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"Watchmen" by Alan Moore (Text) & Dave Gibbons (Art), colors by John Higgins (Gbr) Miniseries in 12 Volumes 1986-87 DC Comics. Originally published in Italy between 1988 and 1990 in the periodical "Corto Maltese" published by Rizzoli. Subsequent editions were also published by Rizzoli (1993), Play Press (1997 and 2002), in the "Serie Oro" of "La Repubblica" (2005), and by Planeta-De Agostini, in a single volume, (2007)
"Graphic novel is just a pseudo-noble term for comic book, coined by those who don't read comics and believe they are for children, and therefore take refuge in terminology that from the outset must reference another type of art, literature. I might seem nitpicky, but I swear that Moore himself has expressed more or less the same concept countless times." (Ghemison)
"The most famous superhero story of all time actually does not feature superheroes as protagonists" (Andrea G.)
The year is 1985: Richard Nixon, after escaping...
...the unclear scandal of "Watergate, is in his fifth consecutive presidential term: the result of the repeal of the 22nd Amendment, proposed by him years earlier. The United States has won the Vietnam War, but the world is still under the threat of the nuclear nightmare. The Soviet Union and the States indeed have not renounced the arms race at all, even though the Americans have a superb defensive weapon: Jon Osterman, aka Dr. Manhattan (you'll have to read the comic to understand why). The "small" affair of Edward Blake's murder in New York will be the first skirmish of a planet-sized conspiracy meant to disrupt this status quo.
In this alternative "present," men move...
...who, by their own will and without possessing any superpowers (the only one having them is Dr. Manhattan), have decided to take on the path of the "costumed adventurer," which in other comic universes can be likened to that of the superhero (a word that is never pronounced here) with the responsibilities and burdens that stem from it but without any metaphysical possibility of avoiding potential unpleasant consequences. The hero of the narrative universe of "Watchmen" is, therefore, humanly corruptible by anxieties, frustrations, existential issues, and cannot appeal to any divine "enlightenment" (a literary topos typical of the genre, at least until "Watchmen" itself disrupted its canons) to navigate through ethical evaluations and decisive stances for the future of the planet itself. Being a "hero" in Moore's described world is much more akin to the condition of the scapegoat than to that of a god.
Every single thing, every little event that happens...
...in this world is never devoid of meaning: the author continues to weave his storyline, continuing to include small and large clues: references, increasingly less hidden, to what should be an obvious conclusion but instead ends up being quite the opposite of everything. There is no clear distinction between good and evil in "Watchmen": so what, in other contexts, should be the villain is simply a human being who "works" for the common good. It is important to realize that we are dealing with men and not with classic superheroes or "villains." But even if we didn't, it is the very way of "thinking" of the current antihero (especially towards the conclusion) that reminds us: how distant are the times when the villain took more pleasure in revealing the plan to the spotless hero, in an apotheosis of self-complacency aimed also at capturing the admiration of the counterpart, than in seeing it carried out! Not here. No drive due to the oversized ego of the first masked person that comes to mind. Here the watchwords are pragmatism and functionality.
It's a chase of stories nested within each other and...
...supporting structures that are often transfigured and represented even in events that seem superfluous and/or characters apparently of pure backdrop. Moore even has fun providing us with a plausible reading and interpretation of his work by inserting that "comic within a comic" which are the stories narrated in the "digressions" of "The Tales of the Black Freighter," in which the themes of paranoia and "conspiracy" panic are dissected and given as (anti)food for the readers almost to prepare them for an even bitterer morsel. But if the technique of "metanarration" takes the lead, no less astonishing is the extremely refined use of a symbolic language to always be read on multiple levels: prophetic, psychological, literary (with references to both classic and modern literature). Not to mention the continuous references to the hypothetical historical context described and its parallels with the real world.
A separate discussion, setting aside the narrative, deserves...
...the graphic aspect which was quite innovative for the times: Gibbons, indeed, decided (of course, the particularity of the narrative structure favored him) to adopt a type of work much more akin to the techniques used in cinematographic art than to the classic boards used in "comics literature": apparently "out-of-context" shots with large environments or small details drawn instead of the protagonists "in scene" were the most characterizing among the proposed ideas. Along with the decision to eliminate (or almost) the onomatopoeic effects.
This writing of mine aims to be a review...
...and not a treatise on the work in question, so I will stop here even though much more could (and should be said): the influences had and those given, the themes of responsibility derived from the "deification" of the hero, Moore's own personality and his being always "against" are among these, but I would risk taking up far too much space, so I ask for your collaboration in making this page as complete as possible.
Thank you...
C.G. (Girlanachronism)
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