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Continued from part
4, book 12...
Epilogue
- Quis custodiet ipsos custodes - Who watches the watchers?
So, what can we say about this "watershed event" in comics history? What have we learned about this dark story with political commentary running throughout and what is the dominant philosophy of the series? Is it really a great event in comics history and does it deserve the acclaim?
Let's start with the visual. Graphically, it isn't very well drafted. It does have the benefit of being created in the semi-realist style that began to be popular in the 1980s, though, which instantly makes it better than today's comics drawn in that horrible Japanese Anime/Manga style that has so pervaded the comic book industry of late. Thankfully, Watchmen's was not yet in an era infected by this regrettable, current trend in US comicbook art.
Today, comics have lost their unique American look to be replaced by the ridiculously large eyes, elongated limbs and large, booted feet of Japan's comic art style. It's a shame, because this style detracts from any attempt at serious story lines and constantly reminds the reader that he is really just reading a comic book after all. The overly stylistic, childish Japanese style is a travesty in American comics.
However, I can see how it became so popular with the artists if not the public. After all, the entirely formulaic look makes it awfully easy for an artist to slam down on the page under the pressures of drawing a monthly title. It certainly beats attempting to approximate real life representation, for sure.
As to subject matter, it wasn't "just a comic book." It hit all the 80's hot-button issues. Homosexuality, rape, war with Russia and "the bomb," crooked US politicians, corruption, murder, sexual impotency, welfare mammas, and homicidal maniacs were all aspects of the story line. But its philosophy of nihilism and anarchy was its real underlying message.
Obviously, the series is a commentary on the human condition as much as it is on the politics contemporary to the publishing of the work as intended by writer, Alan Moore. Man is the greatest evil of all, despair is the only possible reality, and peace is but fleeting, these seem to be the core messages in Watchmen. And it's all told over the backdrop of a fallen and corrupt western society. Sadly, that focus ignores the real reality of the hollow Soviet Union and the evil it perpetrated form well over 60 some years at that point.
But, this idea, that man will ruin everything eventually, could certainly have been told sans the ill informed and badly thought out political commentary running underneath. The basic tenets of leftist thought that forms the basis of the point of view in this series are proven failures and this detracts from what could have been a better story. The fact that the Left's ideas are failures was even realizable during the era in which the book was written and not just in hindsight as we re-read it today. From the hatred of American politics, to doubt of American character, and the equalization of all ideologies to the lowest common denominator, this series fails in its political interpretation.
Further, the cynical commentary that "justice", or "right," and "good" themselves are so subjective as to be impossible to define runs throughout. There is a basic assumption that there's no such thing as heroism and that those who claim to believe in the concept or even try to put it into play eventually make a mockery of their claims of defending the innocent and punishing the guilty. That they, sooner or later, confuse the search for justice with their own selfish desires or that said search is so intertwined with their personality flaws in the first place that they only succeed in deluding themselves into imagining that justice really is being served at all by their actions.
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to continue on to epilogue, page 2...
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