WATCHMEN

   Perhaps the most famous of all GRAPHIC NOVELS, written by Alan MOORE and illustrated by Dave GIBBONS. W appeared initially as a 12-part COMIC (Sept 1986-Oct 1987 Watchmen), each part corresponding to a chapter of the fullnovel, which was published as Watchmen (graph 1987 US; with additional material 1988 US). The initial premise is ingenious: given a late-1930s USA where costumed SUPERHEROES exist, maintaining law and order on avigilante basis, what sort of ALTERNATE WORLD might develop by the mid-1980s? The changes suggested are subtle: a modest increase in the rate of scientific development; a Western dominance of the political scene; and an initial acceptance of the superhero coterie, followed by a period of repression. The story takes place in 1985, as members of the second generation of superheroes attempt to trace the person who is murdering them, one by one. At the same time, a number of signs are pointing towards imminent nuclear war (and towards a secret plot to frighten the world out of nuclear madness), which some of the protagonists sense coming but which none of them know how to confront. An actual HOLOCAUST does take place, proving terminal for 2 million New Yorkers; but its effects prove ambiguously positive.W offers a satirical analysis of the human cost of being (or needing) a superhero, and a portrait of the kind of world in which one might exist. It also provides, en passant, an extremely sharp analysis of the psychological makeup (and needs) of those who read superhero comics. Moreover, the densely packed narrative is perfectly conveyed through word and image - Moore was at the height of his powers as an innovative figure in commercial US comics publishing, and Gibbons was equally primed to generate a sophisticated visual language, through which subtexts and subplots might interweave with (as rereading makes evident) the utmost clarity. By subjecting the fantasy worlds inhabited by comic-strip superheroes to the estrangements of adult-sf scrutiny, W worked as a threnody for some of the more childish visions of omnipotence which had crippled the genre; and by rendering visible some sf conventions, it turned the tables, to a degree, on the scrutinizing medium. W is one of the central sf novels of the 1980s.

   JC