Watchmen Oral

Hello everyone, This will be my final presenation this week.
And I am
Very sorry because I will talk very fast and still take more time than agreed
upon
Spoiler Alert for : Watchmen the graphic novel, the movie, the series. The
Boys and Invincible. I’d understand any of you leaving to not be spoil as
these are some of the best stories of our age.
Today I will present three angles of my research about Watchmen. There

are aspects I didn’t linger on in my essay and aspects I already developped
in my essay. If the subject raises your interest you can give me an e-mail
address and I’ll send my paper to you.
As said this paper will be divided in three parts.
The first will be about the rôle of the hero
The second will be historical revisionism
The third will discuss how The series Watchmen is a condemnation of the
movie and series industry
As you may not be familliar with Watchmen I’ll try to make a brief
summary.
Watchmen is a Graphic Novel. It is a Uchronia. In this Uchronia, Action

Comics has inspired people to take justice in their own hands.
Then through an intrinsic field generator accident, a near omnipotent, and

near omniscient hero appeared.
These changes echoed through time changing historical events.

The US won the viet-nam war, Nixon is enjoying his fifth mandate, the
Cold war is much closer to the tipping point than it has ever been in real
life.
The events of the series are happening in 2019, Viet nam is now a US
state.
The events of the series are located in Tulsa Okhlahoma which is

important and will be discussed in the part about historical revisionism but
let’s start this presentation with the rôle of the hero in the American
Psyche.
The super hero story is a complex part of the American Mythology. Super
heroes as we know them appeared before and during WWII. Comics were
used as propaganda during the war. While we could point out that
Superman is an interstellar migrant, or that Wonder Woman was created by
a Feminist man living in a polyamourous relationship, I’d like to take
another approach to the subject. An approach offered by Alan Moore.
Alan Moore proposes another genesis for the Super Hero in american
psyche. He links the Super hero story to the KKK and I quote from
Watchmen :
Quote
In fact there is now a trend to look at super heroes in a more critical way
for example you have The Boys or Invincible changing the outlook of
super heroes :
In fact The boys ends up ridiculizing the patriotic right wing super hero by
displaying him masterbating and reassuring himself saying ‘I can do
whatever I want’
Now you may ask : What about the adaptation of Watchmen because your
subject is not the boys.
I would say Watchmen’s adaptation as a series use Historical revisionism

to redefine the fundational myth of the hero.
________________________________________________
Historical revisionism, historical revisionism, historical revisionism :
What is historical revisionism ?
Historical revisionism is an approach to history offering reinterpretation to

include ignored parts of history. This is often done by through academic
activism.
And has the saying goes : ‘History is written by the winners and then go
through revisionism thanks to scholars who love truth’
In the Series Watchmen, there is a recognition of the Tulsa Massacre. The

Tulsa Massacre is an event which has been meticulously erased from
history.
Watchmen has a full episode devoted to Historical Revisionism
The Historical Revisionism takes principally Two aspects.
The first is a representation of the Tulsa Massacre

The second is an intradiegetic Revision of the origin story of Super
Heroes.
Here is the intro of the series Watchmen
As you can see the Tulsa Massacre is depicted accurately. What they don’t
show tho is the aftermath . In the Tulsa Massacre, the white mob used
airplanes to bomb Tulsa which ended up leaving Tulsa completely in ruins.
Showing the Tulsa Massacre from an affrican american point of view is
historical revisionism
In the Watchmen Series we follow Angela Abar, an african american

policewoman. Recently one of her colleague was killed and a white
supremacist conspiracy driven terrorist group called the 7th Kavalery. The
police chief was discovered hanged and an old man in a wheelchair was
beside him. Angela Abar discovered pills with him which she decided to
take.
We discover in Episode 4 that the young boy who was saved during the
Tulsa Massacre is in fact the old man in a wheel chair. His name is Will
Reeves. Will Reeves is, in the Watchmen Universe, thanks to the series, the
first hero. Hooded Justice, a black man using white make up to not be
rejected, is the first super hero.
Where the graphic novel created a link between the KKK and vigilante
justice, the series shows that it is actually a black man, seeing a link
between his origin story and superman’s origin story, decide to fight a
white supremacist conspiracy through vigilante justice.
This reinterpretation shows how an african american decision has been

white washed and transformed into a force against equality.
In the graphic novel the author showed cleverly how heroes were used to
fight against equality.
Watchmen in Episode 4 is condemning the movie industry. In the episode

an organization named cyclops decide to use modified projectors to
hypnotize african americans and create black on black violence; This is a
metaphorical way to condemn a stereotypically violent representation of
african american in movies.
To finish this presentation I want to talk about the limits of watchmen.
Watchmen as a graphic novel tackle racism and sexism with a subtle

aproach. Making a clear statement elegantly. In The movie Watchmen by
Zack Snyder this message is diluted through modification of characters
and through shots which show a ridiculous display of male gaze
Example
Laurie, a complex character is reduced by this malegaze
The series also creates a very intelligent character called Lady Trieu. The
problem is that this character is the epitome of the stereotypical model
minority. She ends up being the main antagonist which ends up
undercuting the impact of the series. Even more now that anti asian hate is
on the rise.
Lastly the series offers a compromise between cops and African american
which is not making sense. We can understand that reparation have been
offered to victims of the Tulsa massacre and their famillies but nothing is
said about systemic inequality between white and african american. It
justifies the hate of poor whites by showing them living in terrible
conditions but does not take the step to condemn a world in which Lady
Trieu is a trillionaire. It does not condemn Capitalism as a system and
doesn’t undersand the problem with the US police. Instead it justifies the
police in it’s use of extra judicial, illegal violence and torture.
Just after the Watchmen series, Asian hate was on the rise and police
brutality was revealed to all through the death of Geroge floyd. These
events allow us to look more critically at watchmen. The absence of
condemnation of capitalism despite the rising level of inequality are also
deafening in a series trying to speak about racial inequality in the US. Yet,
this series is one of the best in terms of representation ever made.
In this presentation we have seen how The myth of the hero is linked to the
KKK, How Historical revisionism was used in the Series Watchmen to
inform it’s viewers about the Tulsa Massacre and how it rewrote the
history of the first super hero.
Then we have seen how Watchmen is condemning the movie industry for
it’s representation of african american as violent people.
To finish we have seen the limits of watchmen work on representation.
Thank you for your attention and here are beautiful flower to finish on a
lighter note?

Watchmen Oral

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Hello everyone, This will be my final presenation this week.

Today I will present three angles of my research about Watchmen. There

As said this paper will be divided in three parts.

The first will be about the rôle of the hero

The second will be historical revisionism

Watchmen is a Graphic Novel. It is a Uchronia. In this Uchronia, Action

Then through an intrinsic field generator accident, a near omnipotent, and

These changes echoed through time changing historical events.

The events of the series are located in Tulsa Okhlahoma which is

I would say Watchmen’s adaptation as a series use Historical revisionism

Historical revisionism, historical revisionism, historical revisionism :

What is historical revisionism ?

Historical revisionism is an approach to history offering reinterpretation to

In the Series Watchmen, there is a recognition of the Tulsa Massacre. The

Watchmen has a full episode devoted to Historical Revisionism

The Historical Revisionism takes principally Two aspects.

The first is a representation of the Tulsa Massacre

In the Watchmen Series we follow Angela Abar, an african american

This reinterpretation shows how an african american decision has been

Watchmen in Episode 4 is condemning the movie industry. In the episode

To finish this presentation I want to talk about the limits of watchmen.

Watchmen as a graphic novel tackle racism and sexism with a subtle

Laurie, a complex character is reduced by this malegaze

To finish we have seen the limits of watchmen work on representation.

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