“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?“
Translated as “Who will guard the guards” or “Who will watch the Watchmen”, this question was first asked by Socrates and described by Plato in his Republic. The society Socrates foresaw relied on laborers, slaves and tradesmen, with a guardian class for protection and the implementation of laws. But then who was going to guard these protectors; ensuring that they do not supercede the very law they are protecting or harass the very people they are protecting? This question is at the heart of the rise and the fall of every system of power and state that humankind has ever conceived or will conceive of. It is this same question lies at the heart of The Watchmen.
Alan Moore’s universe is not one set in the future. It is instead a creation of an alternate reality of the current times; much like the works of Philip K. Dick (The Man in the High Castle comes to mind immediately). The year is 1985 and the US of A has won the Vietnam War and Nixon is still the president. Russia and USA have continued to stockpile nuclear arsenals. The
world seems to be a button away from destruction, caused by the mutual
fear between the two superpowers. In this world numerous vigilantes of justice once roamed the city fighting crime (or what they thought was crime); but now they have been forced into retirement. Two of them, The Comedian and Dr. Manhattan, are active but only in the US government’s service. Another one of them, Rorscharch, is now a hunted felon by not giving up his mask when asked to and operating independently. Those who have given up shedded their masks (Night Owl etc) are now trying to fit into the monotone of a normal existence; not able to forget entirely their pasts and not fully embracing the present. The spectre of their own alternate identities continues to haunt them.
In this environment, suddenly the ex-vigilantes lives are threatened. The Comedian is murdered and by strange sequence of events Dr. Manhattan exiles himself to Mars. An attempt is made on the life of Ozymandias. Rorscharch, the still-active-in-underground vigilante sees a possible conspiracy to get the world rid of all its protectors before unleashing a violent bloodbath on the planet. He has a hard time convincing his fellow masked-men on the veracity of his claims but the curious turn of circumstances bring together the old friends at the time of the final showdown and the masked men (and women) back to their masks. All very standard and nice; kill the villain; save the world; maybe even get the chick.
Except that, nothing could be further from truth (except maybe the last statement). The Watchmen is an exploration into the psyche of the masked men and women; their lives, follies and aspirations. Those who set out to save the world and yet over their journey are consumed by their blind zeal and lose their humanity. Enraptured by their successes, surrounded by their fears and prodded on by visions of a half-baked utopia, they are dehumanized; becoming more like the people they are fighting than the people they are protecting. It is often stated that comic book heroes, especially those without superhuman powers (Batman for example), are the propagators of the fascist ideal; where one world view superior to all others and those opposing are the enemies. Frank Miller’s reinvention of Batman (The Dark Knight Returns and therafter) was based mostly on this mental tussle between the humanatarian Bruce Wayne and essentially fascist Batman. In Dr. Manhattan, Moore creates a character with true superhuman powers and his cold rationality and approach to justice serves as a mirror for the other characters exposing them as merely human.
Over 12 chapters, Moore grapples with the question that came at the beginning of the post. Moore’s world is in a way self-contained; its own God (Dr. Manhattan) included. The Deux ex machina does not come in here at the denouement to help tie the threads but is prevalent throughout. After all when you have a character capable of playing with atoms, the very building blocks of this universe, one does not need an external agent to wrap things up. Moore’s solution is essentially the same that Plato proposed, albiet proposed reluctantly and giving the reader enough space to derive his own conclusions. The guardians have to be convinced of their superiority. They must never fear the humans or the fact their power is contigent on any external factors not in their control. In essence they must become true superheroes.
Does killing millions to save billions make sense? Is perpetrating a gruesome horror justified in the name of awakening the latent goodness in all of us? Can only a false specter of superiority, prevent the protectors from turning oppressors? These questions, and not the answers that Moore provides for them are at the heart of The Watchmen. And in this world, when certain individuals on the strength of the offices they hold are taking on the mantles of protectors of justice, freedom, democracy and all the good sounding words, they are more pertinent than ever.
Apart from its obvious attractions to the philosophically inclined, The Watchmen is eminently readable. Moore relies on a narrative that is reminiscent of cinema more than literature. The kid reading The Marooned issue of the series The Tales of the Black Freighter takes the viewer back and forth amongst worlds; each seamlessly blending into the other, conveying the same basic ideas. The reader is merely the part of another world where the same words and ideas would fit in. Dave Gibbons also relies heavily on the cinematic language in terms of his frame designs when the narrative shifts in time and space. If they ever made a movie of this, it would have the highest number of match cuts.
After reading V for Vendetta, I was not sure what to expect from the Alan Moore work. Yet another defense of anarchism, a regular comic strip with villains and world-dominating schemes or soemething else. It was something else, allright; but I never imagined this. Whatever it was, it will definitely figure when I make another list like this again.
technorati tags:comics, watchmen, graphic, novels
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