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Fengyuan Jia
Prof. Jackie
ENG113B
27 September 2015
A Hero Without Halo
Watchmen was written by Alan Moore during cold war between the United States and the
Soviet Union in 1985, and then published by DC Comics in 1986 throughout 1987, it was the
very first graphic novel to won the Hugo prize as well (Reynolds 9). Honestly said there is no
another graphic novel similar to Watchmen in characters formation, which portrayed a crew
of heroes, totally shared different characteristics in one graphic novel. Also, ethics and
moralities were shown twisted and obscured through the story. How heroes behaved under
morals and ethics can make them to be a real hero or not. Alan Moore presents the
complexity of human morals and ethics clearly by gave varied personal morality and ethical
standard to heroes to make them act differently in the story. In the story, Dr. Manhattan and
Rorschach represent two kind of human being, which are opposite from each other.
Rorschach always keep real mind and acted resolutely, however, due to Dr. Manhattan has
gained the superpower to see the future by accident, his social valued had changed rapidly
from a human being. What’s more, the Comedian’s life is also an important story line.
Therefore, the following essay is emphasize on discuss and analyze these three characters,
whether they are the ultimate hero or not.
To figure out whether they can be treat as hero, it’s necessary to define the world hero.
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According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, hero is “a person who is admired for great or
brave acts or fine qualities” (Webster 2015). The definition from the dictionary indicates that
heroes should gain admiration from common citizens by acting to benefit public society.
Moreover, depend on Yelverton, W, who indicated “hero is someone who, either in work or
everyday life, instigates much-needed change or makes a sacrifice for the public good”
(2003). Both two explanations mentioned about heroes should be capable to make public
good and one even mentioned sacrifice. Thus, analyze personalities of Dr. Manhattan and
Rorschach have to be done within these definitions gave above.
Rorschach’s character analysis comes first due to the order of characters shown in the
graphic novel. Rorschach is the only character in the crew who wear a wind coat as the
special action suit that represents he is a real human hero who doesn’t surrounded with high
technologies, he is a real soldier created by Alan Moore. From the day he killed a murderer
and a couple of dogs, his justice had distorted from the beginning when he devote into the
crew. Rorschach’s justice is parochial and screwy; probably nobody can really get along with
him, but at bottom of his heart, he also desired to converge in the crew. His glamour is he
never conceals himself to other crewmembers, even to the public society. Rorschach showed
fully respect to Comedian with a simply reason, is that he treat Comedian as a powerful hero
who able to handle everything. Yes, Rorschach respect those who are powerful than him. But
he was wrong, just because he is the most powerful people in the crew. At last, Rorschach
decides ended his life to keep his personal justice, to maintain a peaceful society, the choice
he determined, sacrifice him while yelling “never compromise”, that made him a hero.
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Although Comedian is good at fighting and knows how to made deals with the US
government, the choice he made was crying like a hopeless man instead of fight against to his
death; only Rorschach’s behavior deserves be called as hero.
Dr. Manhattan’s life experience was extremely complicated than others. He was born in a
normal family whose father is a watchmaker and fixer. After he attends the university, he
followed his father’s suggestion to learn science studies. Maybe he will never be a part of
crew if the accident didn’t happened, but it did happened to turn him into a human with
superpowers. Dr. Manhattan is capable to do almost everything but he cannot change the past
and the future, even he can make future predictions accurately. He behaved very modestly
through the whole story, dislike other members, he acts like the god who create the world
meanwhile controls it, too. Disadvantages of Dr. Manhattan such as lack at ability to deal
with romance issues, shows directly in the graphic novel how he abandoned his wife when he
met silk spectre, moreover, he compromised with Adrian’s plan even doesn’t give a fight
back. The reason why Dr. Manhattan wasn’t a hero is he was too powerful to make benefits
for the society. He knows coming issues, how they will come and how the endings are; the
choice he made is waiting changes happen. Possibly, the truth is, “ We are the same kind of
marionette, the only difference is string was visible for me”, like what Dr. Manhattan said to
silk spectre.
Why the whole story begin with the death of the Comedian is not easy to understand and
explain. The Comedian seems doesn’t care anything in the world and might be able to reach
the hell with smiling face, but actually, he is the most vapidity member in the crew. In short,
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he is just a normal people with fighting skills. For the past few years, he devoted in the
government business only aimed to achieve a nice praise. He is a killing machine not only on
the battlefield also in the mainland US. His disadvantage is similar but even worse to Dr.
Manhattan that is dealing issues with women. The comedian won’t be a hero based on what
he did in his lifelong time.
Other crewmembers did their job perfectly in the graphic novel. When the story comes to
the end, Adrian’s plan stopped the nuclear war by using his devil plan, which is impactful,
however, the lost is immeasurable. Night owl and Silk spectre are right-minded person, that’s
the highest praise they deserved. Their thoughts limited the behaviors and actions, which
encumbered this couple to be heroes.
The ultimate hero is Rorschach. Although Adrian stopped the nuclear war, although night
owl was equipped with high technology weapons like what a hero supposed to be, even Dr.
Manhattan commands superpowers, only Rorschach deserve to be the ultimate hero.
Watchmen is a special graphic novel, which contains politics, complex moral standards and
distinct character structures. All these elements come together to a vivid story to present
writer’s thesis statement; hero should be defined rely on the thought of one’s held, and
Rorschach did it. He caused the prison rebellion after arrested because he caught almost
prisoners so they want kill Rorschach, that means he used to prevented numbers of cases
happen. Furthermore, he is the only one who starts to investigate murder cases, which shows
he was responsible person. His death is like kind of suicide because it was his own decision
to sacrifice everything he achieved. Not like others who aims to save the world but choose a
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imperfect plan, Rorschach only focused on what he has to do instead, then do his best. The
Rorschach deserve to be the ultimate hero.
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Work Cited
"Hero." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2015.
Reynolds, Richard. Superheroes: A Modern Mythology. United States of America: University
Press of Mississippi, 1992. Print.
Yelverton, W. “How Exactly Should We Define ‘Hero’?: Final Edition” Tampa
Tribune, (2003): 2.