I think it’s interesting that this post both praises the Watchmen for it’s realistic New York setting and the statement that Mr. Manhattan is eortiz’s favorite character for his very unreal super powers. A great example of the power of masking, as McCloud discusses it on in the second chapter of Understanding Comics. I would argue that rather than masking being exclusively an illustrative technique, its utilized in the Watchmen through narrative. While Dave Gibbons’ style seems to gravitate towards the more realistic side of the McCloud triangle, this is still, to varying degrees, an impossible story. Rather than identify with the iconic aspects of the characters, the unique and detailed faces of all characters (primary, secondary, superficial) along with similarly realistic backgrounds allows the reader a more objective view of the story based on the text. The focus on reading allows for a greater “perception” rather than “reception” of the story, perhaps lending the story its sophistication and acceptance in the literary world (McCloud, 49).

As to eortiz’s second point about the lack of cultural diversity, I certainly agree, and would also point to this as one of the few aspects that may one day come to view the Watchmen as dated. This cultural criticism certainly applies to virtually every American form of entertainment, and forms the basis for so much of the responsive literature being produced today. Yet its not so much the lack of representation that stuck out to me as much as what we do see: specifically, the lesbian on page 21 of chapter five. I applaud the creative team for attempting to include someone who (especially at the time) was such a poorly understood minority in the American public. Yet I cannot help but feel the eighth panel is both unnecessary and perhaps even misleading. I say unnecessary because, at least for me, it is obvious Joey is a woman. By pointing this out with her poster and intimidation, it seems to place a more flagrant and negative stereotype on her. This is probably way too sensitive, but for the sake of discussion…

My other problem is that the acronym from Gay Woman Against Rape has nothing to do with Gwar, which is only lame because those two things should totally be related!