The Heroes are the Real Villians
Image Credit: Watchmen (2009) directed by Zack Snyder
Chapter 5 (final) in Who Watches the Watchmen?
The Heroes are the Real Villains: Morals and Ethics in the Characters of Watchmen
The real-life superman would not be the dashing and handsome hero portrayed in the comics. The real-life superman would be selfish, flawed, arrogant, and perhaps even indifferent to humanity’s woes. In Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s comic book, Watchmen, the reader is exposed to a realistic take on how superheroes and masked vigilantes would most likely be like if they were to exist in our world. While it is a pessimistic view, the actions of the characters prove that because humans are indeed imperfect, there are no such thing as real heroes. The crime fighting characters of Watchmen show that humankind’s morals and ethics are so flawed and corrupt the heroes by default are polluted and immoral; this is seen through the characters’ interactions with each other, their “hero” work, and the visuals of the comic.
A prime example of a character in Watchmen that does not seem to follow any moral code is the Comedian, also known as Edward Morgan Blake. At his funeral, in chapter two, the other heroes that knew him have flashbacks of memories they had of the Comedian. While the memories are all terrible and show just how unethical and evil, he was, one of the worst belongs to Sally Jupiter. When she was part of the Minutemen, a masked hero group they both belonged to, the Comedian continuously harassed Sally when they were working together and had even attempted to rape her, “C’mon, baby. I know what you need. You gotta have some reason for wearin’ an outfit like this, huh?” (Moore and Gibbons). This is one of the first instances where the reader begins to see this man for what he really is, a villain. The illustrations of this scene also show how brutal the Comedian was as he beat Sally Jupiter severely. This is Moore’s realistic take on how easily an unethical and immoral person can be portrayed as a hero; it is also a reminder that the characters of Watchmen are imperfect. The only glimpse of the Comedian’s humanity and regret is seen near the end of his life, when he breaks into Moloch’s apartment after learning about Veidt’s plan. This seems to be the only instance where the reality of his horrible actions finally dawns on him, “The Comedian cries when the ethical stage of life suddenly dawns on him…” (Kukkonen 211). This instance, however, does not redeem the Comedian, because it is incredibly hard for the reader to forget about all the violence he inflicted on others, especially women. Throughout the comic, one thing about the Comedian remains clear to the reader, this man is no harmless jokester and he is certainly not a hero.
One hero that strangely seems to relate to the Comedian, is Dr. Manhattan, the only character with actual superhuman powers. Dr. Manhattan is very indifferent about human life throughout the comic book, his relationship with Laurie is actually one of the few things remaining of his humanity. Because he no longer shares the emotions and moral code he had as a human, when the Comedian shoots a pregnant woman, Dr. Manhattan does nothing to stop him. While he knows right from wrong, Dr. Manhattan just doesn’t care enough to do anything about it. Later on, when he is reflecting on Mars, in chapter four he says, “Blake is interesting. I have never met anyone so deliberately amoral… Blake’s different. He understands perfectly… and he doesn’t care” (Moore and Gibbons). His flashback shows the Comedian, with his face twisted in a menacing smile as he holds a flame thrower, his eyes are red and there is red around him, as well, symbolizing the violence he is inflicting. By Dr. Manhattan relating to such an evil man, the reader can only question whether his own set of morals and ethics are twisted as horribly as the Comedian’s. Chapter three ends with Dr. Manhattan sitting on Mars with a quote from the Bible in the panel below him, “Shall not the Judge of the earth do right” (Moore and Gibbons). Dr. Manhattan is seen as a god in Watchmen, but he is often without feeling or emotion and does not show any clear morals or ethics, while he is not exactly seen as evil, his actions or lack thereof shows how careless he is with humanity “He is essentially a god, save a single debilitating flaw, his indeterminate moral compass. Despite having the capability of changing the world for the better with a single thought, he works mindlessly for the U.S. government as its plaything, doing its bidding without purpose” (Wu 71). Dr. Manhattan’s impatience, indifference and lost empathy for the Earth and its inhabitants shows how important morals and ethics are in Watchmen. If the heroes were moved by a different or more just moral compass, Watchmen would be a very different comic book.
Rorschach, the arguable protagonist of the comic, has his own sense of justice that follow his own set of questionable ethics and morals. While Rorschach is not as wicked as the Comedian or as indifferent as Dr. Manhattan, his brutal ways of seeking retribution at any costs certainly do not fit in with the ideal vision of a gallant hero. In chapter one, Rorschach shows that he is never willing to compromise his code, “Because there is good and there is evil, and evil must be punished even in the face of Armageddon I shall not compromise in this” (Moore and Gibbons). While his relentlessness can be admired, his extreme use of violence is a huge issue. He is often depicted in red panels similar to the Comedian’s, however he is not necessarily driven by cruelty alone, Rorschach’s main goal is to obtain justice and retribution. Despite his violence, readers can see that Rorschach is not completely evil, he is in a gray area between hero and psychopath, and at the end of the day all he really wants to do is rid the city of crime, “The mind of Rorschach is indeed a dark place, yet it’s ruled by a simple principle with a long and venerable heritage: evil must be punished. And it must be punished not because doing so makes the world a better place, but simply because it is evil and thus is deserving of punishment” (Held 1). Rorschach’s actions show that heroes set in a realistic flawed world would have their own set of morbid and disturbing ethics and morals, which would create a gray area of confusion between what makes a hero and what makes a villain. Characters like the Comedian, Dr. Manhattan, and Rorschach are an extreme of what masked vigilantes could be like, they also blur the lines of what is expected in comic book heroes. While their morals and ethics may not be just there are characters in Watchmen that provide examples of what the reader may expect a hero to be like.
There are few characters in Watchmen that provide a small glimpse of hope for what real life heroes could be like, one of them being Hollis Mason, the first Nite Owl. Hollis Mason was a police officer before he became a vigilante and although he is never able to clearly pinpoint why began to fight crime as the Nite Owl, he is one of the few characters that show what the morals and ethics of a masked hero should look like. While Hollis Mason was not the prefect superhero, he is one of the few characters in the books to acknowledge his mistakes and shed light on the cruelty of the Comedian, in the chapter 4 of Under the Hood, Hollis Mason wrote “After that, things went bad. We had worms in the apple, eating it from the inside. The worst of these was the Comedian… I know what I know, and that man is a disgrace to our profession… all I can think of is the bruises along Sally’s Jupiter’s ribcage and hope to God that America can find itself a better class of hero than that” (Moore and Gibbons). Though Hollis Mason and some of the other Minutemen started off with good intentions, unfortunately the corruptness in the group eventually blurred the lines between good and evil, “Throughout their activities, the Minutemen and Crime Busters find evil difficult to identify and defeat… their human world is messy and inconsistent” (Schofer). Evil does not discriminate, and it finds a place within the characters of Watchmen, it is what tears up both the Minutemen and the Crime Busters. The heroes of Watchmen are polluted by themselves and the world around them, which is why they are ultimately unsuccessful in establishing justice.
The morals and ethics of the masked heroes of Watchmen prove that a real-life hero team would not be like Marvel’s Avengers or DC’s Justice League. Because the real world is cruel and unjust, realistic heroes by default are pessimistic, flawed, and even cruel. Many of the characters from Watchmen are muddled between the lines of villain and hero and this is especially seen through their differing definitions of punishments, justice, and what it is to be an overall good person. Throughout the comic book, ethics and morals play an important role in each character as they must decide which path to take, which may not be as black and white as it seems.
Works Cited
Moore, Alan, and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. DC Comics, 2014.
Schofer, Jonathan. “Ethics and Vulnerability in Watchmen.” Harvard Divinity Bulletin Archive, 2009, bulletin-archive.hds.harvard.edu/articles/springsummer2009/ethics-and-vulnerability-watchmen.
White, Mark D. Watchmen and Philosophy: a Rorschach Test. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2009. Print.
Wu, Jeffery. “The Greater Good: Analyzing Morality in Watchmen.” Journal of the CAS Writing Program, Http://Www.bu.edu/Writingprogram/Files/2016/08/Issue-8.Pdf#Page=72, 2016, 2015.
