The series depicts an alternate world in which superheroes are commonplace, and even funded by a corporation. Twenty years later, in “The Boys,” Ennis took the template of “Watchmen”-corrupt world, questionable heroes-and pushed it to an extreme, including offensive language, graphic imagery, and characters that indulged in every imaginable vice. Neither are indicted for what they’ve done or face any sort of punishment. The two most powerful heroes in the story-the brilliant Ozymandias and the omnipotent Doctor Manhattan, the latter of whom spends most of the comic indifferent to humans-represent would-be saviors who cite a utopian end to justify horrific means. Meanwhile, news reports suggest that Ozymandias has succeeded-world leaders are making declarations of peace-and the right thing to do, our heroes decide, is to let a massacre and a lie determine the shape of a new world. As a result, he is killed by Doctor Manhattan. The other heroes find him just as he’s accomplished this feat-he’s set a gigantic squid creature upon New York City, causing the deaths of millions-and, while Nite Owl, Silk Spectre, and Doctor Manhattan decide to go along with the plan, Rorschach refuses, pronouncing evil as evil. His scheme is to save the world from nuclear holocaust by manufacturing his own act of destruction, which will force warring nations to coöperate. The real threat, though, turns out to be Ozymandias. Meanwhile, amid scenes of everyday violence, the Cold War brings their world to the precipice of nuclear destruction, as it did our own. As the conspiracy unfolds, he tries to drag some of his peers-the blue god, Doctor Manhattan the smartest man on earth, Adrian Veidt, a.k.a., Ozymandias the sharp-tongued Silk Spectre and the dweeby Nite Owl-into his investigation. Early in the book, Rorschach, our narrator and one of the last remaining vigilantes, begins to suspect a plot to take him and his masked-superhero friends down. In the world of “Watchmen,” masked vigilantes have been banned and costumed heroes are in the employ of the federal government. In a genre built on idealism-on the notion that perfect heroes could model a more perfect earth-Moore and Ennis asked whether the world, with all of its flaws, corruption, and perversion, was even worth saving. In “Watchmen” and, two decades later, Garth Ennis’s comic-book series “ The Boys,” both of which saw TV adaptations this year, Moore and Ennis imagined darker, grittier worlds-and, accordingly, darker, grittier heroes to inhabit them. And I’ll look down, and whisper “No.”įrom the outset, it’s clear that these aren’t the tidy streets of Metropolis, where Superman valiantly subdues criminals, or even Marvel’s New York, where Spider-Man saves the day while cracking a few jokes. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout “Save us!” . . . The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown.
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