The Theology of "Watchmen"

I went to see Watchmen last night, having read the comic book graphic novel some months back. The novel is a work of art; it's richly interlayered, accomplishing literary effects and conveying subtleties of meaning that are impossible in straight prose. It was of course impossible for the movie to live up the original, but the film nevertheless was well done. And incidentally, though many fanboys will protest over the film's changed ending, I thought it made the finale stronger.

Like any narrative of artistic merit, Watchmen, as both film and graphic novel, raises profound theological questions. Lengthy papers could be written on the "Theology of Watchmen", but this post will seek merely to briefly consider and draw attention to a few of the issues the story raises.

Dr. Manhattan, the only superhero in Watchmen with genuine superpowers, is seen by many as a godlike being. He can manipulate matter; he perceives his entire life, past and future, as a continuous present (mostly); he can walk on the surface of the sun; he can grow to titanic size.

In the story, when the existence of Dr. Manhattan is made public, newspapers record a prominent official as saying "The Superman exists, and he's American." The official later clarifies that he was misquoted; his actual statement was "God exists, and he's American".

It is interesting to note how close this statement is to the implicit attitude of many in America. The state's established religion of American Nationalism is all too often cloaked in the language (and, tragically, the institutions) of Christianity, using phrases like "One nation under God" and "In God we trust". An examination of the radical, subversive message of Christ should make it clear that the God of Christianity is not the same as whatever deity the government "trusts"; but nevertheless, many in America ascribe to a political theology that in some sense assumes that "God exists, and he's American".

Of course, this is not a problem limited to the US. As Walter Wink has noted, Christian moral discernment in national affairs "tends to follow the flag". But in America, it is exacerbated by the fervent, obligatory, patriotism that colors everything in public life.

[Spoiler warning] The film version of Watchmen reaches its climax when one of the superheroes wreaks destruction in major cities around the world, framing Dr. Manhattan for the dastardly deed in order to force America and the USSR to make peace and unite against this new common threat (the film is set during an alternate-history Cold War). To the American government, it is as if God has suddenly turned against them. God still exists, but now he is anti-American.

Could real-world America face such a crisis? Though the God of the New Testament is not a God of empire, the conception of Deity embraced by Christian Nationalism could never turn on the US. There are millions of American Christians who, attending churches that obscure the cross with the flag, have rarely considered the possibility that God could oppose the United States in any substantial way (though many millions more elsewhere in the world have rarely doubted God's un-Americanism!). It is inevitable that someday these two conceptions of God will run smack-dab into each other (as they did in Nazi Germany, for example), creating massive cognitive dissonance for man, and shaking the religious foundations of American society.

Perhaps, then, Watchmen in some way echoes the archetypes of biblical apocalyptic literature, wherein all the nations of the earth come together against God in the "last days". In the film, the warring nations of the world unite to counter a hostile superhero. In "real life", the nations continue to war physically, but spiritually they are united in countering the peace of God with the cult of Empire.

This essay also appeared on my personal blog.