alan himself didn't realize that he was showing us a mirror to ourselves and our blind worship of them, and for this I love his idea and the concept, stretched out originally over 12 "chapters," now all collected here for the first time together.
This is not the story of a Super-man, or a Spider-man, who do not exist here in this world (except as minor comic book characters pasted on the wall as a sad reminder) and as we all know, these 'heroes' were created by an foreign & alien environment. This is a very real story of regular people who are dealing with their chosen fates - they have chosen stand up to the corruption of the world and to defend and protect the common citizen as they were once themselves, with the exception of the only one "true" superbeing of the bunch, Dr. Manhattan, who has problems of his own. They all had noble ideas and the spirit to try, but in the end are exiled, murdered or shuttered up and driven into the shadows by the very people they once defended.
This story, set against the angry and unsettling backdrop of an alternate world of 1985, where Nixon (!) is still President, the Cold War is growing hotter and hotter by the page, Vietnam was won unconditionally by the U.S. (thanks in part to Dr. Manhattan and The Comedian), America invades Afghanistan against protective Russia, and the entire backdrop melts away and is boiled down to one main subject - this is a mystery novel wrapped up in a bloody American flag.
Someone is killing off or trying to destroy the former members of "The Crimebusters," a group formed right before World War 2. One of the remaining active (and illegally practicing) members, Rorschach, is not only trying to solve the whodunit of who's ding it but is also trying to possibly get the remaining forced to retire members (due to 1977 government legislation outlawing them) to band together one last time to discover why it's happening.
But there's a problem - some of them are just too afraid to try any more. Once revered, they hide in shadows, living boring and uninteresting lives or shilling their once-fame to sell action figures of themselves. Along the way there are flashbacks, using a manuscript from a 'tell-all' book revealing the ugly truths about some of the members written by one of them ("Under the Hood") and very very strange and hidden clues along the way, the story gets more and more negative and paranoid.
In this universe there are instances of out-and-out murders of characters, attempted rape, racism, horrible forms of gung-ho vigilantism, homophobia and xenophobia and so much more depravity unheard of in comic books seen in any form like this until this was written.
The comic was drawn by Dave Gibbons in a classic style, using a fictional comic book ("Tales of the Black Freighter") to tell an even more horrible story, strange newspaper headlines and interviews to propel the story to it's hard and stunning climax.
However, it's the story by Alan Moore who debunks the myth by prying open the ugly dark side of the "superhero." In each chapter each former member has a moment to shine, to see and hear their story, and then the rest of the world comes crashing down on them again.
I don't want to keep droning on and on about too much more, as I don't want to give anything away and besides, any comic reader worth his salt has already read it, or if you haven't, you should. Every preconceived notion you've ever had about "superheroes" will be torn away from you, every backstory you think you've ever read that you thought was fascinating about a "superhero" will wither and dissipate against the weight of this.
I first read this back in 1986 when it first came out and I was a whopping 22 years old, and I was shocked and angry at the way Alan rattled the cages, but now, looking back in retrospect, I applaud him as he taken strands of different stories like this that were laying around (parts of this comic made me think of an earlier attempt to "tug on Superman's cape" titled "Superfolks" from 1977 - look for it, it's hard to find) and laced together the greatest of all comic novels.
I'll even go so far as to say it's better in scope and feel than "The Dark Knight Returns."
This series pulls you in and won't let you go, and every time I've read it since, I still get those pangs of anger and uneasiness from knowing that comic books, originally designed for kids, doesn't mean that they'll understand subtlety or violence in it's own context.
To understand this novel is to get the whole idea of the new comic book as they had a re-birth in the late 80s - they're not just all "wham" and "bam" anymore. We go behind the masks into the very soul of the hero, and to say he or she is not flawed at all is the same as saying we aren't, either.
These heroes bleed, they have real problems, they use drinking and drugs to blur it out, they fight amongst themselves (as most of humanity does in most instances), yet pull it together just long enough to save the world. Or in the case of "Watchmen", do they?
This is essential reading for anyone who wants to go beyond the flashy costumes and the garish colors to feel what our modern-day gods are feeling as they kill for their view of righteousness, and this is as close you'll ever get to that.
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Customer reviews
great story that time will never forget
Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2022
It came in perfect condition however. It has a personal note at the end of the book. So apparently these are not brand new. But for the price it’s great.
Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2022
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spepp
Aqui está algumas fotos reais do produto
Reviewed in Brazil on October 14, 2015
Aqui está algumas fotos reais do produto
Reviewed in Brazil on October 14, 2015
Quando eu fui comprar, eu fiz umas pesquisas e não achei nenhuma imagem a respeito desta edição, então, para evitar dúvidas, aqui está algumas imagens relacionadas ao produto.Reviewed in Brazil on October 14, 2015
Antes que alguém comece a se perguntar: Não, não é capa dura.
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John D. Payne
Even better than I remember
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 2, 2021
Charlie Rhys Hamer
Plenty of racism and the main character is a nazi
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 2, 2021Francisco Gomes Vargas
Dá vontade de comprar de novo de tão bom
Reviewed in Brazil on March 26, 2019
