She Was Killed By Space Junk
We love a good origin story.
So much so we love to reinvent them over and over again. How many times have we seen Bruce Wayne’s parents murdered? How many times do we need to be reminded of Peter Parker and the biggest mistake of his life? Is there anything new to add to Jor-El’s quest to save his only son? We attempt to update these origins to place them in contemporary times and thus make them more relatable to a new generation.
Some of these origins are classic in their structure but to make them feel as part of the “now”, we have to add new elements to make the update feel relevant. Peter Parker should always come from a low income background but in today’s world he needs to be surrounded by fellow children from different countries and different cultures. Bruce Wayne’s parents can still be rich, but if you apply the idea that they were also philanthropists, then we can see how the social justice DNA inspires the young boy. Tony Stark was originally an arms dealer in Vietnam. Now we have him applying his trade in Afghanistan and the lessons he learns from that modern war.
How do we apply this to female superheroes though? Looking back on some of the best female superheroes reveals problematic issues. Carol Danvers originally acquired her powers when caught in an explosion with the Kree Captain Marvel and her DNA melded with his. Jennifer Walters is endowed with her powers when she receives a blood transfusion from her cousin Bruce Banner and becomes the She-Hulk. Janet Van-Dyne begs scientist Hank Pym to help her avenge her father’s death, and after being given powers and becoming The Wasp, she decides to stay in the superhero game because she’s in love with Ant-Man. These are all great characters who have grown over the decades, but their origins are often subservient to men in one form or another.
(Wonder Woman is a different story, a fascinating and complicated origin. If you’re not across it, why don’t you start with this Grant Morrison interview in The Guardian here.)
Looking back at the original Watchmen graphic novel, you could say that Laurie Juspeczyk receives short shrift as well. While it is fair to say that many of the characters in Watchmen are trapped by their situations and decisions, Laurie doesn’t appear to have any choice other than be a device for the men around her. She’s the reason Dr. Manhattan reconnects with the world. She gives Nite-Owl his opportunity to rediscover his mojo. She’s an emotional revelation for her mother and an opportunity to see a Comedian in a different light. Laurie really cops a rough time.
But is this a fair assessment? With episode three of HBO’s Watchmen series, we see Laurie in a totally different light. Played to perfection by legendary actor Jean Smart, Laurie is already one of the most fascinating characters to appear on TV in 2019. She’s now known as Laurie Blake, having taken the name of her late father, Edward Blake, the awful hero known as The Comedian. She works for the FBI and takes down masked adventurers, including shooting a Batman-esque character, Mr Shadow, in the back. She’s quick with her gun and even quicker with a line. She tells anyone who’s interested that she has little time for masks.
Yet throughout this episode Laurie is constantly masked. When we first find her in the booth, making a late night call to her ex, the omnipotent Dr Manhattan, most of her face is hidden from us. We see her in public wearing sunglasses, on a plane wearing a sleep mask, we see her constantly reflected in side mirrors on cars and in night time goggles that resemble the pair her previous lover Nite Owl owned. She checks her teeth in the reflection of Looking Glass’ mask and even when she arrives at Judd Crawford’s house, the gate she stands behind her resembles an iron mask. That “mask” also has the shape of a love heart.
What does this all suggest? Is Laurie nostalgic for a simpler time? If Laurie is, she should be careful. In one of Mad Men’s greatest scenes, Don Draper says in regards to nostalgia, “It’s delicate but potent. Teddy told me that in Greek, nostalgia literally means the pain from an old wound. It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone.” (Watch the whole clip here.) Laurie didn’t have a positive upbringing. She became a superhero because her mother wanted her to carry on the Silk Spectre legacy. She was seduced by Dr Manhattan at the tender age of 16 and then forced to live on a government facility. She was pressured by Jon to be his only link to the world he’d grown apart from. Laurie did it tough.
How does this explain the pop art in her home? At one point we see Laurie sitting in front of a Warhol inspired (maybe created by the artist himself in this world?) print with Dr Manhattan, Nite Owl, Ozymandias and Silk Spectre in four boxes. Laurie literally blocks out her younger self in the print. She is outside of the box while the men are still trapped. It is the visual punchline to the joke she tells at the end of the episode. It is the first clue she hasn’t left behind the past. Calling her ex after seducing a younger man (that she made wear a mask during sex) is another. The giant blue vibrating dildo is a hilarious and confronting exclamation mark on her inability to let go of her personal history.
It appears Laurie yearns for the past. Our memory often does a thorough job of ironing out the awful wrinkles of previous experiences. Forgetting the trying moments in life often help us make our way forward. This is why nostalgia can be dangerous. We can gloss over the terrible moments that made us who we are today and make us impotent in dealing with the moment at hand. In yearning for a so-called simpler time, we can forget that we still have so much of our journey in front of us with all the bumps and missteps that haunt as throughout life. Is Laurie aware of this? She plays it tough. She plays it smart. Yet in her private moments, we see the doubt and the loneliness that other characters don’t have the opportunity to experience.
We can’t judge Laurie on this though. Batman never forgets his parents. Spider-man will never forget Uncle Ben. Superman can’t shake the tragedy of Krypton. Of course Laurie can’t forget her past. That was her origin story. The new HBO series is revealing this to us, that her true origin was always there, right in front of our unmasked eyes. We’ve seen the tragedy that inspired her to fight crime and it wasn’t just her mother, it wasn’t just her father, and it wasn’t just her lovers. It was all of these experiences, equal parts tragic and exhilarating, that by the final pages of the original story, let us know she had all the inspiration she needed to be the hero she truly wanted to be.
I can’t wait to see the continuing adventures of Laurie Blake.
Justin Hamilton
November 7th, 2019
Sydney, Australia