Secret Squirrel Would Have Solved It by the Third Issue

I was thinking about Watchmen this week. Specifically, I got to
thinking what makes it so revered amongst comics fans. I don't
mean scholars or critics or whatever. I mean comics fans. In
the 1980's I thought the best comic book around was the Giffen
Dematteis Justice League, but the holy trinity in the 1980's
was clearly Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns and Maus, with polite
nods over to Crisis on Infinite Earths and Swamp Thing, and the
occasional acknowledgement to X-men, The Mighty Thor with
Simonson and Elfquest.

And then when the 1990's came along Sandman, along with
anything done by Grant Morrison.

However, there's no question now that if comics fans were
forced to pick one single comic book to represent the
art form, it would be Watchmen. Why?

Well, it all comes down to one line of dialogue, I think. That
line in the series by Dr. Manhattan: "This world's smartest man
means no more to me than does its smartest termite." Well,
that's a terrific comic book superhero line. Dr. Manhattan had
been pretty aloof for most of the story. In fact part of the
plot was how he became less human and did not interact with
people well. But suddenly at the end, he confronts the villain,
and he's shouting out superhero banter. It's code. It says to
the superhero fan, "Love me, I'm one of you."

It's also a really, really dumb line. Can Dr. Manhattan really
not tell the difference between a termite and a man? Who is the
world's smartest termite, anyway? Is there an unpublished Dr.
Manhattan adventure wherein he fought a termite all through the
termite mounds of Africa whilst it pummelled him with a
cascading combination of atomic deconstructors and tachyon
generating engines? Was there an interuniversal crossover in
which Dr. Manhattan teamed up with Atom Ant?

In the context of the story, it is just bravado. It's Dr.
Manhattan putting Veidt in his place, but why? He five stories
tall when he says it. Is he under the impression that Veidt
does not realize he's dangerous?

No. Obviously not.

I don't think the line has any in story purpose, really. It's
there to make comics fans realize that it's still a superhero
story. I suspect one of those fans was Alan Moore. I can see him
having fallen behind schedule thinking. "Hey, waitasecond, I
screwed up, thee are still superheroes!" And then he writes
this line not realizing that he has heretofore written Dr.
Manhattan as almost apathetic except for one or two scenes
involving sex.

But what it does do is create a comfort level for the story in
the mind of the audience. I makes an unusual story slightly
more familiar. And it makes the story the single favorite of
comics fan. Well, that and the whole "I'm not laughing, the
Comedian is dead thing." Oh, and the Text sections. And the
nine panel grid. And the pirates.