A Watchmen for our time

Took advantage of a free weekend of HBO to see the first episode of Watchmen.

I liked it a lot. If it stays this good, I will likely purchase it at some point.

I think it also helped me understand something about the original comic that I didn’t understand before.

I didn’t like the original comic. I recognized it was well written, well plotted, well designed. I recognized it was complex and dark and different. I recognized it was interesting. I recognized that, at one point, it was relevant.

In misunderstanding this comic, I decided that the reason I disliked it was because it was dark and joyless. I blamed the tone. But that doesn’t really make sense, because there are some dark and joyless things that I actually like.

Watchmen is a comic about ideas. It has superheroes, but it is more about the *idea* of a superhero, and what happens to that idea when it departs from the fantasy world and clashes with realism. What is a superhero in the “real” world if not something that looks ridiculous and strange? What are superpowers in the “real” world, and what happens to humanity in a world where superpowers exist? Does a person have to be insane to put on a mask? Is a costume a reflection of masculinity or femininity? Is a man who can see all of time a god or a prisoner? Are superheroes even effective? Do the good guys even win in the end?

These are all interesting ideas. But I was unable to connect with this book before, and I think I realize why: It was the time.

The book is set in a specific time period, the 1980s, where the issues of that era govern people’s motivations. Fear over nuclear war, for instance. The fears and uncertainties that plague the world of Watchmen feel very near to them, but they feel very distant from me.

In other words, despite being *interesting*, it lacked the one thing that would have probably made me love it—relevance to me and my time. I had a hard time relating to the *people* in the Watchmen comic, so I could only really relate to the interesting *ideas*. Without a human connection, I couldn’t truly get into it.

Maybe I lack empathy. But I prefer to believe I simply lacked context.

This new show on HBO is promising something to me that a 30-year-old comic was unable to deliver: relevance. It is set in a world that understands what we are afraid of *today*. It understands that the ticking clock we hear today is not the same as the one from 30 years ago. It understands what we fear will happen when it stops.

This may be the Watchmen that was made for us, and for our time.

As long as they don’t fuck it up.