RORSCHACH SYMBOL FROM WATCHME SERIES

Here, I’m making an educated guess that some of the conflict between Dr. There, the textual conflict between Superboy-Prime, the Golden Age “Earth-2” Superman, and the modern Superman was very much a debate about superhero violence and the toxicity of nostalgia.

RORSCHACH SYMBOL FROM WATCHME SERIES

This is what interests me about Doomsday Clock, because I believe the essence of Johns’ project here is taking these meta debates about Watchmen’s legacy and embodying them in characters themselves - particularly Superman! He did this once before, in the 2005 event series Infinite Crisis, which coincidentally arrived at the peak of my DC fanboy phase. Manhattan (in his colder moments) more than any Man of Steel I’ve ever read. Certainly this seems to be what Zack Snyder glommed on to about Watchmen, both in his 2009 film adaptation and his subsequent Superman movies. Other artists want to emulate it, but of course not everyone has Alan Moore’s cosmic-sized brain, so they take the elements they can, which happen to be the most superficial. This is, of course, the “lowest common denominator” thing that happens with every zeitgeist-changing piece of art. Although it opened up the floodgates to comics being considered literature, its main effect on the comics themselves has sometimes seemed to be popularizing violence and darkness in superhero storytelling - particularly in the original Image Comics wave that must have been prevalent during your original fanboy days. That said, Watchme n’s influence on comics and pop culture at large is, I think, up for debate. On different readings you can appreciate the beauty of Gibbons’ art (such as the one issue that’s entirely symmetrical), or Moore’s wheels-within-wheels plot machinations - you can focus on the psychological mindf- of Rorschach’s story or the thought-provoking deconstruction of Dr. Luckily, Watchmen is conducive to multiple readings and actually does get better every time you read it. I probably missed a lot on my first go-through I definitely skipped the text installments, which as you and I both know totally changes the context of the story. However! If any young’uns are somehow reading this, I would not necessarily recommend reading Watchmen that early, because that’s a hell of a lot to wrap your head around. I usually tell people these facts about me so they can better understand why I am the way I am.

That was about the time I first read Sandman, too. In fact, I think I was still in junior high. How did you first experience Watchmen, Christian? How did it fit in with your experience of DC comics in general? And can you set the stage a bit for how Johns has been building up to this new saga?ĬHRISTIAN: I definitely read Watchmen too young. He’s pushing the narrative forward, where Before Watchmen still strikes me as an elaborate act of wheel-spinning, a strip-mine operation of Intellectual Property without much value added.Īnd now here is where I admit that I am very, very confused about Doomsday Clock, because I have only the most glancing awareness of what’s been going on with the DC Universe this decade. And, based on what I saw at the San Diego panel, it seems clear to me that Johns wants to make a larger point with the Watchmen aspect of this story. A lot has happened since then that makes me more optimistic about reboots – Hannibal, DuckTales, Fury Road – so I’ve tried to keep an open mind with Doomsday Clock. When DC announced that prequel series-of-series a few years back I was, ahem, rather fervently opposed to it, for a variety of pretentious young-dummy reasons.

(You know I’m not joking, Christian, I read all of Jerusalem!)īut, funny you mention Before Watchmen. I would read a complete book-length Under the Hood if Alan Moore wrote it. I still remember the first time I read the graphic novel, I stayed up all night, I got to the end, was desperate to keep the high going that I went back to actually read all those text-only interstitials. Watchmen is a masterpiece, even if it seems blasé to call it a masterpiece. How did you first read it? Do you still appreciate Watchmen or does it now seem blasé to you? Are you interested or horrified by this whole crossover idea?ĭARREN FRANICH: Watchmen will never be blasé. I think we should start off by maybe discussing our personal history with Watchmen.

Darren, you and I represent two different generations of DC/comic fans.

Rorschach symbol from watchme