Watching the Watchmen and the Technology of Watches

…..Watchmen is a very interesting commentary on gender and technology in regards to the place of women in a superhero comic, gender relations to technology, fear of cyborgs and technology, and clocks/watches/time as technological representations of important themes in the novel. After all, the wordplay is too great to resist and the imagery is too proficient not to be purposeful. Someone has to watch the watchmen and their watches.

…..Right from the beginning the graphic novel’s use of the technology of naming makes certain relationships between gender and technology apparent. The Watchmen that the book is named after is the name of a group of superhero-like masked avengers who hunt the streets of New York. Notably, the previous group of banded costumed heroes was called the Minutemen. Almost imperceptibly, watch imagery has already made its appearance in the first half of the words (Watch and Minute) hinting at the time bomb that each of these groups become as they ripen into old age and produce a world in which corrupted power and lawlessness can flourish, something that Hollis predicts in the textual excerpts of his books. Despite the women involved in the troupe both names end in ‘men,’ a traditional superhero-themed ending. Additionally, all three were othered from the traditional superhero role. The Silhouette, a character we barely got to know, was a lesbian, which might not have automatically estranged her in this particular narrative, but the othering judgment for the reader was passed on the nature of her lifestyle as soon as The Minutemen asked her to leave which was then quickly followed by her murder. Meanwhile, Sally Jupiter was in the profession primarily for publicity and the furthering of her modeling career. Even Laurie was forced to become a costumed crime fighter by her mother, tagging along in the sidekick/romantic interest role which she continues in up to the incredibly heteronormative ‘happy’ ending.

…..As for technology, none of the women appeared to use any technology while most of the men do, some, such as Nite Owl II, quite profusely. Laurie’s character emphasizes this point. She is the constant companion to technologically-savvy men and the one interaction that she undertakes with technology on her own, to light her cigarette, escalates into almost burning Dan’s basement to a crisp. Although at one point a live-in resident at the Rockefeller Military Research Center in the Special Talent Quarters, her only purpose, as her mother so gently puts it, is to get Dr. Manhattan laid. Exiled by both Jon’s ‘superior’ mode of being and his technological skills, Laurie is set up as the opposite of technology: a living, feeling, human being, something that Jon’s technical advancement is taking him farther and farther from. However, even before Jon’s advent of blueness, he was a master of technology, more specifically, watches. Jon’s skills as a watchmaker already marked him as a master of technology in comparison to the incapable damsel in distress, Janey Slater.

…..Jon or Dr. Manhattan, as the fearful global community comes to know him, is the essence of the idea of the all-powerful superhero, the advanced superhuman, and the ultimate cyborg. Dr. Manhattan is America’s newest and greatest technology. Having put himself back together from scratch as he would a particularly complicated watch, Jon’s character perfects the idea of the cyborg and becomes a sort of God among men. He is virtually omnipotent as long as certain kinds of static aren’t involved and takes pleasure trips to Mars to relive his indefinite lifespan. Jon’s fascinating and disturbing evolution from human to something more plays on fears of cyborgs and technology. The reader watches as Jon loses touch with humanity, first with Janey, next with Laurie, and then with the entire human race. He kills with no sense of loss or guilt. He sees nothing wrong with obliterating Rorschach for the success of the human survivors in Adrian’s New World since he no longer has any sense of right or wrong, just what is or is not. The Albert Einstein quote towards the end of Chapter IV provides a poignant counterpoint to Dr. Manhattan’s development and deployment. Directly contrary to what Jon’s father told him, Albert Einstein is quoted as having said “The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking… The solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.”

…..Named after the Manhattan Project which resulted in the Hiroshima tragedy, Dr. Manhattan releases a similar level of chaos and calamity on the world. Adrian destroys to create his own utopic vision on the world using the same new and frightening technology that Dr. Manhattan exudes. In regards to these two characters, “Who watches the Watchmen?” is a particularly apt question. While Jon does not understand the morality of anything that he is doing, Adrian has a very strong sense of what is ‘wrong’ and ‘right’ in accordance with his world view in which he, alone, leads the troubled masses into peace under his subtle rule. He does this in part through a large network of technology which culminates in a dying manmade alien creature brutally murdering the New York masses by psychic shockwave. That Adrian manages to accomplish this without anyone stopping him shows that he has way more power than any one man should safely possess. On page 9 in Under the Hood in Chapter II Hollis apologetically predicts, “I sometimes think without the Minutemen…[the] costumed adventurer might have become quietly and simply extinct. And the world might not be in the mess it’s in today.” The moment that men and women use the technology of makeup and costumes to disguise themselves, allowing them to deliver justice as they see fit with no consequence, the organization and foundation of society inevitably starts to fall apart.

…..This impending sense of doom that permeates the book is most evident in the recurring theme of the “Doomsday” clock, as mentioned in the newspaper in Adrian’s office, which decorates every chapter three times: once on the title page of each chapter, once in miniature form before the text portion of the chapter, and once at the end while the blood gradually seeps down the page. There are twelve chapters that show each minute towards “Doomsday” at 12:00 starting from 11:49. Although the final chapter is 12:00 the actual event of Adrian’s “Doomsday” occurs at 11:25, misleading both the characters and the readers. Although the dreaded and anticipated final chapter begins with blood and gore, that bulk of the twelfth chapter is about how time continues and life goes on, delivering a more hopeful message than one might otherwise expect from such a gory novel. As Rorschach says while breaking into the cemetery to pay his respects to the late Comedian on page 25 of Chapter II, “NOTHING IS HOPELESS. NOT WHILE THERE’S LIFE.” Watchmen not only imaginatively represents gender and technology, but also uses technology to imaginatively represent important themes of older, safer technology (watches) versus newer, more threatening technologies (the walking atom bomb), passing time (chapter titles), impending doom (“Doomsday” clock to 12), and the promise of the future.