Watchmen

1 Introduction: Consequences of defining moments “There are moments that define a person’s whole life. Moments in which everything they are and everything they may possibly become balance on a single decision.” – Jonathan Maberry (Maberry 34) In our daily life we are constantly confronted with situations in which we do not yet know how to react because they are new to us, shocking or just sudden and this challenges us. While smaller happenings like…

The 2009 film “Watchmen” directed by Zack Snyder follows a group of retired superheroes as they investigate a conspiracy that’s brought up against them with a disturbing underlying plot. Along with following these heroes, we’re shown the history of these characters leading up to this point. One of the members of the group, Dr. Manhattan (formerly Jon Osterman) is the only characters in the group with actual super powers. His story explains that Jon was born in 1929 and was the son of a…

In “The Female Link: Citation and Continuity in Watchmen” by Erin M. Keating, the author adds to the discussion of women in comics by negating that Watchmen was not an example of “the revisionary superhero narrative” because women were still being represented as conservative. Watchmen does not address the societal gender identities but rather it continues the gendered identities that were already in comic books. “In Adult Comics: An Introduction, Roger Sabin describes women in comic books as…

Alan Moore’s Watchmen may be the most philosophical work of fiction to ever feature masked vigilantes, a naked blue superhero, and a giant, genetically engineered lynx. Throughout the novel, Moore raises questions about the morality of vigilantism, the fragility of human existence in the age of nuclear weapons, and the ambiguity between heroism and villainy in a morally grey world. However, perhaps the most interesting questions raised by Moore involve those surrounding the character known as…

Batman and the Watchmen have revised the image of what a superhero is by being described as a vigilante. Superman works with the government and stay invisible and abides by their every rule. While Batman argues, “You gave them the power that should’ve been ours” (32). Batman is motivated to fight law breakers because of the death of his parents. Dressed in a costume he’d go looking for crime to stop. Though he is fighting crime for the greater good he is still breaking the law. All other…

In science fiction works, philosophical problems can sometimes arise. One very well-known graphic novel titled Watchmen, written by Alan Moore, is a very good example of this. Watchmen takes place in an alternate universe of the United States around the era of the cold war. Nixon was still president at the time but The United States won the Vietnam War due to the presence of American Superheroes. As the novel progresses, one of these heroes, known as Ozymandias, becomes stuck in a predicament…

Each and every one of the masked adventurers in Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, are very different. Each character grew up differently and is motivated by something different that leads their perceptions on right and wrong. For example, Rorscharch, Walter Kovacs, and the Comedian, Edward Blake, seem like polar opposites, yet they are very similar. Neither character was well liked by the other masked adventurers/vigilantes. Both characters remained focused on what they perceived as…

Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, illustrates the consequences of one attaining power in order to save the world from danger. There are three characters who have different philosophies in which they believe can save the world from destroying themselves. Ozymandias believed that to save the world from danger, there should be a mass murder of people on earth, in order to save billions. Rorschach believed that, “There is good, and there is evil, and evil must be punished.” Dr. Manhattan…

Watchmen is a film directed by Zack Snyder with inspiration from the graphic novel of the same name. It tells the story of a hero named Rorschach trying to find the murderer of another hero, The Comedian, only to find a disturbing secret along the way. Rorschach, The Comedian, Ozymandias, and Dr. Manhattan are all used in Watchmen to convey that the boundaries between good and evil are not always clear. The first character, Rorschach sees everything as right and wrong with nothing in between.…

established is that his graphic novels do attempt to incorporate some sort of social and cultural cometary into their narratives. That having been firmly established, what has also been highlighted is the commentary offered up by his two seminal work’s Watchmen and V for Vendetta. What is left to be elaborated upon now is their pertinence to audiences, more poignantly what audiences and then in turn their subsequent influence on society. Demographically speaking, graphic novel consumption has…