As far as the Watchmen goes--I liked the comic book a lot when I was seventeen. I never got into the whole Super-antihero gig like a lot of people did, partially because I thought Moore's run-up of the Carleton superheros (like his run-up of the UKs Marvelman) was a little less adolescent than most other attempts.
When I reread it at, say, twenty-seven, it was nowhere near as good. By moving superheros to the realm of the (pseudo-)psychological novel, from their natural four-color world, their raison d'etra is removed, and the fascade provided by the shiny tights becomes a cowardly way to talk about social issues--like so much the science fiction that, sans science, exists in the post-Star Trek world.
The attempt to turn Blue Beetle into a "three dimensonal" character (Nightowl) really only gives you the 2D character with surface relief, but poorly aligned with its coloring, like in an old metal lunch pail.
This is especially true of the rather stupid idea by Ozymandias meant to bring the world together: pulling together in the face of a common threat has never really worked. Just look at how the Greeks reacted to the Persians or the Balkans and Baltic to the Soviet-Nazi threats. Perhaps neither of the Cold War powers would look towards a deal with the supposed aliens, but certainly a lower-level regional power would--like France, Brazil or India at the time, perhaps China.
I should have seen Watchmen when I was in PA--for five bucks at the theater in downtown smalltown America.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-03-23 04:53 pm (UTC)When I reread it at, say, twenty-seven, it was nowhere near as good. By moving superheros to the realm of the (pseudo-)psychological novel, from their natural four-color world, their raison d'etra is removed, and the fascade provided by the shiny tights becomes a cowardly way to talk about social issues--like so much the science fiction that, sans science, exists in the post-Star Trek world.
The attempt to turn Blue Beetle into a "three dimensonal" character (Nightowl) really only gives you the 2D character with surface relief, but poorly aligned with its coloring, like in an old metal lunch pail.
This is especially true of the rather stupid idea by Ozymandias meant to bring the world together: pulling together in the face of a common threat has never really worked. Just look at how the Greeks reacted to the Persians or the Balkans and Baltic to the Soviet-Nazi threats. Perhaps neither of the Cold War powers would look towards a deal with the supposed aliens, but certainly a lower-level regional power would--like France, Brazil or India at the time, perhaps China.
I should have seen Watchmen when I was in PA--for five bucks at the theater in downtown smalltown America.
How was Rorschach?