Two WATCHMEN satires/parodies/homages

[starwolf_oakley]

Two WATCHMEN references after the cut. One in RADIOACTIVE MAN #5 is obviously a funny parody. The other IN STORMWATCH #44 is by Warren Ellis, so I'm not sure if it's a satire or an homage.

Comments

[shanejayell]

The Ellis thing was a homage, I believe. The issue in question was chronicling Jenny Sparks history, each bit done in a tribute to different artists. Very cool issue.

[jlroberson]

Certainly had the best art, at least till Hitch came along. I don't know, though--when I read it, I remember thinking that visually, it worked, but the story--they make a baby out of dead baby parts and this crazy woman sits there in bed with it? I just...it just seemed so stupid for Ellis, but it was early. WORLDENGINE I disliked for similar reasons.

The Eisner homage in the same issue works much better, and I wish there had been more than just the one panel of the Crumb.

[halloweenjack]

I didn't mind that aspect of the story so much (the only problem I had with that issue is that I didn't know if some of the other superheroes were actual pre-existing Wildstorm characters, or ones that Ellis made up just for that issue).

[icon_uk]

I could see what they were going for with that sequence, the superbeings of that era were... damaged, they saw themselves as being above humanity, and when one of them was unable to have the child she craved, her husband was quite content to go and make her one, because humans didn't really count. It also made for a powerful, seriously sick moment.

[jlroberson]

So they couldn't see how pathetic it is to have a rotting mutilated baby Frankenstein corpse?

I guess some people want something baby-shaped that badly. But if they thought that after that they were "above" anything--well. Only she was delusional.

Personally, it appears anything in that shape would've done fine. Why not a goddamn doll?

I just think that the obvious comment on the "darkening" they were making missed even the themes of WATCHMEN, and that they would have been better served imitating LONGBOW HUNTERS or something like that. But ahh, that's not so iconic.

[icon_uk]

Yes they could see, but whilst she was delusional, the others weren't any better, just in a slightly different way. Her husband was prepared to do anything to make her happy, or at least stop her being so sad, giving her a baby was the aim, and the method was secondary.

And arguing that it could have been a doll seems to be missing the point, to those superbeings, there was no real difference between a doll and a human baby. They were essentially sociopaths, unable to relate on an emotional level with humans.

[jlroberson]

Yes, but a doll would be less trouble. And last longer. And smell better. It just makes no sense.

[starwolf_oakley]

You mean like a giant technicolor squid? ZING!

[starwolf_oakley]

I just think that the obvious comment on the "darkening" they were making missed even the themes of WATCHMEN, and that they would have been better served imitating LONGBOW HUNTERS or something like that. But ahh, that's not so iconic.

Well, LONGBOW HUNTERS does work in terms of "trying to create a grim and gritty story for a character that doesn't really fit." At least according to a list of overrated comic books.


http://www.comicsbulletin.com/topten/127242615590286.htm

[halloweenjack]

That Radioactive Man page is hilarious, not only for the dead-on parody of Rorschach, but for finding a smiley-with-the-line-across-one-eye on the back of a button; hard to believe that Moore and Gibbons actually missed that opportunity.