Read the first issue of Watchmen, 1986.
I had previously only ever seen the 2009 movie, so my exposure to this was very limited. Not only that, but superhero narratives in general never caught my eye. Superman, Batman, you name any generic top superhero and I will know very minimal information about them unless it's Miles Morales from Into The Spiderverse. This isn't something I'm proud of, but it's the truth.
With that in mind, I loved Watchmen. I didn't think I would be so immersed that I would read 6 pages of a full-fledged non-illustrated book. My attention span is non-existent and reading at length about something I have minimal interest in is always a grueling task.
You have to have tremendous confidence stored in your nether regions to slap a 6 page autobiography of a character I literally do not know of in the last pages of your #1 issue.
Rorschach is, of course, hands down, my favorite as of right now. His insane monologues clearly hint at something wrong with him, the way he belittles each and every person he mentions, all too quick to turn to torture, breaking a man's fingers when interrogating an entire bar, downright sadistic stuff.
A character I didn't think I'd love came into my favorites though, and that's the Night Owl. The movie made him such a lackluster character to me, I couldn't fathom why waste the end of the issue on him.
That is, until I actually got to reading it.
It sounds so damn human. I forgot, for a split second, that I was reading about a fictional character and not a real person. This is the exact opposite experience from the average superhero comic.
Now onto the required reading.
The Killing Joke.
1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?
I've gone on many tangents on how horrible I consider superhero comics, books, movies, you name it.
Yet again, I'm proven wrong.
This class subverts my expectations often.
That's good. Haha!
I loved this.
I feel entrapped in that single tale.
2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss what elements of the story with which you were able to connect?
There'a a larger message here expanding way beyond just the dynamic of their universe. That's what fascinates me. Are we all one bad day away from grand crime? It's an interesting question to ask, definitely one to ask grand people too. I don't know the entirety of the Joker's backstory, or if it changes, or what exactly goes on with the characters outside of this single comic, but I don't want this dynamic changed. This incredibly thoughtful Batman is much more interesting than that which I've been exposed to by mass-marketed media. This motivated Joker is much more interesting than that which I've seen people joke about.
I myself have wondered what would happen if I lost everything. I had a friend tell me of a coworker who lost his entire family in a plane crash. I consider plane accidents to be one of the rarest ways to go out, not only that, but your entire family? If there is a higher being, it has a sick sense of humor. This man was at nonchalantly going about his usual day at work, not a single clue that his wife, two kids, and both of his parents sat in a plane bound to never come back. After that he was never the same. Confrontational, aggressive, nothing left to lose at that point. What's left after that one bad day? Just... how far away is my "bad" day?
3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you choose; what changes would you make?
I wouldn't want this transferred into another medium. There's lots of techniques here that even film wouldn't be able to capture if they did frame by frame. The closest I could come to an ideal representation of this would be an R-rated Into The Spiderverse-like movie, in which it essentially becomes an animated comic. You want the words on screen, you want the ambiguity of the end, you want to have the constant cut between Barbara's father's trip and Batman looking for them. There are aspects of comics you cannot seamlessly transfer. You will sacrifice the personal and thought-provoking aspect of the comic for clearer story-lines, you will sacrifice element after element for the sake of visual clarity.
4. In what ways does this story differ from the typical expectations the reader might have for a superhero story?
After subjecting myself to Airboy, which I would consider a classic example of a bland superhero story, where to begin? Airboy is the equivalent of Archie comics trying to make a superhero comic. It was astronomically bad, and with that as my frame of reference, my expectations were low. Unlike most superhero comics, this comic strip goes far beyond telling a story within this fictional universe, but goes into asking the reader the same question. It extends beyond the realm of fiction into our every day lives. We all know of someone who has experienced great loss. What then?
"All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day."
Is that all it takes? A reader walks away wanting to discuss something. It managed to pose a question to the audience without ever explicitly addressing them. Hell, the moment I finished reading it, I wanted to talk about it with someone. I talked to a dear friend of mine, a superhero fanatic, immediately afterwards. Even if most of what we talked about was in regards to the characters, the history of these two, their dynamics and motivations, that isn't the only focal point. Alan Moore did an amazing job as a writer, and Brian Bolland's illustrations are iconic.
I had previously only ever seen the 2009 movie, so my exposure to this was very limited. Not only that, but superhero narratives in general never caught my eye. Superman, Batman, you name any generic top superhero and I will know very minimal information about them unless it's Miles Morales from Into The Spiderverse. This isn't something I'm proud of, but it's the truth.
With that in mind, I loved Watchmen. I didn't think I would be so immersed that I would read 6 pages of a full-fledged non-illustrated book. My attention span is non-existent and reading at length about something I have minimal interest in is always a grueling task.
You have to have tremendous confidence stored in your nether regions to slap a 6 page autobiography of a character I literally do not know of in the last pages of your #1 issue.
Rorschach is, of course, hands down, my favorite as of right now. His insane monologues clearly hint at something wrong with him, the way he belittles each and every person he mentions, all too quick to turn to torture, breaking a man's fingers when interrogating an entire bar, downright sadistic stuff.
A character I didn't think I'd love came into my favorites though, and that's the Night Owl. The movie made him such a lackluster character to me, I couldn't fathom why waste the end of the issue on him.
That is, until I actually got to reading it.
It sounds so damn human. I forgot, for a split second, that I was reading about a fictional character and not a real person. This is the exact opposite experience from the average superhero comic.
Now onto the required reading.
The Killing Joke.
1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?
I've gone on many tangents on how horrible I consider superhero comics, books, movies, you name it.
Yet again, I'm proven wrong.
This class subverts my expectations often.
That's good. Haha!
I loved this.
I feel entrapped in that single tale.
2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss what elements of the story with which you were able to connect?
There'a a larger message here expanding way beyond just the dynamic of their universe. That's what fascinates me. Are we all one bad day away from grand crime? It's an interesting question to ask, definitely one to ask grand people too. I don't know the entirety of the Joker's backstory, or if it changes, or what exactly goes on with the characters outside of this single comic, but I don't want this dynamic changed. This incredibly thoughtful Batman is much more interesting than that which I've been exposed to by mass-marketed media. This motivated Joker is much more interesting than that which I've seen people joke about.
I myself have wondered what would happen if I lost everything. I had a friend tell me of a coworker who lost his entire family in a plane crash. I consider plane accidents to be one of the rarest ways to go out, not only that, but your entire family? If there is a higher being, it has a sick sense of humor. This man was at nonchalantly going about his usual day at work, not a single clue that his wife, two kids, and both of his parents sat in a plane bound to never come back. After that he was never the same. Confrontational, aggressive, nothing left to lose at that point. What's left after that one bad day? Just... how far away is my "bad" day?
3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you choose; what changes would you make?
I wouldn't want this transferred into another medium. There's lots of techniques here that even film wouldn't be able to capture if they did frame by frame. The closest I could come to an ideal representation of this would be an R-rated Into The Spiderverse-like movie, in which it essentially becomes an animated comic. You want the words on screen, you want the ambiguity of the end, you want to have the constant cut between Barbara's father's trip and Batman looking for them. There are aspects of comics you cannot seamlessly transfer. You will sacrifice the personal and thought-provoking aspect of the comic for clearer story-lines, you will sacrifice element after element for the sake of visual clarity.
4. In what ways does this story differ from the typical expectations the reader might have for a superhero story?
After subjecting myself to Airboy, which I would consider a classic example of a bland superhero story, where to begin? Airboy is the equivalent of Archie comics trying to make a superhero comic. It was astronomically bad, and with that as my frame of reference, my expectations were low. Unlike most superhero comics, this comic strip goes far beyond telling a story within this fictional universe, but goes into asking the reader the same question. It extends beyond the realm of fiction into our every day lives. We all know of someone who has experienced great loss. What then?
"All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day."
Is that all it takes? A reader walks away wanting to discuss something. It managed to pose a question to the audience without ever explicitly addressing them. Hell, the moment I finished reading it, I wanted to talk about it with someone. I talked to a dear friend of mine, a superhero fanatic, immediately afterwards. Even if most of what we talked about was in regards to the characters, the history of these two, their dynamics and motivations, that isn't the only focal point. Alan Moore did an amazing job as a writer, and Brian Bolland's illustrations are iconic.
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