Tuesday, Mar. 10, 2009

Why do fans love 'Watchmen'? Because it's just plain cool

"Watchmen" is everywhere. TV commercials. On the covers of magazines. And in news headlines. Action figures of its superhero characters have sold out minutes after hitting stores. Unless you are among the legion of fans who consider "Watchmen" a major milestone in comic history, all of this buzz might seem confusing.

Fans have embraced the 12-part comic-book series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, released in 1986 and 1987 by DC Comics, because of its character development, artwork, maturity and storytelling. And it's just plain cool. It's a mandatory part of their collections. It is such a complex work that fans have had to wait years for a movie version of the tale that confronts deep societal questions.

Praise goes beyond the comic world. In 2005, "Watchmen" was named by Time magazine as one of the top 100 English-language novels released since 1923.

A comic book joined the likes of "1984," by George Orwell; "The Lord of the Rings," by J.R.R. Tolkien; "Gone With the Wind," by Margaret Mitchell; "The Sun Also Rises," by Ernest Hemingway; "Slaughterhouse-Five," by Kurt Vonnegut; and "The Grapes of Wrath," by John Steinbeck.

If you're not a fan of comic books, you probably wonder why it was on the list, which was compiled by Time magazine's critics Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo.

Grossman wrote that "Watchmen" is "a heart-pounding, heartbreaking read and a watershed in the evolution of a young medium."

And on Friday, "Watchmen" hit movie theaters.

So, for those of you who know little to nothing about "Watchmen," here's a little background to help you understand.

Q: What is "Watchmen"?

A: "Watchmen" tells the story of a group of superheroes trying to solve the mystery of who is killing the members of its crime-fighting group. This story unfolds in the mid-'80s against a backdrop of the Cold War. These are not your traditional superheroes, such as Superman. Moore and Gibbons asked comic-book readers to consider the following: What happens when superheroes are as mentally unstable as the people they are hunting?

One of the most jolting sequences in "Watchmen" comes when the superhero known as the Comedian confronts a Vietnamese woman he has gotten pregnant. His solution to the problem is to gun down the woman and her unborn baby. He's not a nice guy through-and-through.

There also are incidents of rape, child mutilation and murder involving the supposed "good guys." It all leads to one question: How far can a person go when the actions are done in the name of doing good?

Q: Why is "Watchmen" different?

A: "Watchmen" attacked the very foundation of the comic-book universe. Ever since the late '30s, fans of comic books have accepted one premise: Vigilantes can be tolerated as long as they are working for the common good.

DC Comics, the grandfather of the superhero genre, showed that whether it was a superpowered visitor from another planet (Superman) or a billionaire (Batman) with a cave full of cool gadgets underneath his playboy mansion, comic-book readers embraced their crime-fighting antics.

Marvel Comics adopted the same approach. Its heroes, such as Spider-Man, were given a few more foibles and flaws. At the heart, they were still a vigilante force decked out in colorful Spandex.

No one questioned the fact the heroes worked outside the law.

Then Moore and Gibbons took a left turn in that thinking with "Watchmen." The lines between good and evil weren't as much blurred as entangled. Those who set themselves up as defenders of the helpless had no problem brutally turning on the weak. The effort to find justice often got twisted by the delusions of a mind on the verge of madness. Each of those changes was a complete reversal of the previously accepted world of superheroes.