Alan Moore's 'Superhero Revisionism'

Alan Moore manages to create characters that do not fit into the mold of strictly hero or villain making it much more challenging for the reader to fully get behind all their decisions. Watchmen reveals the humanistic corruption in even the most seemingly inhuman heroes and villains that in a way makes them more relatable to realistic society. Ozymandias and Dr. Manhattan possess the most power and influence affect the most change throughout the novel revealing more obvious heroic and villainous qualities. Veidt (whose superhero persona is Ozymandias) is an influential leader in his society and is considered the smartest man in the world while Dr. Manhattan or Jon is a godlike figure whose presence prevents nuclear war. Together the two make

William Tapply, a literary expert, qualifies a villain as one who acts without care for human life. He/she does not feel guilt for their actions regardless of who they hurt (Tapply). A villain has no concern for others and in fact often does not fit in with their society. Villains are typically outcasted whether by society or they isolate themselves because they do not like or relate to people. According to Aeon Skoble in his essay: “Superhero Revisionism”, he argues that there is a fine line between monster and misunderstood (38). If one is not accepted as a hero by society and are separate from it, they are in fact a villain. The most impactful aspect of a villain is that they intentionally harm others (Tapply). If a person merely thinks about doing harm to others but never acts on them they are not really a villain. Ultimately action is the most important factor in distinguishing between hero and

Dr. Manhattan does not care about most people and is not compassionate towards them. He is essentially the only thing preventing the world from having a nuclear war. Even though he knows this, he leaves Earth and lives on Mars (Moore, Gibbons 11). This reveals that he does not care if Earth is destroyed by nuclear conflict and everyone dies. The only person he seems to care about is Laurie. He does try to make her happy: “I thought you would enjoy it. I do try to please you” (Moore, Gibbons 81).However, he goes about helping people in the least human way possible making him unable to have compassion for Laurie. If he does not truly have compassion for the society he is supposed to be protecting, he cannot be (and is not) a hero for them (Svoboda). Ozymandias ultimately does show compassion for his society. He reveals this when reflecting on his plan to Dr. Manhattan as he says he feels every death and understands all the pain he personally afflicted (Moore, Gibbons 409). His guilt is indicative of the fact that he really does care about his people and tried to make the right choice (regardless if it actually was or not). He genuinely wants to help people and identifies with them as well showing his compassion and