By Bill Friedell
The seminal comic book series Watchmen, written by Alan Moore and drawn by Dave Gibbons, stood as a manifesto for the power of comic book storytelling by utilizing the most prevalent genre of comic books, the superhero genre. In doing so, Moore and Gibbons could explore contemporary fears of the 1980s, such as fear of nuclear war. In 2019, Damon Lindelof, along with a team of directors and writers delivered a sequel to Watchmen on HBO which shares the same name as the book. By utilizing the iconography and storytelling conventions of the comic, as well as building on top of them, Lindelof delivers a modern update to Watchmen that speaks to the modern landscape of 2019.
HBO's Watchmen follows Angela Abar (Regina King), a police officer working under the alias Sister Night, as police officers in Tulsa Oklahoma wear masks and alter egos for safety reasons. The story is set into motion after the murder of Tulsa’s chief of police (Don Johnson). Angela, in her attempts to find out the truth over who murdered the chief of police, is pulled into a plot far bigger than she could have ever imagined.
Like the comic book before it, Watchmen is structured with a mystery framing device that allows for deeper character studies of the characters engaged in the plot. The same goes for Lindelof’s Watchmen. While the mystery develops slowly in each episode, it is seldom the primary focus. Rather, the focus goes to its cast of characters, such as Angela Abar, Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias (Jeremy Irons), Looking Glass (Tim Blake Nelson), Lorrie Blake (Jean Smart), and many more. But the structural similarities don't stop there. The structures of many of the episodes also share similarities to structures of individual issues of the comics. The most glaring being the episode “A God Walks into Abar”, borrowing the nonlinear structure of issue four of the Moore and Gibbons’ Watchmen, “Watchmaker”, as it replicates the nonlinearity of Dr. Manhattan’s perception of time. The purpose in both the comic and the TV show is to focus more on character than plot.
Another aspect Lindeloff takes from the comic is the use of recurring symbols. While Lindelof and the other writers of the show do make use of these symbols, they find new spins on those symbols. There is a reference to the iconic smiley face button from the original comic twice in the first episode, “It’s Summer and We’re Running Out of Ice”. First, is a smiley face made of egg yolks. The second, when Captain Jud Crawford’s police badge gets blood dripped on it, a direct homage to the smiley face button of the Comedian, cementing the idea that Crawford is the Comedian of the TV show; the inciting incident that puts the story into motion. Another major recurring symbol from the comic is the use of clocks. Where a comic can visually show a clock, the show can use audio to indicate a clock. The ticking of a clock is referenced both in a message sent by the Seventh Kavalry in the video below and in the score composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. There is even a massive clock tower erected that plays a major role in the finale. The clock shares its meaning with the comic as it adds tension, especially through the common phrase, “tick-tock” that many characters say. The most common element of the clock motif between both the show and the comic is the counting down element. In the comic, it is counting down to nuclear destruction, where in the show, it points to a sort of racial reckoning that the Seventh Kavalry is attempting to enact due to a bill passed that pays reparations to minorities who have suffered from past injustices.
HBO's Watchmen follows Angela Abar (Regina King), a police officer working under the alias Sister Night, as police officers in Tulsa Oklahoma wear masks and alter egos for safety reasons. The story is set into motion after the murder of Tulsa’s chief of police (Don Johnson). Angela, in her attempts to find out the truth over who murdered the chief of police, is pulled into a plot far bigger than she could have ever imagined.
Like the comic book before it, Watchmen is structured with a mystery framing device that allows for deeper character studies of the characters engaged in the plot. The same goes for Lindelof’s Watchmen. While the mystery develops slowly in each episode, it is seldom the primary focus. Rather, the focus goes to its cast of characters, such as Angela Abar, Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias (Jeremy Irons), Looking Glass (Tim Blake Nelson), Lorrie Blake (Jean Smart), and many more. But the structural similarities don't stop there. The structures of many of the episodes also share similarities to structures of individual issues of the comics. The most glaring being the episode “A God Walks into Abar”, borrowing the nonlinear structure of issue four of the Moore and Gibbons’ Watchmen, “Watchmaker”, as it replicates the nonlinearity of Dr. Manhattan’s perception of time. The purpose in both the comic and the TV show is to focus more on character than plot.
Another aspect Lindeloff takes from the comic is the use of recurring symbols. While Lindelof and the other writers of the show do make use of these symbols, they find new spins on those symbols. There is a reference to the iconic smiley face button from the original comic twice in the first episode, “It’s Summer and We’re Running Out of Ice”. First, is a smiley face made of egg yolks. The second, when Captain Jud Crawford’s police badge gets blood dripped on it, a direct homage to the smiley face button of the Comedian, cementing the idea that Crawford is the Comedian of the TV show; the inciting incident that puts the story into motion. Another major recurring symbol from the comic is the use of clocks. Where a comic can visually show a clock, the show can use audio to indicate a clock. The ticking of a clock is referenced both in a message sent by the Seventh Kavalry in the video below and in the score composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. There is even a massive clock tower erected that plays a major role in the finale. The clock shares its meaning with the comic as it adds tension, especially through the common phrase, “tick-tock” that many characters say. The most common element of the clock motif between both the show and the comic is the counting down element. In the comic, it is counting down to nuclear destruction, where in the show, it points to a sort of racial reckoning that the Seventh Kavalry is attempting to enact due to a bill passed that pays reparations to minorities who have suffered from past injustices.
Another component of Watchmen that is taken from the comic book is the roles and characteristics that the primary characters inhabit. The characters who inhabit the show have direct thematic ties to the characters of the original comic, those being Rorschach, Ozymandias, the Comedian, Dr. Manhattan, Nite Owl, and Silk Spectre. Captain Jud Crawford inhabits the role of the Comedian served in the original comic and. His death acts as a catalyst for the story. Another character that fits into the role of the Comedian is Laurie Blake. In the original comic, she was the child of the original Silk Spectre and Comedian. She took up the mantle of her mother, but gave it up by the end of the original comics. In the TV show, she’s an FBI agent and is more callised than she was in the comic, resembling her father. Even her last name is a direct reference to her father, as Comedian’s real name is Edward Blake. Lindelof speaks about this on episode 1 of The Official Watchmen Podcast (2019). Both Looking Glass and Angela resemble Rorschach in that they are both heroes defined by trauma early in life. Angela also resembles the Silk Spectre in the way she is dealing with her legacy, as she is the granddaughter of the first vigilante in the world of Watchmen named Hooded Justice (Louis Gossett Jr). Lady Treiu (Hong Chau) fits into the role of Ozymandias, a hyper intelligent woman who is not only biologically related to Ozymandias, but also owns his company and is revealed to be the mastermind of the show, manipulating everyone, including the 7th Kavalry, towards her own ends. And even though these characters fit into these archetypes from the comic, these new characters are ultimately more than these archetypes. She also believes she is doing the right thing by enacting her plan, but in order to do what she wishes.
Alternate history is another aspect of the Watchmen comic book series that he picks up and runs with. The biggest alternate history element that the TV show expands on involves Dr. Manhattan (Yahya Abdul Mateen II). As the only superpowered superhero in the world, he won the Vietnam War for the United States, making Vietnam a state. The show, like its comic book predecessor, explores the ramifications of superheroes in the real world. While the comic focuses on the Cold War and the potential of nuclear disaster, the show focuses on race and trauma, as stated in the third episode of The Official Watchmen Podcast (2019). Angela was raised in Vietnam, was born from two African Americans. In the first episode, she is seen wearing a Vietnamese outfit for a class presentation and in the pilot episode. Lindelof, on episode 1 of the Official Watchmen Podcast (2019), he compares Vietnam to Hawaii and how it is inspired by the colonial tendencies in America's past. We also see how politics have evolved since the original Watchmen, revealing that while superheroes are still illegal, cops are now allowed to wear masks to protect their identities due to a mass attack on the police in their own homes.
Alternate history is another aspect of the Watchmen comic book series that he picks up and runs with. The biggest alternate history element that the TV show expands on involves Dr. Manhattan (Yahya Abdul Mateen II). As the only superpowered superhero in the world, he won the Vietnam War for the United States, making Vietnam a state. The show, like its comic book predecessor, explores the ramifications of superheroes in the real world. While the comic focuses on the Cold War and the potential of nuclear disaster, the show focuses on race and trauma, as stated in the third episode of The Official Watchmen Podcast (2019). Angela was raised in Vietnam, was born from two African Americans. In the first episode, she is seen wearing a Vietnamese outfit for a class presentation and in the pilot episode. Lindelof, on episode 1 of the Official Watchmen Podcast (2019), he compares Vietnam to Hawaii and how it is inspired by the colonial tendencies in America's past. We also see how politics have evolved since the original Watchmen, revealing that while superheroes are still illegal, cops are now allowed to wear masks to protect their identities due to a mass attack on the police in their own homes.
This image, from Episode 7, "An Almost Religious Awe", tells the alternate history conclusion of the Vietnam War.
The most thematically significant aspect of alternate history is in the exploration of the character Hooded Justice, the first masked vigilante in the Watchmen universe. In the comic, Hooded Justice is an enigma whose identity was never discovered. However, in the show, it is revealed that Hooded Justice was actually Angela’s grandfather, who hid his identity with a mask and face paint in order to keep his race a secret, as primarily shown in the episode, “This Extraordinary Being”, which showcases Angela learning about her grandfather by way of a drug called nostalgia which allows her to relive her grandfather’s memories. It also calls to mind the similarities they have, wearing face paint around their eyes (one black paint, the other white) as they also share similar trauma (losing parents at young ages), which is directly brought up by Craig Mazin, host of The Official Watchmen Podcast (2019) in episode 2.
HBO’s sequel series demonstrates a deep understanding of the source material from a construction standpoint while also not doing a repeat of the story of Watchmen. They take the story told in the original comic book series and found a way to not just build on top of the world that was established, but create their own path forward with their own twists and developments with both brand new characters and the characters from the original story in the comics. Even when rewatching episodes for the sake of this analysis, more layers that either point back to the comic or bits of foreshadowing were unearthed. By bringing in new characters, themes, and symbols to an established world and familiar archetypes, HBO’s Watchmen succeeds in creating a worthy follow up to the original comic.
Works Cited
HBO. “Episode 1.” The Official Watchmen Podcast, November 3, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiN5pR0nS80
HBO. “Episode 2.” The Official Watchmen Podcast, November 24, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0RRDM_R8NY
HBO. “Episode 3.” The Official Watchmen Podcast, December 15, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDe3iL052v0
Lindelof, Damon creator. Watchmen. HBO, 2019.
Moore, Alan, and Dave Gibbons. Absolute Watchmen. DC Comics, 2011.
HBO’s sequel series demonstrates a deep understanding of the source material from a construction standpoint while also not doing a repeat of the story of Watchmen. They take the story told in the original comic book series and found a way to not just build on top of the world that was established, but create their own path forward with their own twists and developments with both brand new characters and the characters from the original story in the comics. Even when rewatching episodes for the sake of this analysis, more layers that either point back to the comic or bits of foreshadowing were unearthed. By bringing in new characters, themes, and symbols to an established world and familiar archetypes, HBO’s Watchmen succeeds in creating a worthy follow up to the original comic.
Works Cited
HBO. “Episode 1.” The Official Watchmen Podcast, November 3, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiN5pR0nS80
HBO. “Episode 2.” The Official Watchmen Podcast, November 24, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0RRDM_R8NY
HBO. “Episode 3.” The Official Watchmen Podcast, December 15, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDe3iL052v0
Lindelof, Damon creator. Watchmen. HBO, 2019.
Moore, Alan, and Dave Gibbons. Absolute Watchmen. DC Comics, 2011.
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