How Watchmen Upends And Dissects Typical Superhero Mythology And Imagery

How ‘Watchmen’ Upends And Dissects Typical Superhero Mythology And Imagery

By Rafael Motamayor/Dec. 11, 2019 11:00 am EST

HBO’s Watchmen may be the biggest TV surprise since Brian Fuller brought Hannibal to our homes. The show has taken what was once thought of as an “unfilmable” property and not only has it continued the story with an intriguing new mystery that carries on the themes of the original, but it has even improved upon the original graphic novel.From the very first episode, clear parallels were drawn between a young boy named Will, and the original superhero, Superman. But where Superman stood for “truth, justice and the American way,” Watchmen has spent the last weeks showing us the dark reality behind those words. Before the final episode of the season airs, let’s explore how Watchmen is turning the entire superhero mythos on its head.

This article contains spoilers for the first season of Watchmen.

You’re an Angry Man, Will Reeves

As Laurie Blake herself said back in episode 4, “people who wear masks are driven by trauma.” This deviates from the Superman analogy, but as young Will Reeves actor Jovan Adepo himself said in an interview with IndieWire, Will using the noose he was threatened with as a symbol in his costume is perfectly in line with the Batman mythos. “[The noose] is something that’s a reminder to him of a traumatic experience in his life, something that would probably weight on his hard for the rest of his life. Instead of allowing it to be a crutch or allowing it to be something that has a constant, crippling effect, he wants to use it as a symbol of fear for criminals. He uses it to empower himself.” This, of course, brings to mind Bruce Wayne using the image of a bat (something he was afraid of, at least in the Year One comic) as a way to scare criminals. But as Will’s wife June said in episode 6, Will was already an angry man before he the mock-lynching and before he put on the hood. At his police academy graduation ceremony in that same episode, a police lieutenant warns that “the uniform a man wears, changes him.” Even back in episode 2, the show-within-a-show, American Hero Story shows a fake version of Hooded Justice deliver a monologue about watching an angry man every time he looked in the mirror. Only by wearing a mask could both men become one. Instead of a power fantasy, putting on a mask becomes a coping mechanism against the deep trauma people like Hooded Justice faced. And he’s not alone. Angela Abar, Wade Tillman, and Walter Kovacs all wore masks as ways to hide from their own pain and trauma.  

The Cost of Wearing a Mask

In most comics, the hero wears a mask and a costume to protect those they love. Except that’s not true in Watchmen. Will Reeves wasn’t thinking about his wife and it wasn’t even his idea to put on the mask. Instead, June suggests he wear makeup because “You ain’t gonna get justice with no badge. You’re going to get it with that hood.” Indeed, as series creator, Damon Lindelof explained it, “he had to hide his identity because you could not be a black superhero in the 1940s. You would literally be murdered if your identity was known.” In contrast, the rest of the Minutemen saw an opportunity not to get justice, but to fulfill some power fantasy without accountability. But Watchmen the show goes back to the original idea of Hooded Justice by showing that the police are now wearing masks to avoid another scenario where white supremacists could attack their families.But the very first masked hero didn’t need a secret identity – he wanted one. While some stories have been written to explain in practical reasons why Superman needs Clark Kent – again, they would target his friends, and he couldn’t be left alone – the truth is, in contrast to Batman who wears the disguise of a playboy millionaire to live the life he wants as a costumed vigilante, Superman desperately wants to be Clark Kent. Even Alan Moore himself knew this. Before the British author wrote the original Watchmen, he wrote a Superman story titled “For the Man Who Has Everything” where an alien infects Superman and gives him hallucinogenic visions of what Superman’s deepest desires. What does he dream of? A normal life on his long-destroyed home planet of Krypton, happily married and with children.This is why the character in the graphic novel who most resembled Superman, Doctor Manhattan, was the one character who didn’t choose a secret identity, but had one assigned to him. Of course, his powers and omnipresent way of looking at things affected his humanity, further separating him from his past life until Jon Osterman becomes the cold, detached being we meet in the comic. Again, Watchmen turns this on its head and reminds us that Manhattan, just like Superman, wants nothing more than to abandon his powers and be human. This was seen in the past two episodes, which focus on Manhattan’s decision to live as a normal human being for the past few years, happily married and with children. Just like the original Watchmen commented on the superhero stories of the time and made something new that subverted old tropes, so does the Watchmen TV show upend what we know of the superhero mythos to comment both on the stories we find in the comics, as well as the stories from our own real world.

How ‘Watchmen’ Upends And Dissects Typical Superhero Mythology And Imagery

By Rafael Motamayor/Dec. 11, 2019 11:00 am EST

HBO’s Watchmen may be the biggest TV surprise since Brian Fuller brought Hannibal to our homes. The show has taken what was once thought of as an “unfilmable” property and not only has it continued the story with an intriguing new mystery that carries on the themes of the original, but it has even improved upon the original graphic novel.From the very first episode, clear parallels were drawn between a young boy named Will, and the original superhero, Superman. But where Superman stood for “truth, justice and the American way,” Watchmen has spent the last weeks showing us the dark reality behind those words. Before the final episode of the season airs, let’s explore how Watchmen is turning the entire superhero mythos on its head.

This article contains spoilers for the first season of Watchmen.

This article contains spoilers for the first season of Watchmen.

…And the American Way

Inspiring the Golden Age of Heroes

You’re an Angry Man, Will Reeves

As Laurie Blake herself said back in episode 4, “people who wear masks are driven by trauma.” This deviates from the Superman analogy, but as young Will Reeves actor Jovan Adepo himself said in an interview with IndieWire, Will using the noose he was threatened with as a symbol in his costume is perfectly in line with the Batman mythos. “[The noose] is something that’s a reminder to him of a traumatic experience in his life, something that would probably weight on his hard for the rest of his life. Instead of allowing it to be a crutch or allowing it to be something that has a constant, crippling effect, he wants to use it as a symbol of fear for criminals. He uses it to empower himself.” This, of course, brings to mind Bruce Wayne using the image of a bat (something he was afraid of, at least in the Year One comic) as a way to scare criminals. But as Will’s wife June said in episode 6, Will was already an angry man before he the mock-lynching and before he put on the hood. At his police academy graduation ceremony in that same episode, a police lieutenant warns that “the uniform a man wears, changes him.” Even back in episode 2, the show-within-a-show, American Hero Story shows a fake version of Hooded Justice deliver a monologue about watching an angry man every time he looked in the mirror. Only by wearing a mask could both men become one. Instead of a power fantasy, putting on a mask becomes a coping mechanism against the deep trauma people like Hooded Justice faced. And he’s not alone. Angela Abar, Wade Tillman, and Walter Kovacs all wore masks as ways to hide from their own pain and trauma.  

The Cost of Wearing a Mask

In most comics, the hero wears a mask and a costume to protect those they love. Except that’s not true in Watchmen. Will Reeves wasn’t thinking about his wife and it wasn’t even his idea to put on the mask. Instead, June suggests he wear makeup because “You ain’t gonna get justice with no badge. You’re going to get it with that hood.” Indeed, as series creator, Damon Lindelof explained it, “he had to hide his identity because you could not be a black superhero in the 1940s. You would literally be murdered if your identity was known.” In contrast, the rest of the Minutemen saw an opportunity not to get justice, but to fulfill some power fantasy without accountability. But Watchmen the show goes back to the original idea of Hooded Justice by showing that the police are now wearing masks to avoid another scenario where white supremacists could attack their families.But the very first masked hero didn’t need a secret identity – he wanted one. While some stories have been written to explain in practical reasons why Superman needs Clark Kent – again, they would target his friends, and he couldn’t be left alone – the truth is, in contrast to Batman who wears the disguise of a playboy millionaire to live the life he wants as a costumed vigilante, Superman desperately wants to be Clark Kent. Even Alan Moore himself knew this. Before the British author wrote the original Watchmen, he wrote a Superman story titled “For the Man Who Has Everything” where an alien infects Superman and gives him hallucinogenic visions of what Superman’s deepest desires. What does he dream of? A normal life on his long-destroyed home planet of Krypton, happily married and with children.This is why the character in the graphic novel who most resembled Superman, Doctor Manhattan, was the one character who didn’t choose a secret identity, but had one assigned to him. Of course, his powers and omnipresent way of looking at things affected his humanity, further separating him from his past life until Jon Osterman becomes the cold, detached being we meet in the comic. Again, Watchmen turns this on its head and reminds us that Manhattan, just like Superman, wants nothing more than to abandon his powers and be human. This was seen in the past two episodes, which focus on Manhattan’s decision to live as a normal human being for the past few years, happily married and with children. Just like the original Watchmen commented on the superhero stories of the time and made something new that subverted old tropes, so does the Watchmen TV show upend what we know of the superhero mythos to comment both on the stories we find in the comics, as well as the stories from our own real world.