No, Superfolks isn’t a book about being a superhero. That’s the point, when you get down to it. It’s using a superhero as a metaphor for growing older, in a muddled 70s way. But the themes in it show up again and again, in Watchmen, in Final Crisis, in Kingdom Come. It’s not a great book. It might not even be a good book. But it is a relevant book, and one that shaped the writing of pretty much the entire field of the british writers somehow.
I grew up on British comics, and Watchmen, despite the authors’ origins, seemed to be a commentary on American comics, superheroes, and politics. I am not a fan of those latter things, so the story did nothing for me.
And I didn’t like the way the pages were layed out, either.
This reminds me of when we had a misguided youngster seriously complain that I Am Legend was a ripoff of 28 Days.
I’ve read Watchmen three times now; got something new each time. For instance, today it occurred to me that Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan both exhibit personal behavior (Dr. Manhattan’s nudity, Rorschach’s complete disregard of how bad he smells) and thinking that put them outside humanity – Rorschach because he’s deeply, permanently damaged, Dr. Manhattan because of his godlike perspective. We can never really understand Dr. Manhattan, and maybe we don’t want to understand Rorschach.
Also, I’ve got to give Moore and Gibbons points for making great use of Galle Crater on Mars (even though the scale is wrong).
Asylum has stated it perfectly. This book explores the author’s philosophy: on superheroes, on motivations of said people, and the consequences of trying to impose order in a chaotic world. I wrote a paper once exploring the different types of nihilistic philosophies that 4 of the main male characters displayed (Rorsarch, Ozymandius, Dr. Manhattan, and the Comedian for those that want to know). And that wasn’t even Moore’s main purpose.
Watchmen (like the Brother’s Karamazov) is not a great book because of coherent logic of the world and plot. Many of the storytelling elements may merely be average (and I would argue that they are far, far above average). It is great because it uses storytelling conventions to examine emotional, moral, and philosophical ideas that are floating in the author’s brain with the reader left to decide who is right. It is not a fluffly Marvel '“What If?” issue. Everything has a purpose and the narrative is used to explore those ideas in an interesting, emotional, and hopefully thought-provoking way.
But if you don’t have a positive reaction to it, I would hardly say you “don’t get it.” Everybody has their own taste. If this story did not stimulate your thoughts or maybe you found some of the ideas wanting, than perhaps a different story and presentation would be more appropriate. That is not your fault any more than it is Watchmen’s fault. However, I would expect someone to at least notice and appreciate the amount of love, detail, planning, and thought that went into this project. It is art in the truest sense of the word.
Well said. And I hope you spelled Rorschach and Ozymandias correctly in your paper. (I don’t use smilies, but if I did, I’d use a winking one here.)
In regard to Dr. Manhattan working for the government, it’s clear that when he first appeared nobody really had any idea what to do with him, and the government turned him into a costumed hero as a way of presenting himself to the world (remember that they change Nite-Owl’s quote from “God exists, and he’s American,” to “The Superman exists, and he’s American”).
When some time has passed, we see that Doc Manhattan has gone from that, to being a military weapon, to apparently occupying more of a research role and doing stuff like making all those airships possible.
Regarding Lochdale’s complaint, it’s also pretty clear that the heroes we’re following just happen to be the ones that survived. Almost all of the Minutemen are dead or insane, with only Nite-Owl, Silk Spectre, and The Comedian living to old age. Dollar Bill’s death has been mentioned, and Hooded Justice and that other female Minuteman (the lesbian) were murdered.
With regards to Silk Spectre 2, don’t forget that she spent most of her career palling around with Dr. Manhattan. Nite-Owl 2 has all kinds of advanced weaponry as well as what amounts to a big floating tank that he rides around in.
It doesn’t require any more suspension of disbelief than reading a nonfiction story about a police officer who sees action but escapes with his life.
I typed it in up in the quick reply and didn’t see the red squiggly lines (must be color-blind). I was too lazy to double-check. Oops!
He absolutely does. He has non-powered masked heroes coming from the general populace (entirely improbably but even if we go along these lines then why weren’t there 10,000 of them rather than 10 or so?) and goes to great lengths to state that there is only one true powered character. However, in order to justify Ozymandis’ plan he introduces a physchic to empower the bomb and then suggests that humanity, at least some humans anyways, have latent mental powers. Huh?
Why not just give them a modicum of super powers? It eliminates a lot of my cirticisms right then and there. Sorry. but to me, this is a fundamental flaw in the book.
I am with you on many of your gripes Lochdale. Silk Spectre II being the plot device that always struck me as false. Necessary for the novel alagory, but false. I am with you on the psycic powers thing too, I didn’t think that was the best way to go, but ultimately I think its a minor flaw not a major one.
But, this bit from the above
answers your gripe about the heroes being vulnerable to attack. The reason there are only 10 or so instead of 10,000 is because those are the only ones who were able to survive. The rest who try end up hurt or get killed just like you say they will earlier in the thread. The ones that the comic focuses on are a combination of good and lucky and that is why they are the only ones around. They are the minority and that is actually an important element of the plot.
Am I the only one who keeps expecting Lochdale to say that Watchmen “insists upon itself?”
I think it does given the serious tone of the book and the fact that the book wanted to explore the notion of masked heroes amongst us in a serious manner. Can’t have it both ways. A modicum of super powers would have let Moore do everything he wanted to without a gaping flaw.
I honestly wish I had said that.
You owe me a new keyboard and pants as I spat diet coke over both upon reading this.
Funniest thing I have seen in a long time. Can I sig this?
Perhaps but the book doesn’t mention (or if if did I missed it) all the other masks who were wiped out. Maybe a slight mention about vigilantes and pole sitters as fads that vanished in the 20’s 
Lochdale, of course you’re entitled to your personal preference not to like works that have non-superhuman characters doing superhuman things, but you can’t really fault Moore for this. It’s a convention of the genre. Batman, Captain America, the Punisher, Daredevil, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, etc. all have minimal or no powers, and yet are able to perform crazy feats like outfighting dozens of armed opponents or even beating genuinely superhuman opponents. As others have commented above, the same convention exists in many action movies.
Surely having superpowers exist at all, much less exist in dozens of instances, is just as unbelievable according to “real life rules” as having ostensibly non-superpowered characters do superhuman things. One could argue that by making the existence of superpowers a one time fluke, Moore was at least adhering closer to real life than typical superhero comics.
Of course, readers of superhero comics except that the existence of superpowers is a convention of the genre, and agree to suspend disbelief. But why is it any harder to suspend disbelief about non-superpowered characters doing superhuman things. I mean, if we can accept “A spider bite gives you super strength”, why not accept “Martial arts training gives you extroardinary ass-kicking abilities”?
To me, saying “They got to be so super tough from intense training” is no more hard to accept than “they got to be super tough from cosmic rays”. It’s not like having Lois Lane suddenly be able to beat up 20 armed men with no explanation given.
Be my guest. I think we all have at least one sacred cow that we don’t get that everyone else loves.
Because most people don’t have the sort of psychological kinks (at least not to so severe an extent) that drive these characters.
That’s it right there. To be really committed to it over a long period of time takes a certain degree of crazy.
Well this country has a lot more than 10 or so crazies.
Because we know that martial arts training really doesn’t help all that much. A radioactive spider is that much more esoteric that we can suspend disbelief. Personally, I’ve always had a problem with the Batman and Punisher type comics but that’s just me. For me, if I make the leap that this character is, say from another planet, it’s easier to suspend disbelief.
One thing I still never understand is the point of the Pirate comic. Can someone suss that out for me a bit.