38 Years Later, Watchmen Still Pushes the Boundaries of Superhero Comics

Often cited as the comic that redefined superhero stories, Watchmen did more than poke fun at the idea of superheroes if they existed in the real world. Writer Alan Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons challenged the conventions of comic book storytelling at the time of its publication between 1986 and 1987. Prior to 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths, many of DC Comics’ superhero stories avoided delving too deep into adult themes and concepts due to the Comics Code Authority. The latter was the comic book equivalent of the Hays Code in movies that restricted the depictions of violence, morally complex characters, and explicit adult content.

Under the Comics Code Authority, superhero comics during the Bronze Age would only imply sexual activity between adult characters. They also avoided any explicit confirmation of such activity taking place, even in conversation. Superhero stories would also often depict the aftermath of sexual violence rather than the act itself. Likewise, depictions of violence were kept at a minimum by avoiding gore and graphic depictions of torture, with the heroes rarely shown to be killing their enemies. Swearing, the use of drugs and other vices were minimal or practically non-existent. Part of what contributed to Watchmen’s unprecedented success in the mid-’80s that kept it a timeless classic in the decades that followed was the fact that it “broke” all the rules of comics. The irony was this was never the comic’s intent.

Watchmen Is Not a Superhero Comic for Adults

The Comics Pushed the Superhero Genre to Its Most Realistic Breaking Point

One of the common misconceptions of Watchmen is that it is a “graphic novel for adults.” Moore has since gone on record to confirm that, “No, it’s not. It’s the same comics that you’ve been reading for ages.” Moore further elaborated that comics had not actually grown up in the ’80s, and were “still the same juvenile rubbish that had been produced for the last 40 or 50 years.” To ensure that his point was clear, Moore took it a step further by stating that the comic boom of the ’80s “[granted] a license to a lot of people not to have to actually grow up.”

At a glance, it appears as though Watchmen contradicts the statements of its own author, but it really does not. As early as Watchmen #2, “Absent Friends,” The Comedian (one of the story’s most controversial characters) explicitly states the thesis of the comic during the Crimebusters’ meeting. More specifically, The Comedian calls out the absurdity of masked vigilantes or “superheroes” as a viable solution to complex real-world problems like the drug and illegal sex trades, gang violence and campus subversion. He even takes it a step further by calling out Captain Metropolis’ own unwillingness to grow up despite being an aging Minuteman who’s been “playing cowboys and Indians” since the ’40s — a time characterized by immense human suffering as a consequence of the Second World War.

Though The Comedian is killed off in Watchmen’s very first issue, with much of the story is centered on the surviving heroes solving his murder, he is the character who Moore and Gibbons use the most to criticize the very idea of superheroes. The Comedian is also used to criticize the perceived simplicity of real-world problems. In most of Watchmen’s flashbacks, he is presented as the most self-aware character in the story. Whereas the other costumed heroes lie to themselves to some degree about their usefulness in a complex world that’s becoming increasingly paranoid over the likelihood of a nuclear holocaust, The Comedian holds no such illusions. More than any other character, The Comedian understands that the world’s problems are symptomatic of oppressive government systems.

It doesn’t take one person to create a system that’s designed to benefit a small group of people at the expense of everyone else, but an entire ruling class. Likewise, civilians also do their part to maintain the very systems that oppress them, because they are not taught to challenge these systems as a means to their own survival. They are, instead, conditioned to accept these oppressive systems as the only viable way to lead stable lives, even if they are in fact being denied healthier ways of living. With this awareness, Moore and Gibbons use The Comedian to reflect the ugly truth of human existence, namely how people perpetuate the very problems they criticize yet enable. This gives weight to The Comedian’s famous line to Ozymandias that it “takes a moron to think [the world’s problems] are small enough for clowns like [him] to handle.”

Watchmen Criticized the Different Ideas of Power That Superheroes Embody

The Characters Embodied the Futility of Being a Superhero in the Real World

Another way Moore and Gibbons satirize the concept of superheroes is by examining the different ideas of power they embody. This also informs the characters’ personalities and motivations. Rorschach, for example, is a character who subscribes to his own “hype.” He thinks of himself as a relentless crime fighter who never compromises on his morals, but often does the complete opposite. More than he actually pursues justice for vulnerable people who lack the power to seek it themselves, he gets a thrill out of violently punishing people he perceives as wrongdoers. Rorschach even harms people who committed no crimes, but may have information he may find useful. In those situations, he uses violent coercion.

Through Rorshach, Moore and Gibbons more strongly criticize vigilante justice. As his civilian alter ego, Walter Kovacs, Rorschach is presented as an unkempt individual who keeps a dirty apartment, and even poses as a transient as a way of observing his environment and learning about any potential enemies. He even learns any dirty secrets his “friends” may have by being that “homeless guy” no one pays attention to. When he feels he has enough information to interrogate a potential suspect or make that person afraid of him, this is when he changes into his iconic suit and Rorschach mask, which he refers to as his true “face.” The anonymity of his “face” affords Rorschach the power to intimidate and brutalize people with impunity.

Moore and Gibbons also present Rorschach with a tragic backstory that informs his right-wing cynicism and bigotry, which subsequently inform his violent solutions to even small infractions. Opposite of Rorschach are the second Nite-Owl and Silk Spectre. Both heroes don’t subscribe to Rorschach’s extremism, and are content to move on from their costumed lifestyles. At the same time, they also feel that carrying on the legacies of their ’40s predecessors elevates them in some way. Through Nite-Owl and Silk Spectre, Moore and Gibbons succinctly examine the danger of superhero legacies. This is especially true for the second Silk Spectre, who feels burdened by her mother’s legacy.

Aside from feeling like she’s living in her mother’s shadow by upholding the latter’s dream, Laurie Juspeczyk finds her costumed lifestyle very isolating. More than she craves power, she craves human connection, but feels the only way she can achieve this is by connecting with other superheroes. She was first romantically involved with Jon Osterman, AKA Dr. Manhattan. However, his lack of human desire and passion for her drove Laurie into the arms of Daniel Dreiberg, the second Nite-Owl. The latter relationship is what ultimately brought her back into the superhero lifestyle, despite initially wanting to move away from that.

The core cast of characters present very strong cases against vigilante justice as a force for good in the real world. However, the characters that most effectively drive home Moore and Gibbons’ point about the dangers of certain individuals having too much power are Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias. The case of Dr. Manhattan essentially answers the question of “would a real-life Superman actually burden himself with protecting the world from itself?” Throughout Watchmen, Moore Gibbons present Dr. Manhattan as a man who acquired godlike powers as a result of a nuclear accident. However, rather than his powers being a blessing, Moore and Gibbons present them as the character’s curse.

In addition to Dr. Manhattan gradually losing interest in human desires due to their futility and irrelevance in the larger scheme of things, he also experiences dehumanization from his loved ones, the U.S. government, and the general public. The combination of being treated as a human nuclear weapon and a lack of meaningful human connections convinced Dr. Manhattan to abandon the Earth for Mars. This also caused the U.S. government to lose its greatest weapon over the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. This adds to The Comedian’s earlier point about how the world’s problems are not small enough for a single person to handle, not even one with godlike powers.

Even more dangerous than the power vacuum Dr. Manhattan’s absence creates is the way the wealthy and resourceful Ozymandias takes advantage of that to execute his own deadly plan for saving the world. In fact, it is Ozymandias who brings Moore and Gibbons’ story full circle by proving The Comedian’s point from “Absent Friends.” In that earlier chapter, Ozymandias was convinced that by having the right person coordinating the Crimebusters, it was possible to save the world. The Comedian rebuffed him by pointing out that it “takes a moron” to think the world’s problems were “small enough” for one person to fix.

Moore and Gibbons expertly reveal in Watchmen’s finale how Ozymandias connected to every single event in the story, from killing The Comedian as a distraction for Rorschach, to manipulating the public into exiling Dr. Manhattan to Mars. By the time the heroes caught on to his plan, it was already too late to stop him from committing genocide in New York with the infamous squid monster. Ozymandias’ justification for the genocide was that by giving the people of Earth an alien threat to obsess over and unite against, this would end the Cold War. What he didn’t account for was Rorschach exposing the truth of his plan by submitting his journal to a right-wing newspaper before allowing Dr. Manhattan to kill him. Through Ozymandias, Moore and Gibbons successfully drive home the message that people in positions of power can’t be depended on to solve complex world problems. They also make the point that “superhero solutions” to those very problems are dangerously absurd at best, and the machinations of a delusional person at worst.

Watchmen Used Unconventional Storytelling Methods to Convey Its Message

The Comics’ Use of Different Techniques Made It a Timeless Masterpiece

A huge part of what allows Moore and Gibbons to effectively challenge readers’ assumptions about superheroes is the way they present the information in only 12 issues. More than anything, it is their unconventional execution of ideas that allows their larger message to leave a stronger impact on the reader. Unlike conventional superhero comics where the titular heroes’ narratives are ongoing, Watchmen is a finite story that leaves little room for a follow-up. Without the ongoing status, Watchmen avoids diluting its own message by not endlessly recycling the same narrative beats and points of emotional growth for its characters. This makes the characters feel more lifelike despite being satirical representations of popular comic book heroes.

Another way that Moore and Gibbons successfully drive home their message is through the use of a nine-panel grid and by presenting expository material as “bonus stories” that don’t distract from the larger narrative. The nine-panel grid allows Moore and Gibbons to present as much story as possible within a very limited page space. Moore and Gibbons also use parallel images to juxtapose events happening in the main story and the ones taking place in the fictional in-universe comic book Tales of the Black Freighter. The latter helps build the world of Watchmen by depicting the consequences of the existence of real-life superheroes. In this case, real-life superheroes caused that world’s version of DC Comics to be a publisher of pirate stories rather than superhero stories. The Black Freighter comic also helps convey the sense of dread the Watchmen characters feel.

Moore and Gibbons further flesh out the history of Watchmen’s universe through excerpts of Hollis Mason’s autobiography, Under the Hood, featured at the end of most chapters. These passages don’t just detail Hollis’ own history as the first Nite-Owl and the Minutemen during the early half of the 20th Century, but they also help contextualize the events of the present. This creates the sense of a lived-in universe despite the limited page space. Lastly, Moore and Gibbons tell their story through the main characters’ varying perspectives to help the reader get a sense of who they are. This even informs how they present information in every issue. This is most notable with Dr. Manhattan’s chapter, “Watchmaker,” which uses nonlinear storytelling to convey his transcendental perception of time, how his powers changed him, and how he gradually became more cynical and detached towards humanity.

Watchmen is a comic worthy of all the hype it gets, but not for the reasons people think. As mentioned, Watchmen is not a superhero comic for adults. It is a comic that doesn’t pretend to be more mature than it actually is while succinctly criticizing the different ideas of power that people admire in superheroes. What makes the comic truly groundbreaking is the way it expertly executes its larger message by not following the conventions of mainstream superhero comics. This not only contributed to Watchmen’s long-standing influence over the superhero genre, but its long-term relevance as a work of fiction in general.

Watchmen is now available to read digitally and in print wherever books are sold.