Free Imagine Blogs

It seems that there's a chance that DC might publish more comics set in the Watchmen universe. Honestly, that doesn't bother me all that much. Watchmen isn't as good as everybody thinks it is.

This, however, would be awesome.

I went to see the Watchmen movie this past week. I wasn't sure if I was going to get around to it, actually. But my friend hadn't seen it or read the original comic so it seemed like a good opportunity.

And here's the thing: I really liked it. Now, considering how faithful Watchmen the movie is to Watchmen the comic you might expect that I'd been a fan of the original comic. That is most decidedly not so.

The art in Watchmen was (and is) of the highest caliber. Dave Gibbons is fantastic, no question. My problem with Watchmen was always the story. I found it far too nihilistic. It always felt to me that one of the central premises of Watchmen was that the world is horrible place and no, you can't make a difference.

To be fair, this may very well be me misremembering some of what the story is about. I haven't read it in a few years and I didn't particularly want to reread it right before I went into the movie. But what I do remember quite well is the bizarre hero worship that has risen up around Alan Moore. It seems like the weirder the guy gets the more people want to idolize him. It doesn't make much sense to me.

But I digress. This post is titled "Watchmen Movie" after all. And as I said, I liked it. It was a gorgeous film and the music really impressed me. All the actors played their roles to perfection (or near perfection). But I think mostly I liked it because it felt heroic at times. And the Watchmen comic (or at least my rememberance of it) was anything but heroic.

That may just be me. I'm a fan of the heroic. I'm a believer that people can make a difference. I'm a believer in the idea that just because you can't save the world doesn't mean you shouldn't try to save something Watchmen the comic always seemed to me an idictment of the very idea of super-heroes.

And for someone like me, that just won't fly.

But even if the heroes failed to stop Ozymandias from carrying out his plan they tried. That, and the fact that movie Nite-Owl actually seemed to give a damn that millions of people (and Rorschach) died. For me, the scene where he attacks Ozymandias in rage after the fact made the film for me. At that moment movie Nite-Owl felt more like a real person than the comic version ever did.

I think that's it, really. Watchmen the comic seemed to be trying to tell us that all people are inherently bad. But that's never been my belief or my experience. In Watchmen the movie there are people who fit into the Comedian's view of the world... And there are those who stand against it.

Those are the stories I want to see. Watchmen the movie was one of them.

I'm tired of Watchmen. I'm tired of seeing it around and I'm tired of hearing people talk about it like it's the end-all-be-all of comics.

But mostly I'm tired of people trying to say that Watchmen is super-heroes "for adults" -- as though all of us reading Batman and Superman are mentally children or something.

More than anything it's this idea that has grown up in the greater culture that if you want to read something with colorful costumes it's got to be something that mocks them while it's doing it.

"Look at their stupid capes!"

That's the sentiment that seems to pervade most of popular culture. It's why newspapers can't get their facts about Batwoman in Detective right. And it's why after all these years they still start every article about comics with a "Bam" and a "Pow."

I guess this post isn't really about Watchmen. But then, I don't really have a beef with that series per se. My issue is the way the world looks at super-hero comics. The world seems willing to accept something like Watchmen because it's "adult." But it views your standard super-hero comics as though they are inherently flawed and must be changed from what they are to be made worthy for consumption.

How exactly do you reconcile this contradiction? After all, the general populace seems to like super-heroes perfectly well. The Dark Knight just broke $1 billion worldwide. But while Watchmen trade paperbacks are selling to the general population, how many sales of Batman comics did The Dark Knight bring about?

Not many, I'd imagine.

Why does it work this way? Why are people impressed when you talk about Watchmen but laugh when you talk about Aquaman? Why are "graphic novels" acceptable but "comics" for children? And why do people expect me to be ashamed that I read Action Comics monthly?

I'm not ashamed. Not even a little bit. Because despite what the big world and the creators of convetnional wisdom think, there's nothing wrong with reading super-hero comics. There's nothing wrong with reading what people deride as "corporate comics" either.

There's a reason these characters and concepts have survived in this form for so many decades. Super-hero comics are an institution. They are a form of entertainment that has survived longer than a heck of a lot of others. And just like people shouldn't be ashamed of their tastes in music or movies, there's no reason to be ashamed of one's tastes in comics.

So next time you hear people talking about comics, don't feel like you need to hide the fact that your favorite comic is Green Lantern rather than Preacher or Batman rather than Sandman. Share your love of super-heroes with the world. Don't confine it to your blog. Makes sure everybody knows that you believe a man can fly.