Broken Frontier

Enough with the characters in Watchmen, to prove this book is Good Literature, let’s look a little closer at the story.

The most predominate premise in Watchmen is a Latin saying, “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.”  In English?  “Who watches the watchmen?”  Or, as Lajos Egri would probably put it, “Letting the Watchmen watch themselves leads to social discord.”  This premise has many levels of meaning, something I am positive Egri would like.  The most predominate meaning a reader can take from it is the question it raises about people in positions of authority.  Who is watching them?  Throughout the comic, the phrase is partially seen several times spray-painted on walls in the city.  However, the entire phrase is never seen.  Is this because people are too afraid to really ask the important questions, questions like, “Who is watching the watchmen?”

It also works on another level because in this story the Watchmen are watching each other.  Rorschach is “watching out” for his fellow costumed do-gooders when he investigates The Comedian’s death.  Ozymandias is watching all the heroes and figuring out their motivations, weaknesses, and strengths so as to achieve his ultimate goals.  Nite-Owl is watching his life go by pointlessly.  Silk Spectre is watching Dr. Manhattan and ultimately, Dr. Manhattan is watching everything everywhere all the time. 

But this works as a premise on yet one more level.  When readers are shown the depravities of The Comedian (as told through flashbacks from other characters at, around, or near his funeral), they see that no one is watching him in the sense that he does whatever he wants to do and gets away with it because, one can only assume, of his status as a “hero.”  

Some of you might be wondering if this premise is as passionately thrust at the reader as Egri would have it be.  The answer to that wonder is a most powerful and passionate, “Yes!”  Obviously, the author’s passion for this premise comes through in the work.  If the author is not passionate about his chosen premise, it is nigh impossible to pull this many meanings from it.  

Watchmen possesses many characteristics that make it Good Literature, and what we’ve discussed is just a sampling.  Can you find any more?  I’m asking because I’m done looking.

Next week, we will move on to another comic book from the late twentieth century to further prove my point that superhero comic books really are Good Literature!

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AE Stueve is a former regular contributor to Broken Frontier.  His first novel, The ABCs of DInkology is due out this fall from WSC Press and The Wave, a line of comic books he is editing, is also due out this fall.