Show notes
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ owl eyes turn to look at Dan and Laurie’s developing relationship in an issue that at least one of our hosts thinks delves deep into superhero sexuality. But Watchmen #7, “A Brother to Dragons,” has a lot more on its mind than a superhero bone sesh, as elements of our mystery start to come together in the background. Hallelujah.SUBSCRIBE TO WATCHMEN WATCH ON ITUNES, ANDROID, SPOTIFY, STITCHER, OR RSS. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER, INSTAGRAM AND FACEBOOK. SUPPORT OUR SHOWS ON PATREON.The theme music for Watchmen Watch was written and performed by Jeff Solomon.Plus, here’s a transcript of the episode for you to read through as you listen:Alex: Welcometo Watchmen Watch, a podcast about Watchmen, where we watch you watchingWatchmen and you watch us watching Watchmen. It’s a watch party all over theplace as we watch each other. I’m Alex.Pete: Iam Pete.Alex: Wehave some bad news for you guys right up front. Unfortunately, two of our hostsare gone this episode. One of our hosts, Justin Tyler, usually here, our othercohost, Alan Moore, always here, but they actually went on a road triptogether, cross country. Did you get the text about this, Pete?Pete: No,I didn’t.Alex: Yeah,they’ve been texting me all day. It’s so cute. They’re trying to get to akaraoke contest in Los Angeles. They got to get there in time to win the prizeso that they can pay the rent money. Fingers crossed. I know they’ve gone on alot of-Pete: Wow.That seems like the plot for like a B movie.Alex: Yeah,no, no, no. It is a plot for Bee movie, the Bee movie with Jerry Seinfeld, asfar as I know. But yeah, they’re having a lot of cute adventures. They keep gettinginto scrapes and I think somebody might be falling in love.Pete: Ohman. I hope they Instagram it.Alex: Yeah.Well anyway, they should hopefully be back here next week, but we are going tobe talking about issue number seven of Watchman by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons,A Brother To Dragons. Brother To, two brothers, two dragons as I like to callit.Pete: It’snot a brother and then the number two dragons.Alex: No,it’s not unfortunately.Pete: It’sT-O.Alex: Yeah,real bummer.Pete: Yeah.Alex: Igot to say.Pete: Ithink they really missed an opportunity with that.Alex: Hugemissed opportunity.Pete: Yeah.Alex: Now,as the past couple of issues have been focusing on specific members… I wasabout to say the team, of course they’re not actually in a team at all. Butspecific members of the cast, here we focus almost solely in on Dan and Laurie.Now, Laurie has moved in with Dan. She was kicked out of her home after JohnOsterman, AKA Doctor Manhattan, headed to Mars. They were worried that she wasirradiated. And Dan, who clearly has a little of a crush on Laurie, that comesto fruition of course this issue. Moved in with her.Alex: Theother thing that’s been going on in the background, the two other things thatyou probably need to know in case you are suddenly, for whatever reason,picking up this issue, Rorschach Nite Owl, AKA Dan’s former teammate, has beenlocked up and also, Adrian Veidt, AKA Ozymandias, there’s been tease in thebackground for a really long time, but he is doing a benefit to help Indianfamine, is I believe what it is.Pete: Cool.Alex: Yes,Pete? You’re just agreeing? Just cool with you?Pete: Yeah,that’s cool.Alex: Ohgreat. Thanks for agreeing but not offering up any additional information.Let’s talk about this issue. We talked a little bit about Dan and Laurie’srelationship. How do you feel about it, Pete?Pete: Well,first off, I don’t like it. Second off, I think that this is my least favoriteissue-Alex: Really?Pete: …of Watchmen. Yeah, just spends a lot of time on my two least favoritecharacters. Also-Alex: Wait,no, no, no. I want to stay on that for a second. Why is it that Dan and Laurieare your least favorite characters?Pete: Becausethey’re boring.Alex: Okay,great.Pete: Yeah.Alex: Butuse your words Pete.Pete: Well,I just feel that Dan’s too scared to stick up for himself, and Laurie is kindof stuck. But together, they kind of re-find themselves in a way. And that’sgreat, and I think they become interesting after that, when they get some confidenceto start living life again. Where they’re both kind of hiding out fromthemselves and who they are, and they find strength together.Alex: It’sinteresting to me that you do not like them because I definitely remember backin the day when I first read Watchmen, Dan and Laurie were my favoritecharacters. They were my in characters in the book, and I think part of that isbecause they are the two characters that are most clearly superheroes. TheComedian totally fucked up.Pete: Right.Alex: Rorschach,totally fucked up. Doctor Manhattan, not an easy guy to relate to, I’d say,necessarily. Ozymandias has his whole thing going on. But Dan and Laurie,they’re pretty normal, right?Pete: Yeah.Alex: Laurieis picking up… They’re both Legacy Heroes, so that’s part of their connectionthere.Pete: Sure.Alex: ButLaurie is picking up on her mom, Sally. She essentially just wanted to be asuperhero because yeah, she thought it would be fun. As we find out bit moreabout this issue, Dan was a board millionaire, much like Bruce Wayne.Pete: Hey,how dare you compare Bruce Wayne to this guy?Alex: Imean, it’s pretty directly analogous.Pete: Noway, man. This guy is an owl. All right, that’s dumb.Alex: That’strue.Pete: Notas cool as a bat.Alex: Hey,real quick. In Earth Two, which is the opposite Earth of Earth One in the DCuniverse, who’s the batman character on Earth Two?Pete: Hey,fuck you for bringing that up.Alex: Whois it, Pete?Pete: Fuckyou.Alex: Whois it, Pete?Pete: Fuckyou.Alex: It’sOwl Man, Pete.Pete: Woo,woo is it, Pete?Alex: Woo,woo, woo.Pete: Woo,woo is it? Eat a fucking tootsie pop you asshole.Alex: Ihonestly have no idea how many licks it takes to get to the center of thatthing.Pete: Theproblem is it’s not the same number every time that’s what gets you.Alex: Ah,okay.Pete: Yeah.Alex: Allright. You’d figure a cartoon owl could make it consistent but, I guess not.Pete: Well,I’m just saying I took that as a challenge, that commercial.Alex: Really?Pete: Ibought a shit ton and I tried to figure out how many number-Alex: Youcracked your fucking teeth, didn’t you?Pete: Ohyeah.Alex: Ohjeez, you’re not an owl. This is a funny story actually, you guys will likethis. When I first met Pete, Pete said, “Hey, check this out. I’m anowl.” And he turned his head 360 degrees, and it just popped right off.Pete: Yeah.Alex: That’swhy he’s a ghost now.Pete: Yep,fun fact. That is a fun fact. So, I would like to say the kind of star of thisissue is their ship, their owl ship. You know, that’s the only good thing I cankind of-Alex: Archieis the star of the issue?Pete: Yep.Alex: Theowl ship?Pete: Yep.Alex: What’syour favorite thing that the ship does in the issue, Pete?Pete: Ilike the two big eyes.Alex: Oh,the two big eyes is cute?Pete: Yeah.It’s kind of great.Alex: Well,so the visual theme in this particular issue does take its notes off of the owlship. We get to see a lot of circles, a lot of reflections, both off of the owlship. We get to see them off of Nite Owl’s goggles. We get to see them off ofDan’s glasses. Constantly zooming in and out of them. And always, well almostalways, those circles are being wiped or splattered in some way with a verysimilar splatter to the one that was seen on The Comedian’s button in the firstissue. Why do you think that is? What do you take away from that?Pete: Becausethey’re like, “Hey, we know this issue blows. But hang in with us becauseit’s still connected to a bigger story that’s amazing.”Alex: Again,one of the things that I liked about this issue is how human it is, and howgrounded it is.Pete: Yeah,and that’s why it’s slower [crosstalk the human aspect.Alex: Ithink, if anything, it’s taking a break from the darkness of the past couple ofissues. There’s still dark things that I [crosstalk Rorschach issue sucks you down into Rorschach’s psyche.Pete: Yeah,it does.Alex: Thisis a palate cleanser. This gets you away from it. It gets you back into Dan andLaurie’s life, but it also deals with a darkness in the history of superherocomics, which is the underlying sexuality of every single superhero, I think.Pete: What?Alex: Yes.Pete: Everysingle superhero has an underlying sexuality?Alex: So,I don’t know if you’ve noticed this but superheroes tend to run aroundbasically naked or in their underwear. Have you noticed that before?Pete: Yeah,yeah. But what’s that got to do with sex?Alex: Well,when, Pete, when a man and a woman, or a man and a man, or a woman and a woman,love each other very much-Pete: Or,you know, we got to keep it open-Alex: Yeah,or whatever you want to do.Pete: Yeah,yeah.Alex: Whateveryour-Pete: Trans,there’s other beautiful people in the world.Alex: Totally.If you want to fuck a person, you take off your clothes. That’s what I wassaying. That’s what I was getting towards, Pete.Pete: Yeah.Alex: Sincethe beginning of superheros, there’s always been this very mixed up and messedup history of sexuality. I mean, it’s clear with Wonder Woman, that’s beentalked about a lot lately. That the dude who created Wonder Woman was very intobondage, hence why Wonder Woman has her lasso-Pete: Whoa,whoa, take it easy there guy.Alex: What?Pete: Theguy who invented Wonder Woman is the guy who invented the lie detector test,and that’s what the lasso is about. It’s the lasso of truth.Alex: Yeah,but he also-Pete: It’snot about bondage.Alex: Healso… Marston? He also liked to draw bondage art.Pete: Ohokay.Alex: Constantly.Pete: Ididn’t know that.Alex: Yeah,you should watch… Oh gosh, I’m blanking on the exact name of the movie butit’s Professor Marston and the Wonder Woman, I think.Pete: Aslong as nobody is getting hurt in the bondage, it’s fine.Alex: Totally.But it’s something that’s always been sublimated in superhero comics, and asmuch as this is about the mystery, as much as it’s about the characters. Thisis also about Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons reckoning with the history ofsuperhero comics. Right? And here, we get to see that pretty plainly throughoutthe issue. It starts with, we see Dan is taking Laurie on this tour of his owlcave, I guess he calls it.Pete: Yeah.Alex: Ofthe owl cave. She goes into a safe and she finds a signed picture for one ofNite Owl’s villains, and she’s dressed in bondage gear, like straight up. He ishiding it in a safe in his cave. He has it repressed. This is all aboutrepressed feelings. This is all about repressed sexuality. It isn’t until theend, jump on to the end, where they put on their superhero costumes thatthey’re actually able to have sex. Superheros equal sex here in this issue.That’s what this issue is about.Alex: But,the other thing that’s been running through this comic series, which they don’tlet you forget, and was underlined very clearly with the Rorschach issue, isthat sex and death are very mixed up.Pete: Ikind of looked at it as they needed to become the superheroes so they couldhave the confidence to be who they are and be what they want.Alex: Well,I think we’re saying the same thing. I mean, you’re saying it through the lensof that’s what the characters do. That’s what they’re thinking. I’m sayingthrough the themes that’s why that happens.Pete: Well,let’s get to the part where we disagreed.Alex: Whichpart was that? All of the parts?Pete: Allof the parts.Alex: Allof the parts.Pete: Well,I thought specifically when you see the-Alex: Ilike the fact that you’re at the page where they’re naked and you’re justtapping them.Pete: I’mnot tapping them. I’m tapping the page.Alex: You’retapping the boob.Pete: No,I’m not.Alex: You’retapping the peen? What are you tapping?Pete: I’mnot. I’m tapping the corner of the goddamn, the corner of the panel.Alex: No,I can see it right now. You’re tapping the boob.Pete: I’mnot tapping the boob.Alex: Yeah.Pete: Inyour mind, you’re like, “Well, the boob would be down here.” Butthat’s a different panel, so it doesn’t count.Alex: Okay,Scott McCloud.Pete: Mypoint is that, this, to me, looked like a real call back to Blue Man Group’sMars world that he built, and it seemed like they were on Mars together, kindof making out. And then, they kind of explode and die.Alex: Ohokay. So you’re looking specifically at the dream sequence page, right?Pete: Right.Alex: Allright, well just to very quickly walk through the book.Pete: Okay.Alex: Danand Laurie take a tour of the cave. They seem to be flirting a little bit. Danis definitely making the booze. He’s doing the classic touch the center of theback thing, to let the girl know he likes him. When she calls him on it, hedoes a very smooth move through his hair. There’s still flirting a little bit,but she doesn’t seem to be picking up on it as much as he’s necessarily layingdown. Ultimately, they go upstairs, they watch TV. There’s some horrificreports on the TV. She calls him on not taking any risks, and they start makingout.Alex: Theytry to sleep together, but it turns out that Dan is impotent for hoursthroughout the whole entire affair, they try several times. I believe it’s fromFrustrated, he wonders down to the owl cave naked. He puts on his goggles andthey decide to get in their superhero costumes and take a cruise around. Atwhich point, once they put on the superhero costumes, we get such blatantsexual imagery throughout the thing. You see the owl ship going through atunnel, which Freud was like, “I get it.” Then, they fly outwards.There’s a bunch of splooshy clouds coming off of the roof. They end up savingsome people from-Pete: Apologiesto the people listening to this one because Alex said, splooshy clouds coming.Alex: Splooshyclouds coming from the roof. Listen, that’s what it is man. I didn’t draw this.I’m not Dave Gibbons man.Alex: Andso, they find a fire. There’s a bunch of people trapped in a tenement. SilkSpectre, Laurie puts on her Silk Spectre costume, or rather she pulls off herovercoat revealing her costume. At which point we get, again, a ridiculousimage of Dan is like, “Oh, this seems to be working.” And hisdrawbridge pops out of the owl ship. Goes across, they save the people, he’sfeeling it completely. They drop the people off on another roof, and then, hetakes charge. Kisses her and they make love inside of the owl ship, at whichpoint it explodes fire.Pete: Fire.Yeah.Alex: Outof the back.Pete: Whichwas the kind of worst part of the movie when they did that.Alex: It’sso funny that that completely, 100%, did not work in the movie. That is-Pete: Well,it also lasted way too long.Alex: Yeah.Pete: Thatshot, like should have done it quick. Okay, kind of try to make it funny,not… You know?Alex: Wellyeah, exactly. It’s supposed to be funny. They treated it seriously. They hadthe hallelujah, which we took the theme from the show from playing under it.They stayed on it, versus the way Dave Gibbons lays this out. It’s flashes asthey are getting undressed. As they are making love, and ultimately, whenthey’re naked and they’re chatting, it’s all in shadow. It’s, not to sound likeI’m from the 1950s or anything, but it’s very tastefully done. It’s verytasteful.Pete: Yeah,the shadowing is tasteful.Alex: Butit is. It’s not about the sex. It’s about what the sex means to the characters,versus what happened in the movie, which is about the sex.Pete: Right.Alex: Butthen we get… And we end with a very funny joke of now that Dan, who’s beenvery suspect of this whole conspiracy that’s been going on, that Rorschach toldhim about, tells Laurie as we pull out from the owl ship, “We got to breakRorschach out of prison.” There’s a pause and then she says,“What?” Because she thought he was going to suggest that they shouldsleep together again, and instead, he’s suggesting this other thing. Such agreat way to end the issue. Very funny way to end the issue.Alex: Butin the middle of the issue, the thing that we skipped over there that you weretalking about. Dan has a nightmare after he cannot consummate the deed withLaurie. He pictures a number of things. Do you want to talk through that page alittle bit?Pete: Yeah,I mean, so we kind of have, again with the lens, we see his lens of his glasseszoomed in and it kind of zooms out. And you see him looking kind of horrifiedat Laurie. And then, they start to kiss and she kind of pulls off his skin toreveal his owl costume. He pulls of her skin to reveal her costume, and thenthey kiss and explode. And they lose all of their skin. They’re just bones anda big explosion. And they have, in the background, it’s all black and theground their standing on, it looks like a red surface, like a Mars, likethey’re on a different planet.Alex: Yeah,I don’t think it’s necessarily… I didn’t take it necessarily as a vision. Itmight be the coloring from John Higgins.Pete: Right.Alex: Thatimplies that. But first of all, we should mention that when he first sees her,it’s not actually Laurie. It’s the villain from the picture. So, again, he’smixing up all of these sexual things in his head. He’s seeing Laurie as asexual object, the same way that he sees this villain. And ultimately, that’stied into explosion, which certainly you could take sexually at the end there.But it’s also tied into what they’ve been watching on TV, which is that theRussians are invading Afghanistan. There’s all this nuclear fear that’s goingon. They’ve been blown up. The skeletons looked very clearly like two things tome. One, they look almost exactly like Doctor Manhattan’s skeleton when he’sblown up, or John Osterman’s. And then, they’re also in the same position asthe Hiroshima Lovers that we’ve seen throughout the issues of this comic book.Pete: And,they also kind of look like a little bit of a Rorschach test.Alex: Yeah,I think that’s fair as well, absolutely. Because it’s white and black panel,right?Pete: Mm-hmm(affirmative).Alex: So,I’m sure there’s a lot more to be delved in here, and I’m sure people who havemore time to do analysis can have certainly looked into this. But it isinteresting to me how many repeated visual themes there are. And sometimes Iwonder if it’s just to give it this sense of rhythm, versus necessarily meaningall the things that we are ascribing to it, you know?Pete: Yeah.I mean, they really think about pacing and paneling in this book, which Ireally appreciate. And there are definitely stories within stories. The layersof this book is really impressive.Alex: Well,the Hiroshima Lovers, at the very least, I think, pretty clearly whenever we seea shadow of say Dan and Laurie in this issue, it’s always about the fallout ofactions, specifically sexual actions or violent actions. As we saw last issuewith Rorschach, where there were both things with this mom and her client, Iguess. Then, also his mom hitting him, that they’re all mixed up in the samething. And here we’re seeing the same thing with the exploding nuclear bomb, aswell as when Dan and Laurie make love, ultimately.Alex: Onething I wanted to talk about that’s such a great sequence is the first timethat they try to sleep together. And I know there was somebody who was makingfun of me about first discovering the word juxtaposition on a previous podcast,a couple of episodes back.Pete: Right.Alex: Butwe do get this great juxtaposition between what’s going on with Adrian Veidt ashe’s doing this athletic routine, and what’s actually happening with Dan andLaurie. You have the copy of the book. Can I grab it from you for a second?Pete: Sure.Sure.Alex: Thanks.I’ll bring my copy next time. I left it-Pete: It’sright there. I opened it right up for you.Alex: Ohman, you’re amazing dude. So yeah, we get to see Ozymandias as he’s doing thispitch perfect routine. And they’re, in fact, doing this this terrible job ofsleeping with each other on a couch. And I don’t know if you ever hooked up ona couch, not particularly comfortable, right Pete?Pete: Well,it’s tough. I mean, it depends on the size of the couch. But yes.Alex: Yeah,you got to get a pull out couch. That’s the important thing.Pete: Ohmy God.Alex: What?Pete: Somuch going on there.Alex: Whatdo you mean?Pete: Pullingout, pull out couch. Come on man.Alex: Mm-hmm(affirmative). Yeah. Don’t use a pull out couch kids.Pete: Ohmy God. But yeah, tight places are tough to maneuver-Alex: Abstainfrom couches.Pete: Ohmy God.Alex: Butactually, one thing that I’ve heard about couches is if you use a proper bed tocook you can… Nevermind. Anyway, so as he’s saying Adrian Veidt on the TVsays, “Thank you. I hope you’ll forgive me while I warm up. I haven’t donethis in a while.” And everybody laughs. And Dan and Laurie, Laurie says,“that better?” And Dan says, “Uh huh.” And then, he says,“Just look at the confidence as he leaps up and grabs the bar, beginningthe maneuver.” While they say, “Oh, I’m sorry. Am I crushingyou?” “No, it’s okay, don’t worry. Everything is okay.” Mm, andyou think she’s saying that in pleasure but it turns out that he’s actuallyjabbing his elbow into her.Alex: So,it’s just throughout that entire sequence we see, I think there’s two thingsgoing on, right? We get this very funny exchange between what’s happening withAdrian physically, and what is happening with them physically, but also thefact that right now Dan is overweight, right? He hasn’t been a hero in years.Laurie, also, hasn’t been a hero in years. Certainly she’s been hanging outwith John Osterman but they haven’t had the practice. We saw a couple of issuesback that they were both out of breath when they fought in the alleyway andAdrian Veidt is at the tip top shape. Now, we know, this is a big spoiler and Ithink you guys probably know if you’re reading the book, that Veidt is theultimate mastermind. He’s ahead of them on every move is what I think we’rebeing told here, once again without being told. And that’s what I think isgreat about every issue here, is that Alan Moore never forgets about themystery. He’s layering it in every issue.Alex: Evenin this issue, which seems to be about Dan and Laurie and their relationship,there’s still little clues like that.Pete: There’sclues, yeah. Where you’ve got to… You were like, “Oh, how did I not putthis together? It seems so obvious here.”Alex: Well,there’s even more stuff. It’s funny that they rely… Oh, what were you goingto say?Pete: Iwas just even more stuff. Do you see what…Alex: Wait,even more stuff?Pete: AlanMoore. Even more stuff.Alex: Oh.Yeah.Pete: Yeah.Alex: No,no, no, I know. He owns that store, that knickknack store called More Stuff. It’svery cute. Very homey. Again, it’s funny to me that they use the TV as adevice. It must have felt relatively new then, because I think now you see thaton TV, where somebody clicks on the TV and immediately it’s like, “And inother news, here’s the specific clue you needed to know.”Pete: Yeah.Alex: Buthere, we get a bunch of different things. We find out about the Institute ofExtra Spatial Abnormalities. I’m forgetting the exact name of it, but we passby it a couple of times with the comic. And they’re very excited because theyhave figured out a way to maybe access alternate dimensions that, as we’ll findout later, is a big part of what’s going on with Adrian Veidt’s plan.Alex: There’salso a seemingly random mention, which seems to just be killing time where theytalk about a artist, sorry a writer, who has gone missing. Now, this is thesame writer who worked on Tales of the Black Freighter, who in The Back Matter,a couple of issues back, we found out had also gotten missing, and then ultimatelywas replaced on Tales of the Black Freighter. This is, again, as we’re going tofind out later, these are all people that are working for Adrian that he isgetting rid of as they create this story, as they create this narrative forhim.Alex: So,everything there is not wasted. They use every part of the Buffalo, as theysay. Right, Pete?Pete: Yeah,and then we get an amazing story about owls.Alex: Didyou read this, Pete? Be honest.Pete: Yeah.Alex: Youdid?Pete: Yeah.Alex: Oh,I’m so proud of you. What’d you think?Pete: Iliked it. I mean, this was one of the only ones that I read the first timearound because it has pictures. So, I was like, “Oh cool.”Alex: Ohbirds.Pete: Yep.Alex: Whatdid you think of this? What did you take away from this story?Pete: Well,I mean, it talks about the owl in comparison to kind of… Well, we can kind oftalk with our character, the owl character, like what the owl is like. Thespecific, how he hunts prey, all this kind of stuff. And I think there’s a lotof great kind of parallels here.Alex: Yeah.We find out about that. We also find out about his relationship with hisfather, which is something that I think potentially drove him on to become NiteOwl here. It’s also funny to throw this in, given that Dan talks about,“Oh, I write articles about birds, but nobody reads them.”Pete: Yeah.Alex: Andthen, that’s what several pages at the end of the comic is. They’re like,“Here you go. Here’s a boring owl story for you.” Expect, obviously,it’s not. Another little detail that it I thought was fun in there is a coupleof issues back we found out that one of the team members from, I don’t think itwas the crime busters, I think it was from the minute man, Moth Man wascommitted to an insane asylum upstate.Pete: Yeah.Alex: AndI think we’ll meet him again in a couple of issues’ time, but Dan mentions inthe story that he was visiting a friend upstate, which is probably Moth Man,even though he doesn’t talk about it.Pete: No,interesting.Alex: Yeah,so I thought that was neat. Yeah, this is… It also, what was the other thing?There was one other detail. Oh, what’s the name of the story? It’s something ofPelham?Pete: Yeah,it’s Blood from the Shoulders of Pollis.Alex: Pollis,yeah, sorry about that. So, Pollis is Athena, the God of the hunt. And I dothink, this a very vague idea, but I think that telling the story about Athena,telling the story about the owl, and the way that Dan acts throughout the restof the issue is that he only comes alive when he truly is Nite Owl and whenhe’s on the hunt. Otherwise, he’s kind of meandering, he’s wandering throughlife. He doesn’t have a strong personality, but here we get to see him as soonas he puts on the Nite Owl costume. He’s in charge. He’s riding on top of theowl ship.Alex: Hetakes Laurie in his arms and kisses her, which is what he’s been unable to dothe rest of the series. It’s cool. Good comic.Pete: Ialso like how with the owl story, it’s from his perspective, you know?Alex: Yeah.Pete: Andit’s like this thing of things he should or should not be paying attention to,which is something we, the reader, should be paying more attention to whatwe’re seeing here, as far as who don’t it, you know? So, it’s kind of a bigclue that, “Hey, I’ve given you everything you need to know up until thispoint.”Alex: Yeah,I think that’s a fair point. I mean, particularly because there have been somany character driven issues up to this point, it would almost feel like,“Okay, we are learning more about this team that isn’t really a team.We’re finding out more about these characters.” But the entire time Mooreis saying no, there’s a mystery here. There’s a mystery here. There’s a mysteryhere. Don’t forget about that.Pete: Yeah.Alex: Anythingelse you pulled out from the issue, Pete?Pete: No.I just, I mean, even if this is not my favorite of all the chapters, or myfavorite of all the issues, it’s still pretty amazing. And yeah, just goingback, it’s just I’m constantly blown away by how good this is. It reallydoesn’t dip in over the years. I mean, it’s just still very, very fresh, andthere’s new things that you can find in it, you know?Alex: Iwill say, as we talked about last episode, I do have a problem hooking intoLaurie as a character, a bit. Dan’s very well fleshed out. Dan’s very wellthought out. But Laurie in this issue, I’m not 100% sure what she wants orneeds, or what she’s getting out of the relationship with Dan. There’s a littleblip where as she’s sleeping she murmurs something to Doctor Manhattan.Pete: Yeah.Alex: So,it feels like maybe this a rebound, maybe she just needs to feel somethingphysically. But it feels a little more surfacey to me with Laurie, than it doeswith the rest of the characters-Pete: Well,it’s probably one of the downfalls of maybe it being a male writer, you know?Alex: Yeah.Pete: Thathe’s not giving enough attention to the female characters.Alex: Yeah,I think there’s a tension there. That’s the thing is there’s still… Laurie isstill good, and I like Laurie and it’s a well thought out character, butthere’s an emotional depth there that drives her more to be a driving force toget Dan out of his funk, versus anything particularly for Laurie.Pete: Yeah.Well, I mean, I think that she does… I mean, we get to see the way she’sfighting in the next chapter. It feels like she’s definitely coming alive more,and being more her superhero self, which feels like she’s kind of more in herelement.Alex: Itmight also be a problem just with, A, the character of Silk Spectre that SallyJupiter, Sally Juspeczyk. I don’t know how to pronounce it. She became asuperhero to become famous. Laurie did it because she had nothing better to do.And when you have a character who’s just kind of bored and not quite sure whatthey want to do, it comes off wishy, washy in the text.Pete: Yeah.Alex: Shedoesn’t really have a place in the world, as of yet. And as we read this story,to be honest, I don’t remember if she does by the end of the book or not. Iknow what happens to her plot wise, but I’m not sure what… I don’t rememberwhat happens to her emotionally. So, I’m curious to see if she does find thatdrive, that purpose by the end.Pete: Yeah.Alex: We’llsee what happens.Alex: Ifyou would like to support this podcast, patrion.com/comicbookclub. Also, we doa live show every Tuesday night at New York. Come on by. We’ll chat with you about Watchmen. There’s a couple ofplaces you can check us out online. You can check out, Watchmen Watch Podcaston Facebook. You can check out Watchmen Watch Podcast on Instagram.WatchmenWatch1 on Twitter. Also, @comicbooklive on Twitter.ComicBookClubLive.com for this podcast and more. You can subscribe and commenton iTunes, Android, Spotify, Stitcher, or the app of your choice. And remember,we taped this podcast 35 minutes ago.Alex: Oh,sorry. I’m getting a text actually from Justin and Alan. They just crashed thecar, but they went on another adventure. A bunch of raccoons are helping themout.Pete: Oh!Alex: So,they should be back in time for next week.The post Watchmen Watch: Issue #7, “A Brother To Dragons” appeared first on Comic Book Club.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/comicbookclubAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
