Watchmen

Watchmen Issue #1 

Simply fantastic. I remember first reading this when I was naïve enough to admire Rorschach. I loved his black and white morality, much in the same way Hollis admired his pulp stories I suppose, and ignored his hatefulness and general ignorance. Kind of like Travis Bickle fans if I had to make a comparison. Dave Gibbons' art is on point, instilling a sense of realness to the picturesque heroes.

Watchmen Issue #2 

The colors are just amazing. Love the heavy contrast presented by the warm and cool colors. For as horrible as The Comedian is, he was right about the Crimebusters attitudes towards problems. I mean the Captain listed drugs, promiscuity, anti-war demonstrations, and black unrest for the superheroes to solve. This is really when they realize how small their efforts are. But man, I hate The Comedian, such an awful man. I find it really interesting that Rorschach lets Moloch keep the pills. Is that choice easily placed into a black and white moral code? I don't know.

Watchmen Issue #3 

Instead of a quote from a musician it ends with a quote from the Bible this time. The change definitely fits for such a heavy focus on Dr. Manhattan. I thought the correlation between what's going on in other parts of the world with Dr. Manhattan's own self to be a bit trite and obvious, but then I remembered how I did not pick up on this during my first read through. I also like how these quotes are framed as a narrative tool for a scene, giving context, but otherwise being silent portraits. I also think it works for the increasingly distant and pensive Dr. Manhattan. I still am not the biggest fan of the Black Freighter parts, but I do like the vendor and the reader. The Hollis book is so captivating, I would read a full book from that perspective.

Watchmen Issue #4 

Dr. Manhattan is such an interesting character to me. It kind of bugs me whenever seeing the future is involved in stories because of the implications it has and it bugs me here too, but in a good way I think. Dr. Manhattan himself doesn’t have an answer to the free will question, sometimes taking action, sometimes letting preventable acts of violence occur. Because of how vividly he can see his past and future, it makes sense that he’s barely in the present, at least not in the same way that we are. I also love his changing clothes representing his lack of humanity, or more accurately, his apathy towards life in general. Such an interesting take on a character with world-changing powers.

Watchmen Issue #5

I remember being shocked at Rorschach's identity, but all the pieces were right in front of your face from the beginning. I kind of love that. Everyone talks about Watchmen metatextually as a deconstruction, but there's so much it presents and constructs as its own piece. I love how we see a lot of this issue from Rorschach's POV. And how he calls his mask his "face". He's just such a great character. The use of the mirror for Laurie's and Dan's relationship was such a cool stylistic choice, I wonder if it represents the space between them, or a way to depict intimacy where we don't see them actually as face to face.

Watchmen Issue #6

Easily the best issue so far. The panel of the shadow of Rorschach's mom having sex with a man and moans of pleasure compared to the shadow of his mom beating him while he moans in pain is both incredible and heartbreaking. You can see how his childhood shaped him, and it's especially noticeable when you see his face go into pure defense mode when the other prisoners taunt him. Even though it seems like Rorschach subscribes to a black and white ideology, a huge driving force for him is anger, which I find wildly interesting. Love the case study on him this issue.

Edit: I also thought that Moore's critique of right-wing media was very funny

Watchmen Issue #7 

Love the clean spot of the dusty lens as a motif for this issue. Once again the unrelated text serves as narration, this time with Veidt's performance for Dan's and Laurie's intercourse attempt. This time, it both reflected the scene and served as a contrast to it. I'm really warming up to this technique and especially like the way it was framed here, emphasizing Dan's humanity in a way that's closer to real life than the glamour of comic book heroes. Seeing how confident the costume makes Dan and how it helped him during sex reminded me of Hollis' writing that many thought the masked heroes were just perverted freaks. You can tell that Dan had a lot more nostalgia and fond memories over his costumed days than he lets on to Laurie, so seeing him become the Nite Owl again felt so pivotal. Dan and Laurie's relationship was wonderfully built up, and it's nice to see a healthy relationship here.

Watchmen Issue #8

Rorschach as some killer lines. That political cartoon was funny. Reminded me of a spoof The Onion would make. I feel bad for Hollis, the shadow of award casting a faux mask on his face is the perfect drama that this series create. Truly, the art is next-level.

Edit: I also love the art decisions for the framing of Hollis’ phone call with Sally. We don’t see them as they are now, but we can tell their lifestyles by the things in their houses. There’s a convergence when the framed picture of their costumed days is highlighted, but it’s not held onto for long. So much depth to the visual storytelling in Watchmen.

Watchmen Issue #9

Powerful one two combo with the Laurie reveal and then Dr. Manhattan explaining what makes humanity special and what makes each individual special. It’s nice to see how protective Sally was over Laurie, from the flashbacks and the interview. It reminded me of Sally’s conversation with Hollis, Laurie just didn’t know the full scale of things.

Watchmen Issue #10 

Rorschach’s sympathy for children outweighs his hatred for women. Rorschach’s interactions with Dan were so endearing this issue. Moore accidentally made Rorschach a little too likeable I think. His worst traits are only seen in earlier issues for the most part. Very interesting to see how everything connects on a reread and I missed, glossed over even, these connections. Seeing the two lovers embrace under certain death has some tragic and beautiful imagery. A lot of complex emotions brought by the end of the world. The conspiracy journalists missing the truth for some drivel was a similarly nuanced moment, with there being both humor and a sense of bleakness.

Watchmen Issue #11 

Another one of the greatest moments in comic book history and reveals I've seen in art in general. It still blows my mind. Lost the war before they even knew it. Watchmen is undeniably a dark story, but I feel like there are important moments people miss. Like two near strangers with almost nothing in common except their name, hugging each other because they long for one last moment of human connection. That means something far more than the darkness to me, even though it cannot be viewed solely as separate from it. This death also referencing the blood on the button (or is it the other way around?) speaks volumes to me, and is part of the story's beating heart that can't be ignored.

Watchmen Issue #12

Perfect ending. "Nothing ever ends." I wonder if Dr. Manhattan saw the future in that moment, or really just knew how cyclical things are. The shadows of Laurie and Dan reflect Rorschach's mask (symmetry moment), but also reminds me of the lingering graffiti, Whereas Rorschach saw that graffiti as a sign of a moral decline, Laurie and Dan represent humanity, hope, love for life, and has a more positive association. There's still so much I'm thinking about, and reading some comments, so much I've missed. I think that's pretty awesome. I was barely in high school when I first read Watchmen and didn't know how much I didn't know. I'm in college and have a better grasp of just how much escapes me now. In the future, I wonder how much that'll change and how my perspective will continue to shift and evolve. A wonderful read.