Who is Watching Me Read the Watchmen?

Like most boys, I grew up a devout comic book reader. Even at the young age of 6, my dad had to tell me bedtime stories involving the Incredible Hulk, even if he had no idea who he was. As long as I knew Hulk was busy in some adventure, I could happily fall asleep. Later, when we moved to Brasil, I fell immediatly in love with A Turma da Monica and all of Disney's cartoon characters.

When my reading grew sophisticated on the back of Agatha Christie novels, I turned my attention to the Marvel and DC universes, collecting everything I could find superhero-related. I loved Spiderman but really had no time for Superman. The X-Men were my first introduction to depression just as the saga which involved the death of The Flash and Wonder Woman made me realize there was drama beyond Brasilian soap operas. Then I hit puberty, became preoccupied with getting my first kiss, and the interest dissipated.

I've always been aware of the Watchmen. From the iconic image of the smiley face dripping blood, to the fact that it was written by Alan Moore (whose graphic novel From Hell blew me away a couple of years ago) I knew this was a somewhat important, celebrated piece of work.

I started reading it yesterday, on a Tube ride to work. I was immediatly hooked. The book was sent to me last year by someone on LJ who wanted to get rid of his old DVDs and books (he sent me over 30 DVDs and 20 books inside a FedEx box -- one of those "once in a lifetime" kind of moments.) Watchmen must be, in my opinion, one of those highmarks of American pop culture. That bloodied smiley face, so representative of the burgeoning acid house movement in Detroit and Britain, seems to foreshadow the ultimate fall of ecstasy culture (eventhough the book has nothing to do with it); the story, revolving around decrepid superheroes caught up in a noir mystery, pays homage to both the great American pulps of the 1940s and 50s, as well as the emerging American dystopia which many people now live under; and Moore's use of book excerpts sandwiched between the drawn chapters must have seemed at the time like the ultimate experiment with superhero narratives. It still works today.

I wasn't surprised to find out they are making a movie out of it: the story is so epic, the characters so complex and intriguing, that it could become a great blockbuster in the right hands. Let's just hope Hollywood doesn't tone it down for the sake of reaching as many people as possible; Watchmen is great because it studies the darkness and seediness that was always implied in the superhero world, but never shown.