#would u guys b interested in me posting the essay / visual here?

[some-flyleaves]

Impromptu media thoughts of the day, two for the price of one: graphic novels by Alan Moore, Watchmen and V for Vendetta. Major spoilers ahead, if people need spoiler alerts for graphic novels from the 80s.

People have written really deep and long essays about both, but here’s my discombobulated twenty cents (in bullet point format because I fucking love bullet point infodumping):

Read Watchmen first, for a variety of reasons included but not limited to:

First heard about it ages ago as if not an influence then for major parallels to The Incredibles, which is one of my favorite movies. I think I was aware of Watchmen's presence at my local library for a good while, but flipping open to a random page and seeing a technicolor old-style comic kinda lost me right off the bat. (I’m still not super partial to the art style in either graphic novel, actually, but they’ve grown on me.)

More recently I watched the 2000 X-Men movie, and not gonna lie, it was actually pretty good. Not stellar enough to warrant a post-movie thoughtdump like this, and granted I don’t go into superhero films with high expectations on the rare occasions I watch at all, but y’know. If I remember correctly this was also an influence on The Incredibles and it sure as hell shows. Also, Rogue deserved better.

You’d think that this means I picked up Watchmen because of an Incredibles kick, right? (Saw that too recently, was good but not as much as the original & with post-movie hype having died down it miiight not stand up to rewatch, I’ll see.) That... might’ve been a factor, sure.

Mostly I just noticed it in the recent return pile along with a note on the back about it being a MUST-READ for graphic novel fans, and since I’m interested in the comic medium and all, why not. Also, work was slow. Funny how stuff works out.

ANYWAY point is I read that one comic with the bloody smiley face on the cover, and you know what? It took about two days and three reading sessions (short one at work, shorter one at home, then a long dedicated few hours within the week) and I was fucking wrecked. You know, the “just read a damn good book/watched a damn good movie/consumed some good fucking media, what do you mean I gotta continue with life as normal” buzz? That, but with a graphic novel.

I’ve mentioned before that I have a weird habit of spoiling myself before I even get into something, whether it means reading the Wikipedia plot summary or reading a sentence in the middle of a book, even skipping to the end of a book and skimming the last paragraph if the middle sentence hooked me. For Watchmen this translated to knowing right off the bat that some big weird scifi thing was involved, and there was a Moment between two characters right before then that packed a punch even without context. It took the longest time for either of these to become clear as I read proper, and once I realized who those two characters were... oh. O u c h.

Somehow I managed to not do this with V for Vendetta. I kinda wish it’d been the other way around, in retrospect, but oh well. Both were solid reads, though I liked Watchmen more.

okay personal anecdotes/context aside NOW for the actual review-y thoughts

Despite the Incredibles comparisons, I didn’t actually find Watchmen very similar, nor would I call Incredibles a retelling. In Watchmen, “superheroes” are outlawed and all, but there’s like... two characters with actual powers. One of them is just “I am really smart (and have remarkable reflexes, but then so does Vendetta guy and there’s no supernatural influence in that story).” Instead it’s an alternate history where something something Vietnam and Nixon and it’s the 80s, and jesus christ was the Cold War “we could literally blow up any day now” atmosphere palpable.

There were definitely a few moments where I’d read a scene and be like, “shit, was this really what the 80s were like?” both because A) hey, we almost DID blow up the goddamn planet, and B) general fraught “everything’s fucked, world is ending” atmosphere still rings too goddamn true today. The ending also leaves me with a distinct sense of dread, like that’s the shit that’ll need to happen for us to get our shit together, if only for a little while.

It’s not a happy story, no. Having read a few of the aforementioned scholarly articles on Watchmen, I guess this kicked off the current generation of gritty superhero comics--even though when Watchmen came out, it was revolutionary in NOT being a technicolor happy-go-lucky hero-always-wins moral romp. (Again, superhero comics ain’t my forte.) That said, Watchmen is clearly not being dismal and cynical just for the heck of it. It conveys this with the subtlety of a sledgehammer at times, but an overarching narrative judgment is thankfully absent, leaving readers to draw their own conclusions. Love me some moral ambiguity.

On that note, characters are well-drawn (both in terms of psychological profiles and actual illustration), and while I wasn’t inspired to get too deep into any of their motivations or the like, Rorschach was... something. His identity reveal was a little anticlimactic (as were... lots of the backstory exposition sections, in retrospect), but necessary. Twenty bucks says he’s autistic. I feel like there’s something to be said about Irish-American discrimination and Rorscach but that is by no means my area of expertise, so just throwin’ the thought out there.

Between this and V for Vendetta, Moore really likes social rejects turned masked vigilantes, huh? Vendetta frames V (Guy Fawkes mask dude) as more a symbol than a character; he has a backstory too, but not once is his face shown, and it works.

That said, I just found something kinda... lacking, about Vendetta. Maybe it’s the fact I couldn’t tell half the characters apart and spent most sections not focused on V and Evey wanting to get back to them. Like Watchmen, Vendetta is set in an alternate history (or, er, near-future given when the comic was actually written/published), but whereas Watchmen scatters historical details throughout the narrative via character development and intriguing tie-in snippets, Vendetta kinda just dumps them unceremoniously when needed. It’s... meh.

Well, at least I can say I know what the Guy Fawkes mask as a revolutionary/counterculture symbol originated from. And I did like the little identity twist at the end, much as I saw it coming. (By the way, is that “reports of my death were exaggerated” line from a different piece of media? I could’ve sworn I heard it before but heck if I know where; Google suggests Mark Twain but that doesn’t ring a bell.)

Also, while it could be total coincidence, I kinda wouldn’t be surprised if this influenced Naoki Urasawa’s Monster somehow. (Monster spoilers ahead.) For one thing my first impression of Evey was “fuck, that’s Nina Fortner in dystopian Britain,“ but both stories are set on a backdrop of genocide and feature a character who went through extensive... examination & later broke out in a plot that encompassed the deaths of nearly everyone involved. Said character also has a fucked up relationship with Nina/Evey that involves psychologically screwing with her in an attempt to make her see things his way. (Or, uh, I think that’s what Johann was up to? It’s been a while.) Fun stuff!

Watchmen ends with a very, VERY bittersweet reflection of humanity, and Vendetta draws the curtain on the spark of revolution. Both are impactful in their own rights but the first seems much more relevant today, at least to me as a contemporary American. Also, I can kinda see why Anonymous picked up the Guy Fawkes mask even though vigilante justice isn’t quite what V was going for.

Art-wise, though, Vendetta wins. Rather than cleanly outline everything it makes copious use of negative space and bold inks, foregoing outlines where color contrast will do, and I might mess around with a mimcry some time because got dang does it get that dramatic, noir-esque mood cross. (Watchmen does too at times, but not throughout the whole book. It’s also a matter of clean flats vs semi-blotchy watercolors.)

They are both firmly on my hypothetical list of stories to revisit a few years down the road, because why not, but even if I never get around to that I’m glad I read ‘em at least once.

I end this bulletpoint text wall by saying you should check both graphic novels out if you have a few hours to spare and are game for some challenging psychological thrillers; they earned notoriety for a reason.

Watchmen will take your faith in humanity and hold it over a pit of rabid dogs, but it’s up to you whether or not it drops. It has its gentler moments, but you’ll probably be reading for the themes and mystery above all else. Also, comic people take note--there are some great choices in the imagery and paneling. It probably is worth reading just for the visual storytelling.

V for Vendetta is almost more of a superhero story than Watchmen, hooking you on the identity of its central character but leaving on a universal political moral. Don’t let the smiley mask fool you--this one might not challenge your goodwill as much, but it will throw demoralizing events at you one after the other, for a payoff that holds greater meaning in the bigger picture than anywhere. Again, wasn’t my favorite, but you too can finally understand why Guy Fawkes masks seem to be a symbol of Chaotic Neutral (or Good or Evil, depending on political leaning).

Anyway, what do you think of my desktop?

#nothin like having tumblr open fullscreen to say I Am Procrastinating #as usual there's not a Thesis to this or anything just -dumps everything onto keyboard and publishes it without editing- #.rtf #also scratch what I said about readmores a while back #turns out scrolling through my own darn blog is a bit of a pain :V