I still have my original copy from 20+ years ago and I have my Absolute Watchmen collectors editon. My wife is going with me (and believe it or not, I didn’t force her), but I warned her of impending dorkiness. I will be wearing two buttons….a Dr. Manhattan button and a Rorsharch button. I’m a nerd.

I really hope there is a fealty to the source material. Although I heard there were some changes the fanboys might not like.

I’m a huge fan of the book. I started reading comics when I was in 5th or 6th grade. X-Men was a particular favorite, but I also started reading Wizard magazine, the trade publication. They kept raving about things like Watchmen (which was nearly a decade old by that time) and Sandman, which was just winding down the end of its run. I was intrigued by such high praise and resolved to check it out. Thankfully, my local library – which was right down the street from the comics store – had a copy of Watchmen as well as all the Sandman books. I went through them all as a high schooler and my little mind was blown. Not that I ever will, but I resolved that if I ever taught a high school English class, Watchmen and the Sandman series would be required reading. Actually, my brother got assigned to read Watchmen in a college English class this year. I need to talk to him and see what he thought.

Menace is right that the story is very much about comics. They have an initial group of superheros that dress act, and fight bad guys in a way that is remarkably similar to Golden Age Comics. The very first super hero in the Watchmen universe, Hooded Justice, has a similar appearance to the Monk, one of Batman’s earliest enemies. As the first generation grows older and starts to retire, a second generation takes their place in what has become a more violent era. They come into being in the 60’s, around the time Marvel started the Silver Age of Comics. By the 80’s, when Watchmen was written, violence in comics was a huge issue, and by now the Comedian, who used to look like a daffy clown, resembles a combination of the Punisher and Nick Fury. The Comedian goes through several costume progressions that are meant to mirror the madness, violence, and descent of society.

Even other comics are represented. Menace mentioned the Tales of the Black Freighter, which is a pirate comic (that also echos the plot and character motivations of Watchmen) inside the Watchmen comic. Alan Moore, the author, thought that in a world where superheros existed (and weren’t particularly revered), super hero comics wouldn’t be popular. Instead, the adventure and horror comics of the 50’s would still be popular, thus the kid is reading a pirate comic.

The fact that the characters in Watchmen so closely resemble other characters is no accident. DC Comics had recently acquired a stable of characters from Charlton Comics, and Moore originally wanted to write a story using established characters. Dick Giordano, the editor of DC, liked his idea, but realized that the story would leave those characters unavailable for future use, so Moore and artist Dave Gibbons invented new characters that would fit archetypes. Rorschach was influenced by the Question, Nite Owl II was influenced by Blue Beetle and Batman, and Captain Metropolis seems to be someone dressing up and pretending to be Captain Marvel (though his military background might hint at Captain America as well). Interestingly, Dr. Manhattan was influenced by Superduperman from MAD Magazine.

So that’s a lot about how Watchmen is about comics. It’s also about Reaganism and Thatcherism, nuclear proliferation, Cold War paranoia, and a sort of nihilism as to whether the world is actually better off if it doesn’t have heroes. And it’s a murder mystery. And it’s a big fight to save the world. And it’s got a great twist ending. When you go back and reread it and realize the exact moment the villain accomplishes the final part of his plan, it takes your breath away and just how subtle and meaningless the action is. There’s subtlety in the layout as well. In a chapter called “Fearful Symmetry,” the panels at the front and back of the issue mirror each other all the way into the middle where there’s a big splash panel that unites the two pages in the middle of the book (a rarity, as most of Watchmen is told in 9 panel blocks). So there’s a lot going on. That’s one of the reasons it was said to be unfilmable, but another reason is that Alan Moore wrote it in a way to highlight how comics could tell stories in a way that no other medium could. It was explicitly written to be a comic and making it anything else would weaken the tale.

I tell pretty much everyone I meet that they should read the book. I’m changing my line to, “Don’t read the book until after you see the movie.” That way you can enjoy the flick for what it is, and then read the book and go, “Oh, that was so much better!” I remember seeing Jurassic Park and just hating it because it was so inferior to the book. Best to watch first, then read, except in the case of Forrest Gump.

As for the movie itself? I’ve heard it’s visually striking, but it seems like there’s a lot of slooooowing down then SPEEDING BACK UP! in it. I saw the first preview before the Dark Knight, and ironically Watchmen, which was supposed to ground superheros in reality in a way that had never been done before, looked very comic-booky. Then the Dark Knight, featuring one of the great comic book icons, came on and actually did ground their superhero in reality in a way that hadn’t been seen on film.

I haven’t seen Watchmen yet. I’m going to, but I get the feeling that it will be like watching a Cliff’s Notes version. I doubt it can blow my mind in a way the book did. And Ozymandias’s costume looks retarded. But I’m really looking forward to seeing Jackie Earl Haley as Rorschach (brilliant casting in my mind), and I hope they can pull off the Mars scene. Anytime you want to geek out about Watchmen, I’m your huckleberry.