A Further Look at Watchmen Riley Steppe College

In the graphic novel Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, a more realistic depiction of the superhero figure is achieved by allowing genres to be imbedded separately within the thoroughly developed identities of Rorschach, the Comedian, and Dr. Manhattan. Rather than being bound by the stale clichés of an existing “mythic character”, as its predecessors have been, Watchmen strives to implement a multitude of literature categories into unique characters, granting it a more robust, less limited representation of reality. While broadening the focus runs the risk of diluting said categories, this graphic novel proves to sacrifice nothing through its employment of rotating viewpoints.

Because Watchmen is an original piece, free from the demands or confines of previous literature or characters, it instantly gains strength in the sense that it can derive its own genre interpretation and sense of realism. Authors often feel a responsibility to uphold the trends followed by those who previously represented figures such as Batman or Superman in their own “original” versions of these heroes. However, like The Dark Knight by Frank Miller, Watchmen, by selectively drawing inspiration from previous graphic novels, is able to “converge...