Trollheart

QUOTES

Rorschach (from his journal): “Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout “Save us!” And I'll look down and whisper “No”.”

Cop 1: “I saw the body and he looked beefy enough to protect himself. For a guy his age he was in terrific shape.”
Cop 2: “What, you mean apart from being dead?”


Hollis: “So there I was in the supermarket buying dogfood for ol' Phantom here. I turn the corner of the aisle and wham! Who do I bump into in the aisles but the Screaming Skull! You remember him?”
Danny: “I think I heard you mention him..”
Hollis: “I put him away a dozen times in the forties. But he reformed and turned to Jesus since then. Married, got two kids. We traded addresses. Nice guy.”

Nite Owl: “That little stain, is that bean juice?”
Rorschach: “That's right. Human bean juice!”

(I can't believe that for years - literally, years - I didn't get the double meaning here. I thought Rorschach was just likening bean juice to blood because of its colour and the fact that it's kind of the life fluid of a bean. It took me a long time to realise he was making a double entendre here, referring to “human bean juice” but meaning “human being juice”!)

Rorschach (from his journal): “This city is dying of rabies. Is the best I can do to wipe random flecks of foam from its lips?”

Rorschach (to Veidt): “He (the Comedian) stood up for his country, Veidt. Never let anyone retire him . Never cashed in on his reputation. Never set up a company selling posters and diet books and toy soldiers based on himself. Never became a prostitute.”

Rorschach (from his journal): “Meeting with Veidt left bad taste in mouth. He is shallow, pampered, decadent, betraying even his own liberal affectations. Possibly homosexual? Must remember to investigate further. Why are so few of us left active, healthy and without personality disorders?”

(This is a very telling passage: first, it shows that as we could see, Rorschach has little time for Veidt but it also hints that he has serious problems with homosexuals, and if Veidt is one then he plans to find out. More importantly though, he deplores the fact that so few of his comrades are left without personality disorders. He obviously includes himself as one who does not have a problem, while refusing to recognise that if anyone has a serious personality disorder, it is him. To Rorschach, everyone else is sick and he is the only sane man in the asylum. This speaks volumes as to how he sees the world, and how he deals with it, and also explains to a degree why he is such a cold, unfeeling, uncaring person and yet fights for what he believes to be right.)

Rorschach (from his journal): “I shall go and tell the indestructible man that someone plans to murder him.”

Rorschach: “I'm not here to speculate upon the moral lapses of men who died in their country's service. I came to warn...”
Jupiter: “Moral lapses! Rape is a moral lapse? You know he broke her ribs? You know he almost choked her!”

Rorschach (from his journal): “Nobody cares. Nobody but me. Are they right? Is it futile? Soon there will be war. Millions will burn. Millions will perish in sickness and misery. What does one death matter against so many? Because there is good and there is evil, and evil must be punished. Even in the face of Armageddon, I shall not compromise in this. But there are so many deserving of retribution, and there is so little time.”

(This speech totally encapsulates Rorschach's view of the world. No matter the cost, no matter the mitigating factors, he sees evil as an absolute and there is only one way to deal with it. Like his mask, like his name, like his very soul, the world for Rorschach is black and white, and there are no grey areas. This is what he holds on to, what sustains him in the terrible times to come. This is also what will prove to be his undoing, and will impact massively upon the storyline, to the end and beyond.)


Between the lines

If there was ever a graphic novel which, like some movies, you really have to read over and over again, and that even if you pay close attention you're still not going to see everything there is to see in it, then this is the one. I have read it about six times and I still find new surprises each time I do. It's like an onion with a skin that is endless, revealing more and more as each layer is peeled away. You simply cannot skim through this comic book: well, you can, but you will miss so much. This is one of the reasons, I expect, why making it into a movie, somewhat like it was with Nineteen Eighty-Four, seemed almost impossible. Here I'll be pointing out all the little things you might miss if this is your first read through.

From the very first panel we're shown how deep the writing and the art is in this, as Rorschach goes on about the gutters being full of blood, we see a stained pavement with blood all over it, and someone is washing it away, while beside him another man holds a sign that says “The end is nigh”. A moment later, Rorschach speaks of a road leading over a precipice and then the world standing on the brink, as we see the view from a window, down onto the street, and a hand appears at the window, which we will shortly discover is that of a cop, one of a team investigating what turns out to be a murder or a suicide.

Another great little touch is when the cops investigating Blake's murder head out for the lift they're asked “What floor” and say the ground floor. As the lift attendant mutters “Ground floor comin' up” we see a panel showing Blake falling headfirst from the window to his death: the ultimate ground floor!

Behind the kid reading Tales of the Black Freighter you can just about see a headline on a newspaper, which screams “Vietnam 51st State: official!” So in this reality, the southeast Asian country has in fact been annexed by the USA and added to its states following their quick victory.

Again, as the lead detective suggests “What say we let this one just drop out of sight?” we see the figure of the plummeting Blake.

As the two cops pass the sign bearer one shivers, the other asks what's wrong and the first one surmises he must be getting a cold. Cold war?

A sign on the wall near the building from which Blake has been thrown read “Mmeltdowns!” With the threat of nuclear war in the air, surely tempting fate?

On the wall as the two ex-Nite Owls trade stories is a partial headline of a newspaper which reads “Hero retires, opens own auto business” and outside, as Hollis, the older one, leaves, we see the word Masons going down the side of the building, which immediately tells us the owner is Danny Mason, without it having to be explained. Also interestingly, someone has graffitied over the front of the shop the question “Who watches the Watchmen?” Also shown is the word “Pale horse”, an obvious reference to Revelations, and with the possible apocalypse on the horizon, chillingly appropriate.

Another clever touch: a sign outside the garage says “We fix 'em” and “Obsolete models a specialty!” Given that the younger (though also retired) Nite Owl has just left the older one who is standing there looking sad, this is particularly telling. The torch has been passed, indeed.

On a postbox another headline seems to shout “Russia protests US advances in Afghanistan”, adding more political tension and telling us a little more about the state of the relations between the two biggest superpowers in the world.

A sticker on a window advises “Stick with Dick in 84”, telling is that Nixon has retained the presidency right up to at least 1984 and is surely in power now until 1988.

As Rorschach writes in his journal he sits on a roof high above the city. His disapproving description of the metropolis below throws into sharp relief his position as he sits in judgement, high above the city, almost in a mockery of the likes of Spiderman and Batman; rather than anxious to protect New York, he is disgusted by it. But he is more disgusted at the crime that runs rampant through its streets like idiot children with machetes and guns. Rorschach is almost a superhero by default.

More graffiti: on a shop is scrawled the words “Viet Bronx”...

Interesting little clue as to how technology has progressed here in this alternate Earth. As we see the towering imposing magnificence of Veidt's headquarters, in the distance sailing through the sky is an airship. Seems such things survived, perhaps even thrived, in this world right up to the late eighties.

As Rorschach leaves Veidt, he says “Be seeing you”. A clear tip of Moore's hat to the TV cult series, The Prisoner.

In the last panel of this confrontation, as Veidt stands looking out the window of his office, cutting a similar figure to how Nite Owl was left after seeing Rorschach and being somewhat humiliated by him, there is a newspaper open on the desk behind him. Its headline says “Nuclear doomsday clock stands at five to twelve, say experts", further confirming that the holocaust is hovering ever closer. Another panel mentions “Geneva Talks: US refuse to discuss Doctor Manhattan”. And so we have another mention of the enigmatic figure.

Quite matter-of-factly, and without any warning or preamble, we see Doctor Manhattan put his hand into a computer – as in, he passes through it like a ghost - and it's clear that this is a being with almost godlike powers. It is not remarked upon; Laurie obviously is aware of his powers and Rorschach has been teleported outside by now.

As Rorschach leaves the Experimental Centre, he walks past the wreckage of a building. It's interesting that we can see a sign in the rubble which shows that it was the “Gunga Diner”, which only a few pages ago was intact. Obviously some ethnic/racial violence going on here. Also, on the wall is scrawled again that question “Who watches the Watchmen?” and on the other side a bill for “Pale Horse” at Madison Square Gardens. We've seen this name on the back of a biker jacket, and it's becoming clear they're some sort of rock band. Extremely telling too is the word “Kristalnacht” daubed on the wall opposite the now-ruin of the “Gunga Diner”. Someone is evidently putting the ideas of that night of terror into practice, fifty years on.

Leaving the restaurant, Laurie remembers with distaste the costume she wore as a superhero: “That stupid little short skirt! And the neckline going down to my navel! God, that was so dreadful!” And Danny, walking slightly behind her and no doubt suddenly envisaging her younger and in that skimpy costume, agrees hoarsely “God, yes, dreadful.”


Tales of the Black Freighter

The genius of this comic - sorry, sorry: graphic novel! - is just astounding! Not content with creating an amazing and absorbing storyline, Moore has another sub-comic going, centring around a comic book called Tales of the Black Freighter. This proceeds within Watchmen, in tandem with it and will eventually, at the end, dovetail with the main storyline in the most accomplished and incredible piece of storytelling I have seen in a very long time.

Here, we see our very first glimpse of the other comic; as the detectives exit the lift, a kid is reading the comic leaning against the wall. You have to look hard, but that's the title on the cover.

After the storm: Under the hood

Each chapter of the story is followed by some text material that refers to, or adds to the story. In the initial chapters these are extracts from Under the hood, the autobiography of the original Nite Owl, Hollis Mason. This helps to fill in the history of the superheroes, gives a flavour of the time before this and also opens a window into why someone would want to pull on a funny suit and go out fighting crime at night. It's also a clever play on words, given that Mason is now a mechanic.

The opening chapter tells of how Mason, having heard about the emergence of the very first bona fide real-world superhero, Hooded Justice, and wishing to make a difference, joined the police. It was while on his beat that he came across Action Comics and learned of Superman, and shortly afterwards that he would don his own costume and become the first Nite Owl.

The story so far

It's 1985 and Richard Nixon has won yet another term, presumably on the basis of the US winning the war in Vietnam within weeks. This has been achieved through the aid of one of many government sanctioned superheroes, Doctor Manhattan, who is a giant with blue skin. One of the other superheroes - who are, largely, all by now retired - has been killed and another who knew him, who goes by the name of Rorschach, is trying to find out who murdered the Comedian. He fears that someone is targeting “masks”, which is to say, superheroes. The world is hovering on the brink of nuclear war, much of it possibly brought about by the distrust the Soviet Union has in America's biggest and most unstoppable weapon, the aforementioned Doctor Manhattan.

The Comedian has a chequered past: he worked for the government abroad, taking down regimes they wished gone, and Adrian Veidt, another ex-superhero, turned media mogul, believes that his killing may have been the result of that. A man makes a lot of enemies in that field. Rorschach is not convinced though. He also visits another old ally, Danny Dreiberg, who was once the superhero known as Nite Owl, but is now also in retirement. In fact, this retirement is enforced, as something called the Keene Act outlawed all but two of the superheroes, the late Comedian and of course Doctor Manhattan, who is still working for the government in the field this time of research and development.

One of the other ex-heroes, Laurie Jupiter, has history with the Comedian, believing he tried to rape her mother back in the forties when they were both Minutemen, the precursors to today's (or rather, yesterday's) superheroes, and Rorschach must wonder if she is involved in the murder in some way? She is far too slight and weak to have been able to throw him through the window through which he fell, but perhaps she contracted someone?

An interesting point about these superheroes is that none of them - with the obvious exception of Doctor Manhattan - seem to have any actual superpowers. There are no Mister Fantastics, no Spidermen, no Hulks. They all seem to simply trust in (or trusted in) agility, cunning and physical stamina to carry out their duties. There are no laser eyes, sixth senses or flaming bodies here. To all intents and purposes, the superheroes of Watchmen are just really quite ordinary people. On the surface. If they can, as a group, be compared to anyone, it's probably Batman.

Another very clever thing about this incredible comic book is that each chapter (or originally, issue) ends with a stylised clock against a black background. In chapter/issue one the clock's hands stand at 23:48, or twelve minutes to midnight, and there are exactly twelve chapters, to reflect the original twelve issues that made up Watchmen. What will happen when the clock reaches midnight? It's almost televisual in its immediacy, like the digital clock that would come up at the end of the series 24 and run down to the last second of that particular hour. It really hits home and makes you realise that the whole thing is counting down to some momentous and surely terrible event.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018