Watchmen's impacts and imagery
Watchmen so far is a very intriguing graphic novel and has impacted comic books and cinema in a very interesting way. Batman is now an antihero, very much still a hero but he's dark and gritty, and very brutal with his different encounters with lowlifes. The 2009's Watchmen film was directed by Zack Snyder who also went on to direct, Man of Steel, Batman vs Superman, and Snyder's Justice League, in these films you definitely see how Watchmen has affected the way he sees these fictional characters in that in Man of Steel we see many different Christ like imagery with Kal El.
We see similar imagery in some scenes in the graphic novel as some panels close in on Jon's face, with the father still reciting verses from the Bible. Following the other films Snyder places the Justice League in a realistic way, Batman as an anti hero, Superman as an idolized deity with lots of humans debating whether he's a Jesus character. Watchmen dives deeper in it's novel on that era of America and the world. Batman as really became darker and grittier as the years go on, from Nolan's Batman, to Ben Afleck as Batman being almost horroesque in some scenes, now to Matt Reeves The Batman with Robert Pattinson as The Dark Knight. The trailer gives such creepy vibes and shows Batman in his early years already not knowing where the line is with beating guys up. Marvel has done it's realistic takes on superheroes like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, The Punisher, hopefully we can see more of the dark and gritty tone come into the MCU.
Hi Misa,
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting insight to connections outside of Watchmen. I didn't realize that it influenced so many other things, especially Superman. The imagery in Batman that connects to Christ isn't something I would have noticed before. I kind of see Jon being depicted as the Jesus like character in a way as well. There are some people in Watchmen who praise him and he's obviously a famous figure. There is also an image of Jon in chapter 4, page 120 that is similar to the one you showed of superman. I wonder what the point of chosing to have a character shown that way is. It also almost seems like a weird contrast to include a character that could be seen with such a high/holy power in a very dark comic. But, then, maybe that was the whole point.
I didn't catch the imagery of Jon, I haven't gotten there yet, but I was waiting for a panel that showed Jon in that pose. Like you said, maybe that was the whole point. It definitely is. But yeah nowadays you see lots of intentional and unintentional imagery. One kind of off topic is at the end of Avengers Endgame we see a huge battle almost like a war between two huge parties and on one side we see very strange looking creatures, it was almost like a battle that's supposed to happen in the Bible's Revelation book. Intentional or not, it's all way too interesting not to point out.
DeleteI agree with your point that watchmen had some impact on comics and movies later on. Knowing that watchmen was the first to really do the anti-hero you can really see the similarities in the batman comics. His severe dedication to his cause, kind of running through the shadows is much like the batman comics. I wouldn't have seen that without your thoughts on it.
ReplyDelete