People are more likely to recognize the name Neil Gaiman than Alan Moore, especially since the latter won't attach his name to anything Hollywood does. Both are comic book writers, but Moore revolutionized the industry with a little title everyone knows, but hardly knows anything about. And that is the Swamp Thing. The Swamp Thing comic book combined horror, profound metaphysics, science, love, and the evolution of the soul. My favorite depiction of Swampy has roses growing out of his hands, his feet rising out of the Earth, a frog on his shoulder, and the most regal look peering from his red eyes. He is a type of Christ figure.
Swamp Thing is an elemental, which means he has a connection to nature in a very special way. One story had a certain breed of vampires living under the depths of a lake, and Swamp Thing became the whole valley raising the vampires out into the the sunlight to their obvious end. His human connection is his wife Abagail from before the accident which changed him. At one point in the comic run, he travels through space, inferring that we all come from the cosmos where God created us. This is of course my interpretation.
Moore wrote two very powerful graphic novels which look into the heart of man and show his fatal flaws. One was "V For Vendetta," and another "The Watchmen." I admit never reading "V," but The Watchmen was a milestone that typifies what it was like growing up with the fear of nuclear war with the USSR. In the 70s and early 80s the threat seemed so real. Now it has been replaced with "terrorism," and dirty bombs. Fear is a lie, but a powerful tool used to control people and make them loose hope (mixing a little Bible with The Never-ending Story).
The reason my own worlds collided today was because in the middle of my real life strife with divorce and starting over professionally, I'm living in limbo waiting for a license to be reviewed by the State before I can work. So I went to see Avatar and The Blind Side. We see the same lessons of greed played out in our fantasies alongside the extreme needs of real people who are victims of the world we've created. And the primary theme of The Watchmen goes hand in hand with what is wrong with the world, and whether we have the courage to change it; at what price, too.
In the "hook" at the very beginning of scene one, someone breaks into the condo of an older man who does his best to defend himself. It is obvious immediately that these two have super-strength as fists take out corners of walls, and the older man takes a beating that would kill a normal man. He's finally thrown out the window crashing to his death hundreds of feet below, the symbol of his alter-ego is a button of a smiling face on the sidewalk that came off in the struggle.
The credits expertly tell the back story of the rise of super heroes inserted into American history, their demise, and the dawn of those who replaced them. Then my favorite character is introduced investigating the death of the Comedian. Rorschach's POV is so important because he acts as a medium between the polarized super-heroes in the story, half of them overly brilliant and the others typical and normal. He gives his opinion about the world he lives through voice-over from his journal entries, and warns the other members of their team that someone may be "gunning" for super- heroes. In the comic, they were not called "The Watchmen."
Rorschach is unconventional for two reasons. One, he talks like an Old Testament prophet about the depravity of mankind, even lives on the street unmasked carrying a sign "The End Is Coming," and two, is wanted by the authorities because he is not afraid of killing the bad guys. The psychology of his character is masterful, and Moore shows his genius by the randomness nature gave them these gifts. They could easily turn to evil. They skirt and cross that line of right and wrong, just as real people do.
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