Michael Miller

Reflections 323: Harrison

April 15, 2012

Reflection #9

            Watchmen is clearly one of the best graphic novels of all time because of such great plots, characters, and art design that make the stories so much more enjoyable. One thing I personally like about Watchmen is the “superheroes” that everyone loves watching. My personal favorite is Rorschach because he is the typical hero in the sense that he is always questing for justice, but atypical in the sense of his methods and means of persuasion. Even though he shows no extra-normal powers, his mask makes him more superhuman because of the constant changing of the ink blots signifying the ever-changing world and different things represent different things to people. His take on the world is obviously right-wing as seen in multiple areas of the book with him buying the right-wing newspaper he likes so much along with childhood trauma from his abusive mother and people he encountered as a youth. When told he has to keep Ozymadias’ secret about killing over a million people, he refuses saying, “Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon.” This statement, although the wrong way in terms of keeping Ozy’s plan from leaking out, shows his belief that people deserve to know the truth about the mass genocide, no matter the cost. Because he was unwilling to keep silent, Dr. Manhattan kills him in the physical sense, but his journal lives on prompting a simple newspaperman to possibly re-create the events that came about. Rorschach is an amazing character, and even though we might not agree with what he says sometimes, his statements have meaning and show humanity that true, and darker, side of society making life seem less promising than originally thought.