Another bad Watchmen review comes from a conservative source. Again, we see the general hostility towards comics on display, triggered by this specific adaptation. It starts with a terrific bang:
If you see it yourself, you're also probably a moron and a vapid, indecent human being.
Schlussel's rip has a few things in common with other negative reviews (cf The New Yorker, The New York Times). She thinks it's boring and too violence. She also reveals not having read the book, although she won't admit that explicitly.
What she adds is a return to the old-school disdain for comics, presuming that they are intended only for children. I don't know if Schlussel knows anything about comics history, but her itemized list of bad things feels a lot like a run-through of one of the early Comics Codes - i.e., heroes can't have flaws, violence can't be shown, no bad language. Plus a few bonus stabs of homophobia.
These bad reviews are fascinating for what they reveal about American cultural attitudes towards comics in 2009.
And no, I still haven't gotten to see the movie yet.
(thanks, Steve B!)
I don't know if Schlussel knows anything about comics history
Schlussel does not know anything about anything. Or at least that's true of the persona she's made a living from playing.
She was at U-M at the same time we were, and I know some people who knew her then. (I can't figure out if I ever met her myself.) She was involved in one of the right-wing groups on campus -- the College Republicans, I think -- and I gather that even then most of her fellow activists thought she was unhinged.
Posted by: Jesse Walker | March 20, 2009 at 22:21
If that's part of her style, then this review makes complete sense. At least as marketing, or self-presentation.
I don't remember her at all.
Posted by: Bryan Alexander | March 23, 2009 at 12:30