Published: March 28, 2009 11:59 pm      

BILL EGGERT | Who watches ‘The Watchmen’?

The latest comic book to be adapted into a movie is the “The Watchmen.”

The film is based on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s influential and lauded graphic novel of a dystopian view of the United States set in a parallel world of the mid-1980s.

Moore, a British self-proclaimed anarchist, twists U.S. history to such an illogical and idiotic turn of events that it would only make sense on Superman’s Bizzarro world.

The heroes of the novel and the film, the Watchmen, are a multigenerational group of heroes of who are deeply flawed individuals. While the film has some incredibly creative cinematic elements, it nonetheless reflects Moore’s intent on knocking superheroes off of their lofty pedestals.

Being old school, I prefer my heroes to be clear cut, with no ambiguity.

Comic books, and their superheroes, are essentially escapism. They take kids (and even college students and adults) away from the mundane matters of their lives and transport them to a place that is anything but mundane.

Starting in the 1970s, however, comics introduced relevance, and their universes changed forever.

I was first introduced to comic books by my dad when I was nine. He bought me an issue of Detective comics, which featured Batman and Robin battling aliens from outer space.

I think Dad was trying to encourage me to read, and used comic books, which he used to read as a kid, to entice me into a love of reading, which it did.

What impressed me even more than Batman was his Batmobile. It was a long, sleek dark car with a bubble top and a huge black dorsal bat-fin trailing to the rear. On its front bumper was a large stylized bat head.

I became hooked on the world of comics, particularly Batman and the Flash (and their colorful rogues gallery) and Superman (and his home world of the futuristic Krypton). Three years later, I became interested in Captain America, a superhero from the 1940s, who wound up in suspended animation for 20 years, only to become alive again, with the added bonus of not aging for those twenty years. Cap also had this cool shield, which functioned as a defensive and offensive weapon.

Today there are comic book specialty stores, such as Comics World in Windber, or the Phantom of the Attic in Pittsburgh.

Back when I was a kid, we got our comic books at Bloom’s Pharmacy in Geistown or Heck’s corner store in Moxham. My younger brothers, Tim and Tom, who idolized their oldest brother, also followed him into the comic book world, as did my adoring nephew, Timmy, decades later. Our barber, Joe T. in Geistown, also had a great collection of comics in his shop for us kids to read.

And little did we know that Spider-Man co-creator and artist Steve Ditko was a Johstown native.

I would frequently meet with one of my best buddies in grade school, Bob M., and exchange comics to read. We would discuss the stories, the characters and artwork – just like Seinfeld would later do in his sitcom.

It was a simpler time back then in the early 1960s; heroes were good, villains were bad.

We did not have the amazing CGI effects-laden movies of today like “Iron Man,” or all of the collectibles that the kids have that you see on the Internet.

Comics have become a big part of our pop culture. CNN covered the apparent death of Captain America; now Batman also appears to have died.

When I was a kid, the characters themselves were compelling enough; they did not need to resort to stunts such as killing off major icons to sell their magazines.

Superman, Batman and the Flash used to frequently time-travel in the old days; too bad I cannot do that as well ...

Who watches the Watchmen? Not I.



Bill Eggert is a Johnstown resident.