Comic Book Herald

A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans

watchmen legacy

Who Watched the Watchmen? Venom by Donny Cates & Ryan Stegman

by Leave a Comment

It is often said that Watchmen is the most influential comic ever to be released. That comics wouldn’t be where they are without it, for good and for ill. But how did we get here, exactly? More to the point, just what influence did Watchmen provide to the larger world of comics? What, ultimately, is the legacy of Watchmen? Who watched the Watchmen?

As part of this ongoing series on Watchmen, other critics have covered rights issues, backstage business, and DC’s treatment of Alan Moore in far more depth and detail than I could ever hope to, so I’ll leave that side of Watchmen with them. It’s all somewhat cursed and always will be, which at this point feels almost as important as the creative work itself was on release. Yet for me, the most prominent “curse of Watchmen” within the comics industry has been the insistence on never letting Moore move on from a comic he disowned decades and decades ago. [Read more…] about Who Watched the Watchmen? Venom by Donny Cates & Ryan Stegman

Who Watched the Watchmen? What Doomsday Clock Gets Wrong

by 3 Comments

It is often said that Watchmen is the most influential comic ever to be released. That comics wouldn’t be where they are without it, for good and for ill. But how did we get here, exactly? More to the point, just what influence did Watchmen provide to the larger world of comics? What, ultimately, is the legacy of Watchmen? Who watched the Watchmen?

In the wake of Watchmen, there have been many stories influenced by its style. There have been stories that riffed on what it was doing and ones that reacted against it. There have even been prequels to the narrative spun by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. But there had never been a direct sequel to Watchmen, let alone one that pushed the ultimate button: crossing over Watchmen with the DC Universe.

There had been attempts in the past, certainly. A cameo from Rorschach here. A thematic test image where Rorschach fights Frank Miller’s Batman there. And maybe one or two riffs to make things look spicy. But never anything as concrete as a complete sequel to Watchmen. That was… until Doomsday Clock.

Written by Geoff Johns with art by Gary Frank, Doomsday Clock is the big sequel to Watchmen. As part of the DC Rebirth initiative, a twelve issue miniseries was announced to pay off the big reveal at the end of the story: the DC Universe had been attacked by Dr. Manhattan.

A cursory glance at that sentence might make one… unsure. For all that the Before Watchmen comics weren’t uniformly good, there was a degree of draftsmanship to them. Not so much trying to one-up Watchmen as make a cheap cash-in without any sense of taste. But something like Doomsday Clock is… different.

A picture containing logo Description automatically generated

[Read more…] about Who Watched the Watchmen? What Doomsday Clock Gets Wrong

Who Watched the Watchmen? The Omega Men – The End is Here

by Leave a Comment

It is often said that Watchmen is the most influential comic ever to be released. That comics wouldn’t be where they are without it, for good and for ill. But how did we get here, exactly? More to the point, just what influence did Watchmen provide to the larger world of comics? What, ultimately, is the legacy of Watchmen? Who watched the Watchmen?

Who Watches the Watchmen?

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? is a Latin phrase attributed to the Roman poet, Juvenal. It’s most commonly translated to “who watches the watchmen?” Historically, there are two ways of understanding this question: First, under what circumstances does a government have any accountability to the citizenry it provides protection and freedom to? Secondly, it could be interpreted as a comedic absurdity; that the very idea that fallible humans could at any time, in any way, impose, teach or carry out infallible moral claims is paradoxical. Philosophically, the idea of “who watches the watchmen” is answered by analyses of power. In economic terms, for example, John Rawls posits that the behavioral incentives to maintain the rights of the population at large is the only way to guarantee those same rights for yourself. Plato’s Republic also answers this question by proposing the Noble Lie which argues that the narratives and myths of a society are what binds people and governments into carrying out their shared responsibilities. [Read more…] about Who Watched the Watchmen? The Omega Men – The End is Here

Who Watched the Watchmen? The Wicked and the Divine

by 1 Comment

It is often said that Watchmen is the most influential comic ever to be released. That comics wouldn’t be where they are without it, for good and for ill. But how did we get here, exactly? More to the point, just what influence did Watchmen provide to the larger world of comics? What, ultimately, is the legacy of Watchmen? Who watched the Watchmen?

A member of a group of famous and powerful super beings is involved in a mysterious incident and is later murdered. Their death kicks off a series of events that draws attention to the group’s motives and their history, revealing a conspiracy that divides the group and forces the surviving members to reevaluate the role they play in our contemporary society and how they have used their power and position in the world. Sure, this could be a Cliff’s Notes summary of Watchmen. But it’s also a broad strokes overview of Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s captivating series, The Wicked + The Divine, which explores the price one must pay for fame and adulation, and what to expect when a whole bunch of horny, hormonal teenagers become hosts for horny, hormonal gods who have been reincarnated in the 21st century. [Read more…] about Who Watched the Watchmen? The Wicked and the Divine

Who Watched the Watchmen? Si Spurrier’s Brief Homage in X-Men: Legacy

by Leave a Comment

It is often said that Watchmen is the most influential comic ever to be released. That comics wouldn’t be where they are without it, for good and for ill. But how did we get here, exactly? More to the point, just what influence did Watchmen provide to the larger world of comics? What, ultimately, is the legacy of Watchmen? Who watched the Watchmen?

[covers by Mike Del Mundo and Dave Gibbons, respectively]

X-Men: Legacy #9’s Double Homage to Alan Moore’s Watchmen

In X-Men: Legacy #9 by Si Spurrier and Tan Eng Huat, there’s an obvious homage to Watchmen #9 and then there’s a rather subtler homage to Watchmen‘s mystery villain, revealed in the 11th hour, quite literally in the frame of Moore’s narrative, to be an erstwhile superhero, Ozymandias, world’s smartest man. Let’s look at the Watchmen #9 homage first. [Read more…] about Who Watched the Watchmen? Si Spurrier’s Brief Homage in X-Men: Legacy