Watchmen observations/ spoilers/ not interesting unless you've read the book (578 hits)
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Submitted by ILL34GL3 (View user info) at 2005-05-26 06:33:12 EDT
About a year ago I picked up the Watchmen TPB. I have no idea why I did, not being a comics fan, but I'm glad I did. In case you have no idea what Watchmen is, I'm talking about what is quite possibly the greatest comicbook/graphic novel ever published.
Well there's one facet of this story that I've never seen discussed anywhere. That would be what I see as veiled references to the Illuminati, New World Order and eventually, 9/11. You can go ahead and laugh now but I really see these references and I'm wondering if I'm the only one.
Here's where I'm seeing this kooky stuff.
If your familiar with the conspiracy theories about the Illuminati, you know they are believed to be a group of elite families bent on taking power over all of the world by infiltrating all major corporations, organizations, governments, etc., at high levels, but keeping these agents compartmentalized so they really don't know what ends they are working for. The Allseeing Eye of the Illuminati represents this compartmentalization.
Ozymandias, has this Allseeing Eye symbol incorporated in his costume. (You can also find the Allseeing Eye on the back of the one dollar bill.) Not only that, but you see this symbol recurring throughout the book, apparently suggesting the omnipresence of Andrew Veidt's influence.
Not only that, but in his conversation with Nite Owl and Rorshach, he starts spouting rhetoric about a "new world" and an "age of illumination". This is significant because according to "conspiracy theorists" the Illuminati is behind the construction of the New World Order to centralize ruling power under one body.
Now let's look at the 9/11 like events of chapter 12. The faked alien attack was perpetrated by Ozymandias to unite the world against a false enemy. Now many people believe 9/11 was perpetrated by higher powers to unite the world against a manufactured enemy. The resemblance of the two events is just uncanny, especially considering that Alan Moore wrote all of this back in the late 1980's.
I've also noticed diabolical references to Freemasonry in some of Moore's other books (From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) that also have relevance to "conspiracy theorists".
Anyway, I just wanted to throw this information out there to see what others think about it.
User Reviews
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-05-27 10:09:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I really dug Top Ten but he lost me on Promethea. I started to get the impression it was a vehicle to express Moore's spiritual beliefs while he was whacked out on hallucegenics.
Submitted by ILL34GL3 (user info) at 2005-05-26 23:56:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Thanks for the input guys. As a side note, I read a great Alan Moore interview on Blather.net where he talks about a comic he released about some CIA conspiracies that are true.
Anyway, I read the first Powers book and hated it. The art doesn't grab me and it just didn't really seem to go anywhere. I wouldn't be surprised if the story got better further in the series, but after reading the first book, I just really felt ripped off. I definitely plan on reading Sandman and maybe checking out Transmetropolitan.
I've read Preacher and most of the more mainstream Alan Moore stuff: From Hell, V for Vendetta, Saga of the Swamp Thing, Top Ten, Promethea, The Courtyard, etc.
Submitted by indoninja (user info) at 2005-05-26 08:44:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-05-26 07:16:39 (#)
Ranking: 1
Powers: a book about ordinary cops who work on cases where superhumans are involved
Preacher: a book about a Texas preacher with the Word of God who is searching to bring the Lord to justice with a hitwoman and an Irish vampire in his corner (lots of conspiracy stuff in this one)
Sandman: horror title about the Lord of Dreams -- incredibly original stuff here
Walking Dead: a very character driven and 'realistic' look at a world transformed by a zombie plague
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Watchmen did in fact rock.
As for the list above, I read the Preacher, and it too was fucking awesome. I am going to check outWalking Dead. I am not going to buy it though, I am way too mature and cool for that, I will just get my little bro to then beg him to let me borrow it.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-05-26 07:16:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Watchmen is just full of awesome. You may very well be right about the Illuminati thing. Viedt could be based on these conspiracy-theory elements.
The 9/11 thing is a little off, in my opinion. Viedt does what he does to unite the entire world against a fictional enemy, so that there will be no war and no nuclear armageddon. 9/11 was just an attack by one organizational power against another and I see no evidence that 9/11 was meant to do anything but hurt the US. The Taliban would be foolish to assume that an attack on US soil wouldn't rally sympathetic countries to America's cause, and I'm not jaded enough to entertain the notion that the US organized this attack against its own people...that's too much.
Anyway, glad you liked it. Alan Moore is a fantastic writer. If you're looking to get into some more comics that have a nonconventional angle, check out:
Powers: a book about ordinary cops who work on cases where superhumans are involved
Preacher: a book about a Texas preacher with the Word of God who is searching to bring the Lord to justice with a hitwoman and an Irish vampire in his corner (lots of conspiracy stuff in this one)
Sandman: horror title about the Lord of Dreams -- incredibly original stuff here
Walking Dead: a very character driven and 'realistic' look at a world transformed by a zombie plague
Transmetropolitan: set in the future, a reporter struggles to cut through the corporate and political agenda to bring the truth out while doing as much drugs and offending as many bastards as he possibly can -- extremely excellent and rife with social commentary
That should do you for a while.
Submitted by Berty (user info) at 2005-05-26 07:14:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I loved that graphic novel, never picked up on those references though. I reckon they could have been put in there to make the reader more sympathetic to Rorsarch's paranoid views, although these are common conspiracy theories and it's not surprising to see them repeated in comics.
The Watchmen was about looking at the reality behing the fantastic, to show that even the incredible and wonderful are firmly anchored in the real world. I think whatever references there where would have been intended as a critique of such amazing theories, theories that distract from far more distressing realities of death, suffering etc...