Video based on prezi:
Watchmen is set in
the 1980s and is about a group of costumed vigilantes who don’t have any
superpowers, except for Dr. Manhattan, a physicist who acquired god-like
abilities after surviving an atomic experiment in which his body was
obliterated and then somehow mysteriously self-reorganized. The story opens with the murder of Edward
Blake, aka the Comedian. Rorschach, a
vigilante who wears a mask with ever-changing inkblot patterns, investigates
the Comedian’s death, and becomes highly suspicious when things don’t add
up. He decides to warn other members of
the original group who have since quit to live normal lives.
Dr. Manhattan, because of his bizarre superpowers, is
accused of causing cancer in those around him, so he exiles himself to mars (he
can teleport anywhere whenever he wants).
All the while, Rorschach is still looking into the murder, but is
falsely accused of another murder that occurs during his investigation. He is sent to prison. Two former members of the group, Silk Specter
and Night Owl, believe something strange is going on with everything that has
happened so far, so they decide to break Rorschach out of prison. They do so with an Owl ship.
After the prison break, the group discovers that Adrian
Veidt, a former member of the group called Ozymandias, is behind the murders
and the exile of Dr. Manhattan. Veidt’s
all along was to unite the world through faking an alien invasion that would
actually kill half of the population of New York City. The murders were designed to cover up and
draw attention away from this larger conspiracy. But Rorschach and others discover this too
late, because Veidt already set his plan in motion. The mass destruction in New York City,
however, does help to unite the world and end wars and conflicts (the fake aliens
are perceived as the real enemy). Dr.
Manhattan realizes that the plan worked and declares that the best thing to do
is remain silent. Rorschach disagrees
and thinks the world should know the truth, but then Dr. Manhattan vaporizes
him. In the end, a reporter finds Rorschach’s
journal, which contains the truth.
Watchmen would not be a good graphic novel to read as a class, because there are too many questionable features of the story. There is, for example, graphic content about rape, sex, and violence. In addition, there is plenty of profanity as well as other random adult content. So, as a teacher, I don't think I'll be able to use this as a teaching tool, but I might keep it on my bookshelf to recommend to interested students who perhaps get permission from their parents. Then again, there is a movie version of the story that might be more appropriate, which could help to justify the graphic novel if I really wanted to use it. But I'm not sure I do. There are too many other good books and graphic novels to read.
This does not mean that I don't think there are some really interesting things going on in the story, because there are. I really enjoyed the graphic novel, especially because I grew up reading superhero comic books. And I think Watchmen in particular plays around with the genre itself, and more specifically what a superhero even is. There are two striking examples of this. First of all, most of the heroes don't even have super powers, and this becomes readily apparent when we read about the costumed vigilante who, trying to stop a bank robbery, gets his cape caught in a revolving door and gets shot and killed by one of the robbers. I've never read anything like that before - the hero always wins. And the fact that all but Dr. Manhattan are power-less makes Dr. Manhattan all the more interesting and impressive. It had the effect on me that comics did when I was a lot younger - wow, that guy really has awesome powers! Positioning a powerful godlike hero in a world where there aren't superheroes is a wild idea, and it definitely messes with your sense of the genre.
The other example of Watchmen playing with superhero stories is the part at the end when Rorschach, an obviously troubled and relatively feeble "hero," takes a moral stand against Dr. Manhattan, the person with the "real" superpowers. Dr. Manhattan simply obliterates him. For me as the reader, the real hero was Rorschach, because he's standing up for the truth and what's right. Dr. Manhattan maybe right that the consequences of Veidt's lies are good (at least for the foreseeable future), but that doesn't mean that he's doing the right thing by defending Veidt's actions and helping to cover them up. So who is the hero? Not the person with the powers, in my opinion. If you haven't read Watchmen, I highly recommend it - even for people who didn't grow up reading comic books.
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