Robot Panic Book Club: Watchmen, Week 6
And here it is, the final week of the first ever Robot Panic Book club. For those of you just now joining us, we’ve spend the past six weeks reading (and in some cases, re-reading) Alan Moore’s seminal graphic novel Watchmen, coinciding with the release of Zack Snyder’s film adaptation, in theaters this Friday. In the comments section below, be sure to discuss your thoughts on all twelve chapters of the novel. But those who haven’t finished yet should be careful, since there will be spoilers a-plenty. And be sure to tune in this Sunday for a LIVE discussion of the book on our uStream page!
And also, be sure to tell us what you thought of the book club. What did you like? What would you improve? Do you have any suggestions for a novel, comic book or game for next time? Let us know! Things like the book club and our yearly summer film festival thrive on community involvement, and the more input we get from our readers, the better these events will be.
Click on for chapter synopses for chapters 11 and 12.
Chapter 11: Look On My Works, Ye Mighty…
As Rorschach and Nite-Owl approach Veidt’s Antarctic retreat, they discuss whether or not their old crime fighting partner would actually want the world destroyed.
Inside, Ozymandias gets up from his bank of television monitors and heads into a control room. A time gauge reads “Eastern Standard Time: 11:25” He pushes a button on the console, then communicates to his associates that his work is done and to meet him in his vivarium to celebrate.
Veidt then recounts, to his friends, his life story. He talks of giving away his vast inheritance, after his parents death, to prove what someone could accomplish from nothing.
He traveled throughout The Middle East, Africa and Asia, retracing the steps of his hero Alexander the Great. On his return, he adopts the name Ozymandias, the Greek name for Pharaoh Ramses II, and starts his career as a costumed hero to fight all the evils of the world. He turns to his associates, which he has apparently poisoned, then opens the vivarium dome letting a blizzard of snow into its tropical enclosure.
Rorschach and Nite-Owl enter the retreat. A brief melee ensues, but Veidt subdues both of his attackers with precision. When they ask him what he’s trying to do, he explains that he realized fighting crime could never rid the world of evil. Then at the ill fated Crimebusters meeting, he realized that The Comedian was right when he said it was pointless to form a crime fighting team when nuclear war was inevitable.
With the Cold War escalating and the proliferation of more arms, he realized the military deadlock would eventually lead to one final conflict. It was then he began to formulate his plan to solve this dilemma — a grand hoax to get the world to believe there was a threat of alien invasion. This would stop all governments from figthing each other, and unite them against one common greater ememy.
First, he would need Dr. Manhattan out of the way. He would give all of Osterman’s closest associates cancer forcing him to go into exile. With the new technology Osterman’s super-human intelligence had brought about, Veidt began to research advancements in the fields of genetics and teleportation on his private island.
When The Comedian accidentally spotted Veidt’s uncharted island by air, he went to investigate and found the world’s missing artists working on a “monstrous new life form.” But Blake was afraid to expose the plot. He only told Moloch, who he knew wouldn’t understand, and since Veidt had Moloch’s apartment bugged, he found out that Blake knew and killed him before he could tell anyone else.
Then in order to throw Rorschach’s suspicion off of himself, Veidt orchestrated his own assassination attempt. Pushing a cyanide capsule into the attackers mouth after subduing him to prevent him from talking as well.
Veidt’s master stroke would be to teleport his life form, whose brain was cloned from a powerful psychic, into New York City. Since teleporting technology was limited, anything living that is transported would die of shock and explode. The ensuing psychic shockwave would kill half of the city’s populace.
When a disbelieving Nite-Owl asks when Veidt had planned on perpetrating this outlandish scheme, Ozymandias replies “thirty-five minutes ago.”
Closing Quotation “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!” – Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Chapter 12: A Stronger Loving World
Midnight, November 2, 1985. Most of New York City has been devastated by the psychic trauma caused by the instant death of Ozymandias’ teleported “alien.”
Dr. Manhattan and heavily distraught Laurie tour the devastation. After they have seen enough, the two teleport away to the South Pole, to follow a trail of tachyon particles that Dr. Manhattan senses will lead to the source of the disturbance.
Meanwhile, inside his Antarctic retreat, Ozymandias continues to detail his “Hoax Invasion” plan to Rorschach and a disbelieving Nite-Owl. He tells them that in order to save humanity from self-destruction, he cloned the brain of a powerful psychic, then had geneticists make it much bigger and powerful. Programmed into the brain were horrifying images of aliens, so that the mental transmissions given off at its death would affect anyone around it who managed to survive the initial psychic blast. This event would force all humans to end their petty wars and unite against a new, more terrifying, alien enemy.
After viewing the media coverage of the aftermath of the disaster, Ozymandias revels in his “victory” and convinces the “masks” that exposing the truth would plunge humanity back into its self-destructive course. They agree to keep the secret of who caused the “alien” and the murder of countless innocents, in order to keep the peace. Rorschach doesn’t agree with keeping the secret which forces Dr. Manhattan to kill him.
With the crisis over, Laurie and Dan, who have assumed new identities, visit Laurie’s mother. Laurie tells her mom that she knows Edward Blake, The Comedian, is her real dad, and that she has come to terms with that fact and bears no grudge.
In the end, the previously ignored journal of Rorschach is (possibly) picked up to be read by the newspaper he sent it to.
Closing Quotation: “It would be a stronger world, a stronger loving world, to die in.” – John Cale, “Sanities”
Table of contents for Robot Panic Book Club: Watchmen
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Tags: alan moore, Book Club, Watchmen
March 4th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Alright, this is kind of random, but I just re-read chapter 11 last night, so bear with me…
I was incredibly entertained by Rorschach rambling to himself in the background while Nite Owl was trying to bust into Veidt’s computer. He was just talking in circles and it was freaking hilarious and something that I didn’t really pay much attention to my first couple times through the book. So damn funny.
Anyway, this is also the chapter that gives me more appreciation for Nite Owl as a character and as a superhero. The guy’s obviously incredibly intelligent and resourceful, and…where does he get those wonderful toys?
But the focal point of these two chapters is obviously the big reveal of Veidt’s master plan and the story of how he put it all together. To me, the brilliance of this plan is that it’s absolutely, 100%, bat-shit insane. The guy creates some sort of giant mutant alien squid thing and plans to use it to blow up half of New York City so the world focuses on an alien attack rather than destroying eachother with nuclear weapons? That’s some crazy mad scientist sort of shit right there. And the look on the faces of the people on the street when that thing just appears out of nowhere seconds before it explodes is exactly the sort of reaction I had when I first read it. “What in the fuck?”
The low point of the book for me was when Dr. Manhattan killed Rorschach. But that’s just because I love that character so much. But it’s awesome that he gets the last word in the end…or does he?
Strangely, I’ve gotten to the end of this book three times now in the past two months. And every time I get to the end I set it down and then think, “Fuck…I need to read that again.” and open it back up a little while later. I know I’m a relative n00b or whatever, seeing as I just first read it late last year, but I have to think that this is now my favorite book/story of all time.
There are only a couple criticisms I have. 1) It is sometimes a little too “clever” for its own good. Yes, there are tons of really fun easter eggs and clues hidden throughout, but after you read it a couple times some of them become a little bit much. None in particular, but it’s just a feeling I had during the last readthrough. 2) Veidt catching the bullet. Seriously: what the hell was that about and was it necessary? It was almost as big of a WTF moment as the squid. 3) Not enough Rorschach. I fucking love that character in every possible way. Which leads me to 4) The story ends. I love the world that Moore and Gibbons created and it sucks that there’s not more to dig into. And I’m talking real stories here, not the video games and shit, which I’ll buy simply out of my desire to spend more time in this world.
That’s enough for now.
March 4th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Before I get into my insights on these last two issues, I want to give a BIG…HUGE shout out to Mitch for putting this together. Rereading this classic and sharing insights with you all has been a fantastic journey. It’s not often that we have the outlet for doing so, and I for one appreciate what I get from it and I have looked forward to this book club every week. May I suggest that we do more, and perhaps “Walking Dead” may be a good place to start. I would love to dive deeper into the books we adore and discuss things here.
Ok on to Issue 11 & 12 and some things to note…
The cover of issue 11 and it’s last panel are hauntingly telling. Ozymandious has a vivarium in the artic where he keeps and breathes life into creatures that would not normally thrive there. In fact they would most assuredly perish without the dome of his protection that gives him life. I believe that Ozymandious thinks the same of the people of New York. If you look over the issues, his name is everywhere. Veidt’s name is everywhere. Veidt perfume, sneakers, energy drinks, he’s even responsible for the spark hydrants that bring life to the vehicals that people use. So when Ozymandious plays God and opens the vivaium and lets the cold artic air destroy the creatures that he has given life too, then how would destroying the people of New York who he also has given life to be any worse. In his mind, it isn’t, he’s stepping on a bug… So as we see the light of the snow blanket out the color and life of the vivarium, so we see the bright light of the explosion blot out the color of New York…chilling.
There is also a BIG thread that we haven’t really touched, but the fine folks at Comic Geek Speak did a great job revealing. Throughout the story we see references to the “Gordian Knot.” According Wikipedia, The Gordian Knot is a legend associated with Alexander the Great. It is often used as a metaphor for an intractable problem, solved by a bold stroke (“cutting the Gordian knot”): The Legend goes as such…
At one time the Phrygians were without a legitimate king. An oracle at Telmissus decreed that the next man to enter the city driving an ox-cart should become their king. This man was a poor peasant, Gordias, who drove into town on his ox-cart. He was declared king by the priests. In gratitude, his son Midas dedicated the ox-cart to the Phrygian god Sabazios ( Zeus) and tied it to a post with a knot that could not be untied.
In 333 BC, while wintering at Gordium, Alexander attempted to untie the knot. When he could find no end to the knot, he sliced it in half with a stroke of his sword. Once Alexander had sliced the knot with a sword-stroke, his biographers claimed in retrospect that an oracle further prophesied that the one to untie the knot would become the king of Asia.
Throught the story we see references to the Gordian Knot. There is a Gordian Knot Lock Company that redoes teh locks on Dan’s apartment. A man near the newsstand gives her betrothed a book on “Knots” whech she rips in half (cutting the Gordian Knot). There is also a painting in Veidt’s study of Alexander cutting the Gordian Knot.
When Ozymandious compares himself to Alexander the Great, it is no wonder why he can justify his final solution to the problems of war. It’s a complex situation, requiring talks and understanding, some give and take. In the real world such negotiations would be very complex and take years to solve…if ever (Example…Isreal and the Gaza Strip). Ozymandious’ solution, cut the knot, simple, and far more effective (at least in his own head it is). It’s a sign of his own madness, where the ends justify the means.
This also ties in greatly to the end of the Black Frieghter comic. In his quest to get home and prevent violence to his family, he winds up being responsible for the violence against his family. This DOES prepare the village as they prepare a lynch mob to take care of him. In essence they were ready for the pirtates when they did arrive. But at what cost…
We also get a glimpse of how much of a Bad Ass Veidt is. Not only does he take out Rorschach AND Night Owl (note that at the end of the fight scene BOTH of them are on their knees…bowing before the KING Ozymandious) but he had enough strength to LIFT The Comedian OVER HIS HEAD and toss him out the window… He also has my Second favorite line in the series here…
“Do it?’ Dan, I’m not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I’d explain my master-stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago.”
Finally, the images in the beginning of issue 12 were very haunting with some obvious refernces in them. There is a Rock concert going on by a band called “Pale Horse.” Of course this refers to the 4th horseman of the apocolypse…Death, who rides a pale horse. Then we see that the local movie theater is playing “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” The title alone is fitting, as I am sure that the world did stand up and take notice. But if my sci-fi classic memory hasn’t escaped me, that movie was about a warning of an impending alien invasion, and the importance for humanity to band together. Both…quite fitting.
This series is amazing and is worthy to be called one of the greatest stories of our times. I look forward to more discussion and of course sharing this with all of you and my son on Friday!
March 4th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
As always, Ryker, great impressions and a lot of good thoughts. That bit about the knot is something I did get into during this last readthrough and thought was really brilliant.
Incidentally, how old is your son? I would have loved to see a movie like this with my dad when I was a kid and I wish my son was older so I could take him.
March 4th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Thank you for the kind words John. I do need to proofread my stuff better and learn how to spell teh…oh THE!!! (bad typing hbait I have had all my life)
Funny you should ask about my son, I was just thinking about that. Austin (Tiny777) is 13 and I must admit, as stoked as I am to see this show, I am even MORE stored to share it with him…
Example…Two summers ago I took him to see “Transformers.” Now I’m old enough to have watched that cartoon when I was his age. The scene came when we FINALLY get the big Optimus reveal. My son leaned into me and said, “Dad…that’s Optimus Prime…” It was such a Cool Dad moment I almost shed a tear. “Yes Austin, that IS Optimus Prime.”
Since then I have made it a personal quest to groom him in all things cool like that. He has his own copy of the book and is dilegently reading it. He may not get all of it, but that’s ok. The discussion that will follow between him and I, and even some of you I hope, will be priceless…
I am confident that as your son grows John, You will do the cool Dad thing and baptize him in all this goodness. In FACT, I have something you can start with and I’ll bring it Friday.
March 4th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Ryker, you’ve truly made this book club as great as it is. You’ve always provided some of the best insight, and it’s really shaped the way I look at the novel. The first time I read it, I was kind of blindsided by the ending. I mean, the reveal at the end of chapter 11 was really shocking alone. But On my second read-through, I’ve come to understand so much more about the overall themes and subtleties of the book. I didn’t even realize the implications of the final panel until weeks later when I heard someone discussing it. The idea that Dr. Manhattan killing Rorschach still might not have stopped him from getting the truth to the world, no matter how disastrous the effects. I think that also lends creedence to Dr. Manhattan’s cryptic response to Veidt concerning the future.
But honestly, one of my concerns for the film is the ending. I’m not one of those purists that is upset just for the fact that they are changing it, but because I think it changes a lot of the implications of the ending. For those of you who don’t know, they changed the ending so that instead of Veidt unleashing a giant squid on New York that kills most of the population with a psychic mindwave or whatever, he uses what is essentially a bomb designed to make it look like Dr. Manhattan’s doing. That’s the blue explosion we see in the trailers.
My problem with this is that, although Dr. Manhattan is still a metaphysical being, he still existed in that world, and people knew him and knew of him. The whole point of the squid is that it united the world against a totally unknown force that they didn’t understand, that came with no warning. If the world assumed that the event was Dr. Manhattan’s doing, they see it more as an attack on the country from one of its own citizens, a known quantity. They may feel sympathy for the country, and it very well may put off war, but it does not unite them against a common enemy.
March 4th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
I am not sure that the original ending would have worked onscreen that may be why they changed it. Now think about it. One massive Alien squidbomb would need to be backed up with more attacks. That’s the problem I have with Ozymandious’ final solution, it requires follow ups, and perhaps there would have been in the Watchmen world that we never saw.
From what I have read, there are multiple explosions making it a much more global impact and not just New York that takes a hit. This does ruin some symbolism, but it’s an ending that non comic fans would buy. I know we got spoiled with Iron Man and getting a comic movie for comic fans, and for the most part I think Watchmen will be just that. But Warner Brothers wants to have a financial success to this film as well and I just think that most non-geeks woulda went….WTF? A Giant Squid???? That’s just my humble opinion
March 4th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Hey guys, check this out!
Freaking hilarious.
March 4th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
That…was…AWESOME!
March 5th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Rorschach…the dog lover…nuff said