Rereading Watchmen

[jducoeur]

In preparation for watching the new series (no, it's probably not necessary, but I'm that sort of geek), I'm rereading the hardcover edition that I've had on The Shelf for so many years. It's probably the first time I've read it in 15+ years.

I'm currently about midway through, and a couple of impressions strike me so far:

a) It's a bit better than I remembered. But yeah: it's both structurally brilliant and structurally obsessive, which keeps it from being quite as good as V For Vendetta, which lets its passion show through more readily.

b) I'm fairly sure that, the first time around, I did not realize who Rorschach is until he was unmasked. Which makes the reread ruefully funny: not only are there scads of hints if you are paying attention to the background, Alan Moore all but mocks the reader who hasn't figured it out by the end of issue 5.

c) The fictional history of Max Shea (author of Tales of the Black Freighter in the backmatter of issue 5) is almost weirdly prophetic, in the way he quits DC after writing "blatantly pornographic" stories that DC refuses to publish: not by any means identical, but a strange foreshadowing of the Swamp Thing debacle (one conceptual step removed from Alan Moore) yet to come soon thereafter, and generally a foreshadowing of the gradual breakdown of Moore's relationship with DC.

Mostly, it's a reminder that great comics are worth the reread. I'm going to have to start thinking about what else belongs on The Shelf...

Comments

[mindstalk]

"Alan Moore all but mocks the reader who hasn't figured it out by the end of issue 5."

Really? I don't recall that. Been a while though.

Also been a long long time since I first read it. I don't recall Rorschach's identity being a thing to figure out.

[alexxkay]

Oh, it's there, all right. One of my favorite panels in the whole book has Mr. End-is-nigh, in the background, picking up the contents of the "maildrop" that Rorschach was watching on the previous page. The foreground is the newsstand, with the pirate narration "His eyes, his nose, his cheeks seemed individually familiar, but mercifully I could not piece them together into a face I knew." Meanwhile the newsagent says "It's our curse. We see every damned connection. Every damned link."

When issue #1 came out, someone in my local comic store identified R and the sign guy right away. At the time, I thought he was crazy, but over the next few months realized he was right. Back then, of course, my knowledge of story structure was much more primitive than it is now. The first subtle hints are on page 1; pages 4&5 (and especially the transition between them) make it blatantly clear in symbolic language.

[mindstalk]

Yeah, I'm re-reading #1 now, and to me it's not that subtle. Don't remember what my first reading was like. You also see his hairy chin when he's eating cold beans in Night Owl's kitchen.

[alexxkay]

In my defense, I was 18 when I first read it.

[jducoeur]

Really? I don't recall that.

It's admittedly subtle. Issue 5, page 17, the newsvendor is talking about there being "all sorts of things we never notice". If you look carefully, Rorschach (in his civvies) is in the background, checking for Moloch's message to meet -- basically the last hint of his identity before it is revealed on-screen.

I don't recall Rorschach's identity being a thing to figure out.

It's not something one *has* to do, but it's fascinating on a re-read, because he is *everywhere*. If you watch for him carrying his "The End is Nigh" sign, he's practically omnipresent in the first half of the story. But he's usually in the background, so it's very easy to overlook him. It adds a lot of overtones to the story, realizing that he's there, making use of the fact that nobody pays attention to the crazy guy with the doomsday sign...

[mindstalk]

Yeah, I'm re-noticing how present he is, like at Blake's funeral. What I don't recall is if my first reading was "oh, that guy!" or "it was bloody obvious all along". Thing is, sign guy doesn't stay in the background, he gets *foregrounded* right before a scene change to Rorschach, both in Blake's murder scene and in his 'investigating' Moloch after the funeral. Not that subtle.

To be fair, I'm not sure if I'd ever noticed Issue 5 showing sign guy reading Rorscharch's mail and getting his mask, before alexx mentioning it. It's pretty obvious when you're looking for it but it doesn't ring a bell.

[andrewducker]

Dammit, going to have to do a re-read!

I've got the Absolute re-release of Swamp Thing on my wishlist. Looking forward to seeing how the recolouring looks.