[!@#$%!]

i read watchmen as a grownup having already had my adolescent dreams dashed and seen political ideals betrayed, friends corrupted, and so forth, so to see a masked hero acting like a deviant coward charlatan (the book indeed does show them that way) came at no surprise to me at all, i took it as a given—i was already more cynical than the novel.

maybe if i had grown up reading superhero comics in my teens and then discovered watchmen before entering the “real” world this it would have had a different effect on me. kinda like wehn i found the bill my dad was paying for santa’s gifts (except that was nice, i appreciated what he was doing—it was a happy disillusion).

but yeah i kinda grew up seeing captain america as an agent of “yankee imperialism” ha ha ha. true story. therefore, etc.