Who Watches the Watchmen?

Posted in Mike Wood's blog on ,

I’ve been reading Alan Moore’s Watchmen again recently. I’d almost forgotten how brilliant it was. While my enthusiasm for it is still strong I thought I’d write something about it. I’m sorry if you’re not very interested in mid-80s comic books. I can only console you by saying that it really is a very good mid-80s comic book. I’ll write this in a number of parts I think – because it’s a massive subject.

The central premise behind Watchmen is to ask what if superheroes (or costumed vigilantes more accurately – few of the people involved have any special powers) were to actually exist in the real world; what would the world be like? What would the heroes be like, if they were real people. What effect would they have on global politics? Moore’s answer is pretty gloomy. The whole of Watchmen takes place against the background of escalating nuclear tension between the US and the USSR, set in 1985. The conclusion is still shocking after several re-reads.

Moore’s project is to analyse what the superhero myth presupposes, what we have to take for granted to think of these people in our world. If costumed hero’s like Batman existed in the real world then of course HUAC would have had to ask them questions in the 50s. It seems entirely likely that the only ones allowed to continue to act would be those willing to do anything for the government. One figure, Edward Blake, or The Comedian, is used by Moore to explore this side of the vigilante persona. After the 1950s he doesn’t fight crime, instead he fights Marxist guerrillas in South America, and the Stalinists in Vietnam. Watergate never happened in this world, and the Vietnam War was won by America. Nixon is still president in 1985, and The Comedian is implicated in the murder of Woodward and Bernstein.

What would happen is Superman existed in the real world, with all of its political problems? It seems entirely likely he would account for most of the USA’s defensive power in a nuclear war, and that he would have been decisive in pretty much every war they were involved in. Jon Osterman, or Dr Manhattan, is the only character in the book that really has any special powers, but his are immense. He is practically god. The title of the book refers to the old phrase “Who watches the Watchmen?”, which is used repeatedly in the early parts of the book. But a different meaning slowly becomes apparent when Dr Manhattan’s life is explored. He sees every event, past, present, and future, as simultaneous. For him, existence is one gigantic piece of clockwork, with gears that inevitably mesh together. This recalls, quite explicitly, the old creationist parable about a man discovering a watch in the desert. The logical conclusion to finding a piece of complicated machinery in the midst of nothingness is that it must have been created, that the watch must have a watchmaker. Creationists use this to argue that the world must logically have a creator, but Dr Manhattan draws the opposite conclusion. He believes the universe is a watch without a watchman. It becomes apparent, however, that he has become the watchman. Moore’s point, I think, is that our desire to create Superman is akin to our desire to create a God for an existence that seems to continue despite its utter chaos and randomness. We must posit someone who will be a watchman for this watch that keeps on ticking despite our complete inability to understand it.

The idea of hero’s as a response to chaos keeps cropping up throughout the book. The book is divided into 12 sections, with a number being explorations into a particular character’s life. Number four, for example, is devoted to Dr Manhattan. My personal favourite is Number 6 “The Abyss Gazes Also”, which is devoted to Rorschach. Rorschach sees chaos in humanity as well; he believes there is no point to human existence, no pattern or plan to it. He sees only evil and death everywhere, and his response is to create as rigid a pattern as possible to enforce. Moore creates Rorschach as the ultimate in exploration of the fascist basis of the idea of a costumed vigilante. This is just another way for us to accommodate the horrendous evil and chaos of the 20th Century, Moore seems to be saying. We become fascinated by the exploits of people who’re really on the same moral plane as the KKK. Rorschach and Dr Manhattan are the only people in the book who really have lost all elements of humanity within them. Rorschach not only refuses to use his real name, but, seemingly out of deference, no one else uses it either. Dr Manhattan and Rorschach represent the psychological presuppositions and foundations for superheroes, which doesn’t paint a pretty picture.

Anyway, more some other time hopefully.

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