After reading through Watchmen, my biggest impression was confusion. So what just happened? What did I just read? Who was this story about again?
I personally think that it was perfect that we read Watchmen in the same week as Dark Knight. Who doesn't enjoy reading about the heroic figures' dark sides? All I can say is that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, along with Frank Miller, all have the same idea down: MORAL AMBIGUITY.
So what really happened?
Edward Morgan Blake, the Comedian, was murdered in the beginning. The entire comic basically was debating whether or not he deserved it or not. Yes, because he raped Ms. Jupiter and got her pregnant. He also got another woman pregnant in Vietnam, but killed her. No, because he actually had a conscious when it came to the massacre plan that one of his "friends" was planning.
Rorschach, just sneaking around trying to find out what the hell is going on. A little bit of a no brainer. Got himself "killed" because he wanted to do the right thing at the wrong time. Or should I say, in front of the WRONG SUPER BEING.
Daniel Dreiberg, aka Night Owl, was a wuss. He basically gave up on his career after the passing of the Keene Act on August 3, 1977. He never had the balls to chase after the girl that he was secretly crazy for, then she made a move on her and then had sex with her multiple times even though he knew her boyfriend pretty well.
Laurie Juspeczyk, Silk Spectre II, basically known for being an attention and love seeking drama queen, who also happens to be smoking most of the time. Takes Dr. Manhattan from his original lover. Seeks for his love. Drops him after she is not satisfied with him. Hooks up with a new guy who gives her more attention. Let's not even start with her mother. Like mother like daughter. Sort of.
Ozmandias: MURDERER...? Or Savior?
Dr. Jonathan "Jon" Osterman, aka Dr. Manhattan: basically an asshole. Drops women just like that. "Snap." Doesn't really care about the human world. Actually knows whats going to happen but doesn't do anything. Riggghhtttttt. What a "GREAT HERO," huh? Too much drama? Okay, let's go to another galaxy! Bye humans!
However, the most morally ambiguous group is the humans in the story. Through Rorschach's view, the humans are like bugs that need to be exterminated. They need to be cleaned out. Everyone is evil and wicked. The world cannot be saved. There is no hope. However, they are still humans. Even though I also developed hatred towards the civilians in the story, I still feel extremely anxious and uneasy when half of New York City was killed. Even with the unite in the end, I don't know where to place the humans. So these heroes are just humans under enormous pressure. They just wanted to make it a better world. What really draws a line between us and the heroes, other than their superhuman abilities, is the determination that they have of saving the world, in their own twisted, controversial way. Just like what the Comedian asked Night Own on page 59, " Protection? Who are we protecting them from? From themselves."
I also struggled with what to think about the humans in the story, since most of them seem woefully uninformed and quarrelsome. But there's one moment that changed my opinion of them. Right before the annihilation the cab driver, Joey, starts a fight with her girlfriend on the street corner and it turns violent. Almost every human character we've been introduced to ends up on that corner: the news vendor, the kid with the comic, Malcolm, Gloria, and most of the other recurring commentators on the state of human affairs . What I keep coming back to is the way that the fight is shown from multiple angles as it gets worse. The one moment is stretched out from multiple perspectives. All throughout the story, there's been this undercurrent of synchronicity of time, but now, rather than multiple isolated but simultaneous moments, we have one moment from multiple perspectives. Suddenly all the people come to break up this one fight; they're all pulled together by the violence initially, and then, when the blast comes, they turn and protect one another. I think this moment kind of subtly imparts a moral complexity onto the human characters that otherwise would go unnoticed beneath their ignorance and their bitterness.
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