Considering Watchmen by Andrew Hoberek delves deeply into the rich cognitive natures of the Watchmen and analyzes both the characters and the book as a whole, highlighting its place in the comic medium and elaborating on the process Moore utilized to create such incredibly tragic characters. This reading was fascinating, so much so that I blabbed about it to my dad while I was reading it. At first, when I read Watchmen, I was connecting the heroes and their roles to major elements: Rorschach being war, Dr. Manhattan being God, Ozymandias being an embodiment of the shady agendas that fuel America, etc. However, I was surprised to be informed that the characters went much further than simply acting as personifications of common comic and action tropes, but rather they were the embodiment of the comic experience itself! As is explained in the chapter "Poetics", Hoberek states that Dr. Manhattan represents the comic reader itself, for he is omniscient like the reader but cannot see beyond his own experience, whether it be in the future or past. Just like the comic reader, we can flick back and forth between the previous and future pages to see what happens, but if we do not read it linearly, we cannot understand why it happens. Just like Dr. Manhattan, we see the future in the same type of frame (panel) that he sees the picture of his past self, Dr. Osterman. However, we cannot change it, we can only observe. Like Dr. Manhattan, we are going through the motions and reacting accordingly. Even more fascinating was Ozymandias personification of the story itself, being the big mystery reveal that is common in stories, but also acting as a commentary that his own subjectivity is hidden from the reader in a contrasting point to a story being richer by having a vast character subjectivity. The read was a very interesting one and I exaggerate not when I say this, but Watchmen is one of my favorite comics and I feel my fannish nature already growing as I catch myself watching the movie immediately after finishing the book, being excited to read Hoberek's analysis of the text, and already pre-ordering the Watchmen: The End is Nigh game in hopes that I can write about it for my video game blog instead of Batman: Arkham Asylum (which I had already started playing but am hesitant to write about because I am so currently endulged in Watchmen).
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4/28/2015 06:31:07 am
Calvin, I hadn't realized there was a Watchmen videogame out there! That's intriguing. I myself can't imagine wanting to "live" vicariously through the grimy world of the novel, but Amazon suggests that the game has its fans! I gather you can play as either Rorschach or Dan... What would a Dr. Manhattan first-person game be like, eh?
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