Bisexual connections to 'Watchmen'—a review and photos, too

Billy Crudup comes in swinging as Dr. Manhattan

I just got back from the Hollywood screening of "Watchmen" on Tuesday night (March 3), and had to tell you about it. It's remarkable! The world of the graphic novel by Alan Moore is translated to the big screen with all the appropriate gore and shocking special effects, but also with the heart and ambiguities of the superheroes.

And yes, there's bisexuality in it, too, just as Moore's other creations, such as "Constantine," "V for Vendetta," "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" and "Lost Girls." And there's a reason for that, which I'll tell you later.

Even before the opening credits are finished, a sexy heroine in black Lycra, named Silhouette, deep kisses a girl at the end of WWII, recreating that famous boy-girl end-of-war kiss. Then, the omnivorous Silhouette is shown seducing anything that walks, and ends up in bed with another woman.

The foppish blonde superhero guy known as Ozymandias (played by Matthew Goode) is appropriately ambiguous and during the height of his popularity has a following that looks like the cast of Village People that are swooning over him.

But, the big guy to take note of is the giant blue Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) who at one point clones himself into two guys, thinking that his girlfriend Laurie (Malin Akerman) would be happier in a three-way. What's totally distracting about this is that the giant blue guy walks around naked a lot of the time with his impressive blue penis swinging around in front of him. One or two times is OK for a glimpse, but this is in your face a lot, and certainly will make the straight guys uncomfortable and feeling inadequate.

I went to the premiere with a bisexual director friend who is a big fan of the graphic novels and said it was a great depiction of the world in the comics. He liked the flashbacks of the characters and their storylines, but couldn't remember the big blue guy exposing himself so much in the drawings like in the movie.

It reminded me of an interview I did once with Sylvester Stallone when I asked him if he'd ever do frontal nudity and he said, "I have no problem with my body, and I'd do it but then people would be distracted, saying 'Oh there's Rambo's penis, oh there's Rocky naked' and it would be distracting to the audience." He was very right.

The brilliant writer of the comic books that this is based on, Alan Moore, is well known for bisexual characters (women mostly, of course), in his work.

Moore's "Lost Girls" written from 1991 to 2006 focused on bisexual version of three famous literary characters, and his "V for Vendetta" had a few bisexual characters.

In his "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," the character of Orlando is a bisexual immortal who changes randomly and without any warning. He changes sex with great glee. The women all go for her when she's a she, including Mina Murray, the heroine of the series, and men go for him, too, when he's a guy.

Moore, 55, was greatly influenced by bisexual writer William S. Burroughs, and gay horror-meister Clive Barker, and it shows.

In his personal life, he had a triad relationship with two women. His wife, Phyllis, was bisexual and had a lover, Deborah, and the women and his two daughters eventually left him.

Moore wrote "The Mirror of Love" for a protest anthology AARGH! (Artists Against Rampant Government Homophobia) in 1988 as a response to Great Britain's horrible Clause 28 which prevented authorities from any action that was seen to "promote homosexuality." He once joked in an interview that his wife and her lover dealt with the charity to benefit from their fundraising, but they experienced some bi-phobia from lesbian activists. "It was Phyllis and Debbie who went to deal with them —the fact that Phyllis and Debbie said that they were bisexual—this, you know, 'Huh! Accepting money from bisexuals!' I think one of them said 'We'll be allowing men in next!' However, once we raised the seventeen, twenty thousand, whatever it was, they were very different."

Keanu Reeve's character from "Constantine" should have been more gay in the 2005 movie if it was to match how Moore wrote him. The adaptation of the "Hellblazer" comic series was quite bisexual in the form that Moore wrote him. He was blond, bi and loved to smoke. The character in the comic books had both girlfriends and boyfriends and believed that relationships weren't normal.

The movie opens Friday (actually midnight on Thursday) and it's going to be a big hit.

Hopefully, "Watchmen's" success is going to make more people look at Moore's super-progressive works, where sexuality is fairly fluid, and judgment is only for the bad guys.