LITR109

GRAPHIC NOVELS
RAMA BARBHAI-230222
FINAL PAPER
WATCHMEN ANALYSIS
What happens then when we enjoy representations that
valorise violent retribution, or construct society in overly
simplistic moral terms, or that promote problematic and
unrealistic conceptions of justice? What happens to the
spectator when they read a superhero comic?? (“Graphic
Justice”)
Watchmen is a graphic novel that gives us the alternative story
of what happened in the 20th century in America. This graphic
novel explores history in an intelligent and entertaining
manner. The story is set when the cold war between The
United States and the Soviet Union is at its peak.
It imagines what would have happened if superheroes had
actually been part of real-life events. The story tells that
America won the Vietnam War with the help of the comedian
and Dr. Manhattan. However, in the fight against the North
Vietnamese Communists, the USA lost the war that lasted
from 1955 to 1975.
The comedian worked as a secret agent for the American
government and helped cover up the Watergate scandal. This
scandal occurred between 1972 and 1974 and ended Nixon’s
presidency when journalists Bob Woodward and Carl
Bernstein uncovered corruption and abuses of federal power.
The comedian also hints that he was involved in the
assassination of President John Kennedy. However, in reality,
Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas,
Texas.
The story of Watchmen takes place in an era when there was a
looming threat of World War III, a nuclear apocalypse
triggered by tensions between America and the USSR
(referred to as “Russia” in the story). The story is set during
the Cold War, a time when the US and USSR were engaged in
an arms race to develop ever more powerful nuclear weapons.
This was a time of great fear and paranoia about nuclear war,
and many people-built bomb shelters in their yards and
practiced nuclear attack drills regularly. Fear of nuclear winter
became a defining factor of American life during those
decades, and it is an important theme in Watchmen.
Detectives look into the death of Edward Blake in New York
City in 1985 after he was thrown out the window of his
apartment building by an intruder. Following the police's
departure, the

Entering Blake's apartment, costumed vigilante Rorschach

launches his own inquiry and soon learns that Blake is
actually the Comedian, another disguised vigilante. Rorschach
alerts a number of other retired vigilantes, including Adrian
Veidt (Ozymandias), Jon Osterman (the superhuman Dr.
Manhattan), Daniel Dreiberg (Nite Owl), and Laurie
Juspeczyk (Silk Spectre), thinking he has uncovered a "mask-
killer conspiracy." However, none of them take Rorschach's
theory seriously. Daniel, Jon, and Adrian reminisce about the
Comedian during Edward Blake's funeral; they all remember
him as cruel, even homicidal.
Laurie is currently in a relationship with Jon, but she feels
neglected by him. As a result, she decides to end things with
him and begins dating Daniel. Meanwhile, Dr. Manhattan,
who is America's ultimate weapon against Soviet expansion,
is accused by a reporter of causing cancer in dozens of his
former friends and lovers. This accusation upsets Dr.
Manhattan so much that he teleports himself to Mars. Taking
advantage of his absence, the Russians start invading the
Middle East and occupying new territories. While on Mars,
Jon remembers how he became Dr. Manhattan. He was caught
in a machine that exposed him to a lethal amount of radiation,
but he found a way to make himself a new superhuman body.
The government then recruited him as a weapon, and he
helped them win the Vietnam War. As a superhuman, Jon has
immense physical strength and can experience every moment
in history all at once. He can see the future and the past, and
his intelligence is superhuman. With Jon's scientific insights,
the Earth's technological progress jumps forward several
decades.
Set in the fictionalized version of the real world, the story
takes place in a very serious political context that includes
defining moments in history such as the Vietnam War, the
Watergate scandal, and the Cold War, all the instances when
the American government started showing signs of corruption,
hubris, and war-mongering. Though the majority of the events
in the book happen slightly differently than in real history, the
depiction of the United States closely parallels reality, thus
shedding light on and criticizing the current state of the US
Moore shows the American government in the novel as
corrupt and hawkish; the government is more concerned with
its own power than the well-being of its citizens, this
depiction also implicitly criticizes the real-life government as
well. The American government employs physicist Jon
Osterman, who falls into a testing chamber and turns
superhuman, right away to amass power for oneself. When
Jon’s superhuman intelligence could benefit all of humanity
through mind-blowing new technology, the government
doesn't think of it in that way instead their first impulse is to
use him as a weapon to dominate its enemies and opponents.
In an attempt to conjure up memories of the Manhattan
Project, which created the atomic bomb, the government gives
him the name Dr. Manhattan, denoting that he is the new
ultimate weapon. Dr. Manhattan establishes dominance but
this does not make peace of the countries. When Russians
offer to make peace if America does not use Dr. Manhattan,
they refuse it clearly suggesting that the American
government cares more about dominance than establishing
peace. Along with gaining authority over its adversaries, the
US government also gains control over its own citizens.
Officials in high places laugh gratefully when Edward Blake,
aka the Comedian, suggests that he was responsible for the
recent killings of Woodward and Bernstein, two journalists
who were going to expose the Watergate affair, as well as the
assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Apart from that, President Nixon serves five consecutive
terms as an amendment to the Constitution instead of being
impeached for corruption. By taking such acts, it is implied
that the US government maintains control over its own
citizens and utilizes nefarious methods—including
assassination—to further its own goals.
Furthermore, Moore implies that loyalty to a power like this is
deplorable rather than honorable in his harsh portrayal of the
American government. Blake symbolizes the American spirit
despite being a murderer and an attempted rapist. His hero
outfit is designed to resemble the American flag, with stripes
on one shoulder and stars on the other.
In his memoir, the original Nite Owl, Hollis Mason, claims
that Blake is being shaped by the government into a "patriotic
symbol." The fact that this homicidal, insane person is hailed
as the personification of American principles exposes more
flaws in the American system and implies that loyalty to such
a force is more indicative of support for corruption, brutality,
and belligerence than it is of nobility or goodness.
According to Watchmen, this kind of behavior undermines the
American ideal in general. Blake and the second Nite Owl,
Daniel Dreiberg, set out one night to scatter demonstrators
who are opposing the government and its use of vigilantes.
Blake joyfully uses tear gas canisters and rubber bullets to
shoot demonstrators, seriously wounding some of them.
Uneasy, Daniel observes but does not intervene to stop Blake.
When Daniel considers the bloodshed and queries, "Whatever
happened to the American dream?" Blake answers, "It came to
pass. You're examining it. Blake's rebuttal implies that by the
use of force and citizen control, the government and those
who support it have corrupted American values of justice,
fairness, and equality.
Even though Alan Moore's Watchmen is set in a fictional
universe, Moore's critique of the American government is
applicable to the actual world as well. Moore claims that the
government has become corrupt, belligerent, and focused on
maintaining its own power at any costs.
ANALYSING PAGES WITH THE SAME THEME
Page 60: Daniel and Blake were Watchmen who removed
anti-vigilante demonstrators from the streets during Blake's
burial. Blake enjoyed inflicting pain on them, which was
unsettling given his status as a government agent. Blake's
affiliation with the US government implies its corrupt nature.
The American dream has been severely warped by the
administration, which values government authority over
citizens. Watchmen is based on real historical events, so any
criticism of the American government in the tale is also a
criticism of the real government.
Page 122: Jon travels back in time to the moments after
unintentionally sealing himself in a radiation testing cell and
transforming into Dr. Manhattan before departing Earth for
Mars. As soon as Jon reincarnates as a blue superhuman, the
US government starts to use him as a weapon. Despite the fact
that Jon's superhuman presence and nearly infinite
intelligence offer new opportunities for scientific
advancement that could benefit all of humanity, the American
government's decision to designate him as a weapon suggests
that it is power-obsessed and more concerned with using its
military might to bully other nations than with truly aiding
people, including its own citizens. Undoubtedly, the name
"Dr. Manhattan" alludes to the Manhattan Project, wherein the
United States created its first atomic weapon.
Choosing the name Jon in honor of the project implies that,
much like how it utilized the atomic bombs to subdue the rest
of the globe during globe War II, Jon is America's new
ultimate weapon, its new trump card to eliminate all dissent.
The portrayal of the US government in this way is largely
negative and implies that it works more to cause global
instability than it does to advance universal peace and
security.
Page 140: Humanity is a living paradox, according to Milton
Glass, Jon's former research associate, in a piece about Dr.
Manhattan's impact on the globe. His observation that people
manufacture weapons while demanding peace is moving and
raises the possibility that people lack mutual trust. World
peace will never be achieved by humanity because no country
is prepared to truly give up its weapons and expose itself as a
sign of good faith for fear that another country will seize the
chance to subjugate and exploit them. A nation has not yet
demonstrated the ability to put human self-interest ahead of
trust, which would be necessary for such an act.
Glass's analysis is especially relevant to the way the US
government has been using Jon as its main weapon. The
American government won't give up their new weapon, Jon,
even though having him upsets the balance of power in the
world (the Soviet Union even asks the U.S. to set him aside).
They do this because giving up Jon would mean losing the
chance to subjugate their rivals, which would be against their
own interests. America's continued possession of its most
powerful weapon suggests that, despite its claims to the
contrary, they have no desire for peace at all.
In chapter 1, Rorschach's mask, which resembles an ever-
changing Rorschach blot test, represents his moral and ethical
principles.
Like his mask, Rorschach sees the world as being split into
good and bad individuals, with no middle ground.
But the black blots on his mask are continuously shifting in
size and form, symbolizing how contradictory Rorschach's
own morality is. Blake's outfit makes it clear that he is a hero,
and the star and stripe design imply that he is a symbol of
American nationalism.
In Chapter 2, The Comedian's analysis of Captain
Metropolis's motivations goes a step further in implying that
the masked vigilantes labour more for their own benefit—in
this case, to feel significant and relevant even in old age—
than for the benefit of society. Indicating that Captain
Metropolis and possibly the heroes as a whole prefer to
uphold a conservative, patriotic, right-leaning vision of
America rather than permit left-leaning criticism of the
government or sexual liberation, the map's labels list "drugs,"
"promiscuity," and "anti-war demos" as evils affecting the
country.
Daniel's reservations on Blake's careless and aggressive
attitude imply that the masked vigilantes may eventually
transition from society's assumed defenders to its possible
oppressors. The public is against any governing authority that
is unaccountable, as the slogan "Who watches the
Watchmen?" suggests. The vigilante element of every
superhero story is specifically criticized in this moment since
heroes are never above the law. Blake's claim that they
represent the "new American Dream" implies that the
country's founding principles of justice and equity have been
undermined by authority and governmental control over its
citizens.
Watchmen certainly left an indelible mark on other comic-
book and graphic-novel narratives that followed it, and
perhaps this was what Queenan was reacting to when
examining the "dark side" of comics. David Hughes explained
that "although intended to be the last word on comic book
super-heroes, ironically Watchmen breathed new life into the
genre, establishing the cynical comic book hero as a staple of
the superhero fiction, and leading to a succession of mostly
inferior imitations which continue to this day" (148).
(“Watchmen as Literature”)

BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Watchmen as Literature.” Google Books,
books.google.co.in/books?id=xczeDAAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&ot
s=qM__8tAaBT&dq=watchmen%20graphic%20novel&lr&pg
=PA13#v=onepage&q=watchmen%20graphic%20novel&f=fa
lse.
“Graphic Justice.” Google Books,
books.google.co.in/books?id=qwaUBwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA103
&ots=vKZCjrUTdW&dq=watchmen%20graphic%20novel&l
r&pg=PA104#v=onepage&q=watchmen%20graphic%20nove
l&f=false.