Book Review - Watchmen

Let me begin by saying this: until recently, I have never considered myself a graphic novel aficionado. I did not grow up reading comic books. As a child, I never found anything remotely interesting about the stories of Superman, Batman, or the X-Men. If anything, I generally looked down upon the superhero genre. I thought their pretty pages offered tremendous form, but minimal substance. About to turn 29, I now realize I have a lot of a catching up to do, thanks to Alan Moore and his tour de force Watchmen.

Louis Giannetti, a respected film scholar, argues that genres go through four formative stages:

1. The Primitive - the first stage in which authors establish a genre's characteristics
2. The Classical - the stage when a genre's generic qualities are refined
3. The Revisionist - the stage when authors reevaluate the rules of a genre, often critically
4. The Parodic - the stage when authors satirize the genre and poke fun at its conventions

Watchmen is definitely in stage three. Alan Moore examines the superhero concept and takes it to its logical conclusion. He asks tough questions: What would a world with superheroes look like in the long run? What would motivate superheroes to do what they do? And, how far would superheroes go to protect humanity from its worst excesses?


Moore seems to argue that governments would eventually try to exploit superheroes to serve their geopolitical interests, in essence changing their function from protecting individuals to asserting the power of the nation-state. In Watchmen, superheroes help the US government fight the Cold War abroad and help it maintain domestic order by putting down citizen riots. The dramatic turn of events forces superheroes to reevaluate their raison d'être. After Congress passes legislation banning their existence, superheroes are left with three choices: 1) submit to the control of government and become a military weapon; 2) retire from the profession; or 3) go into hiding and become a fugitive of government law enforcement.

Moore also suggests that not all superheroes would have altruistic motives. Some, like the Comedian, would pursue the vocation to fulfill their need to use violence and exert power over people. Others, like Rorschach, would use their profession as means to exact retribution on a human society they overwhelmingly despise. His point: superheroes are not necessarily good people.

Without revealing too much, the ending of Watchmen exposes Moore's final misgiving about superheroes: when they realize they cannot change the human condition (that we are often fearful, violent, and selfish creatures), will they try to control us instead of having us control them? Other authors, like Asimov in I, Robot, have posed similar questions. Ultimately, Moore concludes that superheroes are undesirable because they create more problems than they solve. The story ends with a quote that would make Johnnie Cochran proud: "Who watches the watchmen?" Indeed.

Book Review - Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service

Nearly 60 years ago, Joseph Campbell wrote a seminal work, the Hero with a Thousand Faces, in which he argued that among all the world's narratives existed a common pattern. Somehow, I doubt he could have ever imagined a story like Otsuka's Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service - about a group of university students who make money by transporting dead bodies.

The main characters are social outcasts - too strange be accepted by the "in" crowd and too average to get ahead professionally among the living. They find solace in each other and earn their income using their unique talents working for the deceased, who arrange for karmic payoffs. One satisfied client rewards them with a winning lottery ticket.

The genius of this manga series is how it manages to balance the tragic with the comic. The heroes' task is to liberate troubled souls, which often belong to victims of murder, abuse, and illness - both physical and mental. These stories within the story are profoundly disturbing. In one case, a "loving" father stores the body of his dead daughter at home to keep him company.

And yet, Otsuka's work is also downright hilarious. The most rational character in the Kurosagi crew is frequently one who communicates via a hand puppet. The heroes, often short on dinero, complain about having to transport corpses using mass transit. It gets to the point where one has to ask: who is more twisted, the story or the reader?

Book Review - Bartimaeus Trilogy

What do you get when you cross "Harry Potter" with "V for Vendetta?" Answer: Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy.

The series takes place in an alternate world where the British Empire is a superpower ruled by an elite class of magicians. The story follows the lives of three main characters: Nathaniel, Bartimaeus, and Kitty. Nathaniel is a precocious boy whose magical talent will bring him fame and power in magician society. Unfortunately for Nathaniel, this attention makes him powerful enemies and he finds himself constantly having to outmaneuver political rivals seeking to undercut him for personal gain. For assistance, he often conjures the powerful, but witty djinn Bartimaeus, whose humorous dialogue is one of the story’s highlights.

Adding depth to the story, the author also delves into the life of Kitty, a commoner who has witnessed first-hand the brutality of magician oppression. Kitty joins a secret group comprised of commoners with special talents of their own that plans to overthrow the authoritarian regime. In the process, Kitty’s fate crosses paths with those of Nathaniel and Bartimaeus and all are forced to question their beliefs.

If you're interested, these are the three books in the series:

1. Amulet of Samarkand
2. The Golem's Eye
3. Ptolemy's Gate