Working through Watchmen

I posted once at www.brendoman.com/andrew about starting to read Alan Moore's "Watchmen" graphic novel, and had said I would continue with updates as I progressed through the book. Unfortunately, other reading endeavors got in the way at that time. I have, though, once again begun reading it.

I think I noted in my other post how wonderfully Moore subvert the expectations of a superhero story, and how complex he makes the characters. These people are more than masked heroes, they have lives and thoughts and feeling. Reading through chapter 5, I am getting an even better picture of who these people are.

Some thoughts on the book:

In Chapter III, Moore has a really interesting set of panels. In the chapter, Jon is talking to media about himself, but members of an audience begin to get worked up. Meanhile, Laurie and Dan are out for a stroll and find themselves is a street fight with a pack of hooligans. In one panel, Secret service agents, or maybe just bodyguards, push Jon out of the studio saying, "C'mon, let's get out! The mob's getting aroused..." In the next, Laurie and Dan are shown after defeating the gang in an almost post-coital position. They are slumped with the backs against a wall, kind of leaning on one another, breathing heavy. Laurie pulls out a cigarette.

Chapter IV expertly captures Dr. Osterman's ability to exist in all points of his life simultaneously. The use of Jon dropping the photograph into the dust of the moon helps the reader to see how he views time. Moore uses the mixed up chronology to emphasize Jon's feelings as much as he uses it as a cool way to tell the story. In lesser hands, the scenes may not have been placed in such a way as to create maximum impact.

Finally, in Chapter V, Moore shows how deftly he weaves multiple stories and voices in one cohesive thread. Moore and artist Gibbons also reveal a stroke of genius: they utilize mirror reflections (combined with a mirrored panel structure) multiple times to serve the story titled "Fearful Symmetry" (with a quote at the end from Blake's poem). I also thought I saw the word "tiger" spelled "tyger" as it is in the poem, but when I went back through the chapter, I couldn't find it.

I look forward to the next chapter.