Watching the Watchmen (Patreon)

Minor spoilers for the original Watchmen comic, and the 2016 DC comic Rebirth #1.

Watchmen is a 1986 comic book by Alan Moore that deconstructs superhero stories. It was hugely influential, inspiring decades of grim and gritty comics that imitated Watchmen’s dark tone (without necessarily achieving the same depth) – “I do apologize to the comic-reading public for all that misery”, said Watchmen illustrator Dave Gibbons.

After the original Watchmen, DC Comics licensed adaptations and spinoffs – the 2009 Zack Snyder movie, the 2012 prequel comics, the 2016-2019 crossover comics, and now HBO’s TV sequel. Alan Moore* disapproves of these derivative works, arguing that they’re uncreative knock-offs, cynically produced by a corporation more interested in money than new stories. But since DC owns the rights to Watchmen, Moore is powerless to stop them beating his dead horse. The endless Watchmen continuations give ironic new meaning to Dr Manhattan’s words at the end of the original comic – “Nothing ever ends”.

The 2016 DC Rebirth #1 comic includes some cool meta-commentary on the legacy of Watchmen. In Rebirth, the DC universe undergoes cataclysmic change, and it's revealed that Dr Manhattan from the Watchmen universe has somehow altered the lives of DC characters. Thematically, it's about how Watchmen has taken away the DCU's innocence and hope – the Flash laments: “it wasn’t ten years that was stolen from us. It was love ... They struck deep at our hearts … There’s going to be a war between hope and despair. Love and apathy. Faith and disbelief”. The original Watchmen comic deconstructed the optimism of superhero stories, and brought darkness and cynicism to the genre. Watchmen has been described as "the moment comic books grew up" – to use a His Dark Materials analogy, Watchmen is like the original sin of comic books. In Rebirth, the DCU reflects on Watchmen's continued influence.

The trailer for the new HBO Watchmen sequel TV show is also hinting at some interesting meta-commentary – apparently in this 21st-century Watchmen world, there’s a TV show-within-a-TV show called American Hero Story. How will it explore the real-world legacy of Watchmen and superhero stories?

So there’s lots of fascinating meta-textual self-referential shenanigans going on here – I’m interested to read more Rebirth / Doomsday Clock, and to see where HBO’s Watchmen goes. But before we go down the rabbit hole, there'll be an Alt Shift X video explaining the basic plot and themes of the original Watchmen comic, so we're all on the same page. We may or may not do more Watchmen videos, depending on interest.

I’ve also got a handle on Northern Lights, in advance of the His Dark Materials TV show. And we’ll open the $3+ Patron ASOIAF topic vote soon.

So Alt Shift X is back in action, and cool new videos are coming!

Thanks for your support.

* It should be noted that Moore worships a snake god, and his judgement is perhaps not above question.