Asked By: Reginald Ramirez Date: created: Sep 19 2023

Why is Watchmen so famous

Answered By: Keith Jenkins Date: created: Sep 22 2023

Watchmen Comics by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons This article is about the comic book limited series. For the 2009 film adaptation, see, For the 2019 television series continuation, see, For other uses, see, Watchmen Cover of Watchmen #1 (September 1986)Art by Date1986–1987PublisherCreative teamWriterArtistColoristEditors

Original publicationPublished inWatchmenIssues12Date of publicationSeptember 1986 – October 1987 Watchmen is a by the British creative team of writer, artist and colorist, It was published monthly by in 1986 and 1987 before being collected in a single-volume edition in 1987.

  1. Watchmen originated from a story proposal Moore submitted to DC featuring characters that the company had acquired from,
  2. As Moore’s proposed story would have left many of the characters unusable for future stories, managing editor convinced Moore to create original characters instead.
  3. Moore used the story as a means of reflecting contemporary anxieties, of deconstructing and satirizing the superhero concept and of making political commentary.

Watchmen depicts an in which superheroes emerged in the 1940s and 1960s and their presence changed history so that the United States won the and the was never exposed. In 1985 the country is edging toward with the, freelance costumed vigilantes have been outlawed and most former superheroes are in retirement or working for the government.

The story focuses on the protagonists’ personal development and as an investigation into the murder of a government-sponsored superhero pulls them out of retirement. Gibbons uses a nine-panel grid layout throughout the series and adds recurring symbols such as a blood-stained, All but the last issue feature supplemental fictional documents that add to the series’ backstory and the narrative is intertwined with that of another story, an in-story pirate comic titled Tales of the Black Freighter, which one of the characters reads.

Structured at times as a, the story skips through space, time and plot. In the same manner, entire scenes and dialogues have parallels with others through synchronicity,, and repeated imagery. A commercial success, Watchmen has received critical acclaim both in the comics and mainstream press.

Watchmen was recognized in Time ‘ s as one of the best English language novels published since 1923. In a retrospective review, the ‘s Nicholas Barber described it as “the moment comic books grew up”. Moore opposed this idea, stating, “I tend to think that, no, comics hadn’t grown up. There were a few titles that were more adult than people were used to.

But the majority of comics titles were pretty much the same as they’d ever been. It wasn’t comics growing up. I think it was more comics meeting the emotional age of the audience coming the other way.” After a number of attempts to adapt the series into a feature film, director ‘s was released in 2009.

  • A video game series,, was released to coincide with the film’s release.
  • DC Comics published, a series of nine miniseries, in 2012, and, a 12-issue limited series and to the original Watchmen series, from 2017 to 2019 – both without Moore’s or Gibbons’ involvement.
  • The second series integrated the Watchmen characters within the, home to more recognizable DC like, and,

A to the original comic, set 34 years after the comic’s timeline, was broadcast on from October to December 2019 with Gibbons’ involvement. A comic continuation of the HBO series, titled and written by, began publication in October 2020. Moore has expressed his displeasure with adaptations and sequels of Watchmen and asked it not be used for future works.

What does the watch symbolize in Watchmen?

This is a page for the symbolic representation of the Doomsday Clock. For the series, see Doomsday Clock (comic), Clock striking “12” on the cover of Watchmen Chapter XII, The Nuclear Doomsday Clock is a symbolic representation of how close the world is to catastrophic destruction by nuclear war. It is based on the real-world Doomsday Clock, which performs a similar function.

Why are they called Watchmen?

Who are the “Watchmen” described in the title? – A better question is Who watches the Watchmen? After the first masked vigilante appears in the story’s fictional 1938, a collection of other caped figures band together to form “the minutemen,” Moore’s campy-high-tights ode to early superhero comics.

  • The minutemen disband in 1949 after “there was nobody interesting left to fight” (the heroes’ equally-campy villains had since been imprisoned) and after several masked heroes are killed—one for being gay.
  • In 1960, a new breed of superhero emerges with the “birth” of Dr.
  • Manhattan, an atomic physicist who is vaporized in a lab generator and then slowly and spontaneously regenerated as an all-powerful blue demigod over the coming months.

(His brain, eyeballs, and circulatory system materialize first). Dr. Manhattan becomes the novel’s most traditional superpowered hero, and his existence threatens to render heroes obsolete. He and several other characters, including fellow heroes Ozymandias, Nite Owl, and Rorschach attempt to form a group called the “Crimebusters.” The experiment fails before it can begin.

Former minuteman The Comedian disbands the meeting, proclaiming that the superhero endeavor “don’t matter squat because inside thirty years the nukes are gonna be flying like maybugs.” Still, the group continues to fight crime. Some like The Comedian and Dr. Manhattan join the U.S. military’s efforts in the war in Vietnam.

“Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” — “But who will watch the watchmen?” In 1977, a congressional act bans superheroes and all vigilantes disband. Many retire to careers in science and business. The name “Watchmen” is never used in the comic. The moniker comes from Roman author Juvenal’s “Satire VI,” which contains the phrase “sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” — “But who will guard the guards?” or “But who will watch the watchmen?” One of the novel’s many themes concerns constraint on power. DC Comics

Is Watchmen Based on a true story?

Watchmen is a fictional program, yet it begins by showing the audience a silent film concerning Bass Reeves, who—very much a nonfiction figure—was the first black deputy U.S. marshal west of the Mississippi River. He passed away in 1910. When the camera pulls back, a young boy is revealed to be watching this silent film in an empty theater, idolizing Reeves from his seat as bombs and muffled gunfire can be heard in the background.

The boy’s parents, two black middle class residents of Tulsa, rush through the streets and dodge bullets as they ship their young son off to safety. It is June 1921, and they are trying to survive the (nonfiction) Tulsa race massacre. This is likely not the Watchmen one was expecting to see when it was announced that Damon Lindelof would be adapting the popular graphic novel for the small screen.

Since its inception and resultant early buzz, the show has been shrouded in mystery, and after watching the pilot, viewers are going to have questions. HBO ‘s version of the story is not directly shaped from the source material, but rather, it is an original take based on a few key figures from the Watchmen universe.

Understanding Lindelof’s decisions here could have something to do with the show’s Tulsa setting. Watchmen, so far, has a huge and potentially growing following. A reported 1.5 million people tuned in for its premiere on TV and across streaming platforms, which makes it the most viewed premium cable debut of the year, and the biggest HBO debut since the first episode of Westworld in 2016.

Yet some fans of the original comic are not necessarily treating it with the intellectual fervor it deserves. With a visually (and sonically) striking title sequence, HBO’s rendition of Watchmen is ambitious, and like its source material, it is, without a doubt, so far one of the more political expressions seen in the overall superhero genre.

While it is often neglected from academic curricula, the Tulsa race massacre—also known as the Black Wall Street Massacre—was a very real occurrence in 1921. Business was booming for Black Oklahomans in Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood, and racial tensions were high enough to spark one of the most harrowing incidents of racial violence in the history of the United States.

White residents attacked what was known as “Black Wall Street” with guns, explosives, and bombs dropped from private planes, Watchmen takes this historical event and weaves it into the narrative of the series, imagining the consequences of such a violent, city-wide act.

  • Its retro-futuristic vibe takes place decades after 1921, in a time when Richard Nixon was never impeached for the Watergate Scandal, and when Robert Redford has become a liberal-reform implementing (and extended term) President of the United States.
  • In the contemporary alternate reality of the show, President Redford’s reforms (known as “Redfordations”) have offered reparations for former victims of racial violence and positioned black Oklahomans to have some advantages typically afforded only to white Americans.

In this world, white supremacist outlaws wear Rorschach masks (inspired by the original comic’s anti-hero) and form cavalries that kill police officers, who wear different masks to protect their identities and who do not have easy access to firearms because of a complicated and centralized approval method.

  1. The Rorschach-wearing criminals send terroristic videos about ethnic cleansing to the police, taunting them further.
  2. The series is also undoubtedly entertaining.
  3. It is a joy to watch Oscar-winner Regina King take on a role that is so unlike the ones that have garnered her prestigious awards and accolades in the past.

Audiences still have appearances from actors Jean Smart and Hong Chau to look forward to in future episodes (and hopefully they show up soon, because the first episode was a bit heavy on the guys with the exception of King’s character). And, with the current ongoing debate about the classification of superhero blockbusters (specifically the Marvel ones, according to Martin Scorsese ) as “real” films, at least we have a substantial expression of the genre like Watchmen on TV to lean on.

Was Watchmen always DC?

The critically acclaimed comic book series Watchmen is an official part of the DC Universe, After years existing as its own standalone story, characters and elements from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ work have worked their way into becoming an integral part of DC’s expansive and iconic realm.

  • But how did this happen? Why did Watchmen go from being a miniseries that was largely independent to an active part of the Dcu? And what does this mean for both entities’ futures? Screen Rant has compiled a complete history on how Watchmen slowly became the next centerpiece of the DC Universe.
  • Related: Watchmen ‘s Rorschach Origin Means the Opposite of What You Think Watchmen ‘s Original Connection to the DC Universe Before Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons began work on the proper Watchmen story, DC acquired a number of characters from the now defunct publisher Charlton Comics.

Moore drafted a proposal.

10/29/2022by Justin Epps ScreenRant.com

Asked By: Jonathan Green Date: created: Jun 01 2024

Was Watchmen originally DC

Answered By: Thomas Anderson Date: created: Jun 03 2024

Is Watchmen part of the DC or Marvel Comics universe? – Watchmen, graphic novel by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, published as a 12-part series by DC Comics from September 1986 to October 1987. The complex characters and mature story line were unlike anything previously seen in the superhero genre,

Who guards the universe?

Oans
Art by Jamal Igle, Green Lantern Secret Files (2005)
Publication information
Publisher DC Comics
First appearance Green Lantern (vol.2) #1 (July 1960 )
Created by John Broome (writer) Gil Kane (artist)
Characteristics
Place of origin Oa
Notable members Appa Ali Apsa Ganthet Sayd Scar
Inherent abilities
  • Near Omniscience
  • Superhuman intellect
  • Cosmic Awareness
  • Dimensional Manipulation
  • Force Field projection
  • Light Projection
  • Time Manipulation
  • Invulnerability
  • Teleportation
  • Reality Warping
  • Biological Manipulation
  • Size Manipulation
  • Life Force Siphoning
  • Siphoning Abilities
  • Genetic Manipulation
  • Energy Manipulation
  • Matter Manipulation
  • Immortality
  • Telepathy
  • Illusion Casting
  • Astral Projection
  • Telekinesis
  • Phasing

The Guardians of the Universe are a race of extraterrestrial superhero characters appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with Green Lantern, They first appeared in Green Lantern (vol.2) #1 (July 1960), and were created by John Broome and Gil Kane,

The Guardians of the Universe have been adapted to a number of films, television programs, and video games. The Guardians of the Universe are the founders and leaders of the interstellar law enforcement agency known as the Green Lantern Corps, which they administer from their homeworld Oa at the center of the Universe.

The Guardians resemble short humans with blue skin and white hair. They are depicted as being immortal and are the oldest living beings created in the Universe.

Asked By: Carlos Nelson Date: created: Sep 13 2024

Does the Guardian still exist

Answered By: Christian Smith Date: created: Sep 16 2024
The Guardian

Front page on 28 May 2021
Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet (1821–2005) Berliner (2005–2018) Compact (since 2018)
Owner(s) Guardian Media Group
Founder(s) John Edward Taylor
Publisher Guardian Media Group
Editor-in-chief Katharine Viner
Founded 5 May 1821 ; 202 years ago (as The Manchester Guardian, renamed The Guardian in 1959)
Political alignment Centre-left
Language English
Headquarters Kings Place, London
Country United Kingdom
Circulation 105,134 (as of July 2021)
Sister newspapers The Observer The Guardian Weekly
ISSN 0261-3077 (print) 1756-3224 (web)
OCLC number 60623878
Website theguardian.com
  • Media of the United Kingdom
  • List of newspapers

The Guardian is a British daily newspaper, It was founded in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian, and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers, The Observer and The Guardian Weekly, The Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust Limited,

The trust was created in 1936 to “secure the financial and editorial independence of The Guardian in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of The Guardian free from commercial or political interference”. The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for The Guardian the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators.

Profits are reinvested in its journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders, It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. Since 2018, the paper’s main newsprint sections have been published in tabloid format,

  1. As of July 2021, its print edition had a daily circulation of 105,134.
  2. The newspaper has an online edition, TheGuardian.com, as well as three international websites, Guardian Australia (founded in 2013) Guardian New Zealand (founded in 2019) and Guardian US (founded in 2011).
  3. The paper’s readership is generally on the mainstream left of British political opinion, and the term ” Guardian reader” is used to imply a stereotype of liberal, left-wing or ” politically correct ” views.

Frequent typographical errors during the age of manual typesetting led Private Eye magazine to dub the paper the “Grauniad” in the 1970s, a nickname still occasionally used by the editors for self-mockery. In an Ipsos MORI research poll in September 2018 designed to interrogate the public’s trust of specific titles online, The Guardian scored highest for digital-content news, with 84% of readers agreeing that they “trust what see in it”.

A December 2018 report of a poll by the Publishers Audience Measurement Company stated that the paper’s print edition was found to be the most trusted in the UK in the period from October 2017 to September 2018. It was also reported to be the most-read of the UK’s “quality newsbrands”, including digital editions; other “quality” brands included The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, and the i,

While The Guardian ‘ s print circulation is in decline, the report indicated that news from The Guardian, including that reported online, reaches more than 23 million UK adults each month. Chief among the notable ” scoops ” obtained by the paper was the 2011 News International phone-hacking scandal —and in particular the hacking of the murdered English teenager Milly Dowler ‘s phone.

  • The investigation led to the closure of the News of the World, the UK’s best-selling Sunday newspaper and one of the highest-circulation newspapers in history.
  • In June 2013, The Guardian broke news of the secret collection by the Obama administration of Verizon telephone records, and subsequently revealed the existence of the surveillance program PRISM after knowledge of it was leaked to the paper by the whistleblower and former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden,

In 2016, The Guardian led an investigation into the Panama Papers, exposing then–Prime Minister David Cameron ‘s links to offshore bank accounts, It has been named “newspaper of the year” four times at the annual British Press Awards : most recently in 2014, for its reporting on government surveillance.

Who created the Guardian?

The Manchester Guardian was founded by John Edward Taylor in 1821 and first published on 5 May of that year. The paper was intended to promote the liberal interest in the aftermath of the Peterloo Massacre, in the context of the growing anti-Corn Laws campaign flourishing in Manchester during this period.

  • It was published weekly on Saturdays until 1836, when a Wednesday edition was added.
  • In 1855 the abolition of Stamp Duty on newspapers finally made it possible to publish the paper daily, at a reduced cover price of 2d.
  • The Guardian achieved national and international recognition under the editorship of CP Scott, who held the post for 57 years from 1872.
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Scott bought the paper in 1907 following the death of Taylor’s son, and pledged that the principles laid down in the founder’s will would be upheld by retaining the independence of the newspaper. CP Scott outlined those principles in a much-quoted article written to celebrate the centenary of the paper: “Comment is free, but facts are sacred.

The voice of opponents no less than that of friends has a right to be heard.” After retiring from an active role in managing and editing the paper, Scott passed control to his two sons, John Russell Scott as manager and Edward Taylor Scott as editor. Realising that the future independence of the paper would be jeopardised in the event of the death of one or the other, the two sons made an agreement that in the event of either’s death, one would buy the other’s share.

CP Scott died in 1932 and was followed only four months later by Edward, so sole ownership fell to JR Scott. Faced with the potential of crippling death duties and the predatory interest of competitors, Scott contemplated a radical move to ensure the future of both the Guardian and the highly profitable Manchester Evening News. Editorial, Financial and Wire Room staff members of the Manchester Guardian photographed in 1921. Back row: Messrs.F. Marshall, J.M. Denvir, R. Nelson, F.W. Long, J.H. Foxcroft, I. Brown, E.N. Smith, F. Perrot, A. Percival Middle row: Mrs. Avis, Mr.H. Rose Front row: Mr.H.

Gravett, Miss E. Isitt, Messrs.O.R. Hobson, J. Bone, H. Dore, J. Drysdale, A.H. Boyd, H. Williams Photograph: Walter Doughty/The Guardian In June 1936, JR Scott formally passed ownership of the paper to the trustees of the Scott Trust, As well as pledging to ensure the radical editorial tradition of the paper (that the newspaper “shall be conducted in the future on the same lines and in the same spirit as heretofore”, in the words of the founder’s legacy), the Scott Trust also has the duty to maintain a secure financial footing for the business: “.to devote the whole of the surplus profits of the Company which would otherwise have been available for dividends.towards building up the reserves of the Company and increasing the circulation of and expanding and improving the newspapers.” These principles remain the only instructions given to an incoming editor of the Guardian, though the Scott family retained an interest in the running of the company until 1984, when, aged 70, Richard F Scott retired from the chairmanship of the Trust.

As the influence of the Manchester Guardian grew beyond its Northern hinterland, a new challenge faced the paper under the editorship of AP Wadsworth, who took over the post in 1944. The limited number of pages in the paper, poor quality of the printing and sometimes peculiar news agenda were once perceived as part of the regional charm of the paper.

  1. In comparison to the other papers on Fleet Street, however, the Guardian’s eccentric virtues often seemed to be outweighed by its peculiar idiosyncrasies: the absence of horse racing, high-handed moral posturing and woolly leaders.
  2. Alongside the Daily Telegraph and the Times, the Guardian lacked resources (despite costing 1d more a day), and an approach to commercial activity that could be charitably described as naive did not help matters.

On the first day of the Chatterley trial, the Guardian carried a front page advertisement for the Telegraph ‘the paper you can trust’, which ‘provides all you can want in a newspaper’ – and at a cheaper cover price too. The editor of the paper moved to London in 1964, committing the Guardian to an uncertain future in the national market, and shortly afterwards financial problems came to a head.

The paper relied heavily on the Manchester Evening News for financial support, and in the mid-60s the threat to the paper’s future grew severe enough for the chairman of the company, Laurence Scott, to approach the Times to discuss the possibility of a merger. The Times was in a similarly perilous financial situation, and many were of the opinion that there was only room for one competitor to the Telegraph.

Eventually the talks came to nothing, but not before a serious examination of the logistics involved had been considered on both sides. Alastair Hetherington, the editor at this time, remained a staunch advocate of the Guardian’s independence, and the modern paper owes much to his leadership and vision during this period.

Investment in printing and the completion of a move to improved offices in London in 1976 helped consolidate the Guardian’s position, aided by an expansion programme that included the revamping of the Guardian Weekly to include content from both the Washington Post and Le Monde. In the increasingly polarised political climate of the late 70s and early 80s the Guardian’s position as the voice of the left was unchallenged.

The opinion pages were the birthplace of the SDP, and the letters page was where the battle for the future direction of the Labour Party was played out, while the coverage of industrial disputes including the 1984-1985 Miners’ Strike defined the paper’s position.

The status quo among the quality press was irrevocably altered by the launch of the Independent in 1986. Capturing the centre ground between the Guardian on the left and the Times and Telegraph on the right, the Independent attracted big name writers and readers with a modern design and distribution network that made the most of the post-union market.

Within a few years the circulation of the Independent rose to within touching distance of both the Times and the Guardian, and the previously stagnant market was provoked into a frenzy of defensive activity to retain readers. In 1988 the Guardian made a bold and innovative attempt to reassert its position on Fleet Street, with a major redesign that began the modern period of success in the history of the paper.

  1. In 1993 the intensely competitive broadsheet market was again thrown into confusion by the reduction of the cover price of the Times, firstly from 45p to 30p, then again in June 1994 from 30p to 20p.
  2. As the Times attracted readers, first the Daily Telegraph and then the Independent followed suit, running at substantial losses as they battled to survive.

Throughout this period the Guardian remained at full price, investing resources in journalism and distancing itself from the price war through distinctive and innovative marketing, product development and consistently breaking big stories. During these years the paper increased its circulation, remained commercially successful and achieved critical acclaim for both the quality of its journalism and its innovation.

The Guardian was at the forefront of the sleaze revelations that contributed to the downfall of the Conservative government in 1997, with a series of investigations into the affairs of Tory MPs, including Jonathan Aitken and Neil Hamilton. This reputation was cemented by the collapse of the libel case brought against the paper by former Minister Jonathan Aitken.

Aitken was convicted of perjury and jailed in June 1999, and the investigations won the Guardian critical acclaim from all sides – including the prestigious Newspaper of the Year Award in both 1997 and 1998. In 1997 the Guardian became the first national newspaper to appoint a readers’ editor (producer of the daily Corrections and Clarifications column).

In 1994-95 the Guardian began developing online publication. The paper’s technology section OnLine was launched in late 1995, and sites for jobs, certain sports, and news events followed through 1996-1998. The Guardian Unlimited network of websites was launched as a unified whole in January 1999 (in 2008 it was to become guardian.co.uk and in 2013 theguardian.com).

By March 2001 GU had over 2.4 million unique users, making it the most popular UK newspaper website. On September 12 2005 the new Berliner Guardian launched, with a ground-breaking design in a mid-size format. The Guardian became the UK’s first full-colour national newspaper, and the first UK national newspaper ever to adopt this size.

December 2008 marked a significant point in the history of the Guardian when the paper moved to a brand new building in King’s Cross after 32 years in its Farringdon headquarters. In 2011 the Guardian’s groundbreaking journalism and innovation were recognised at the Press Awards where it was named Newspaper of the Year for its partnership with WikiLeaks, which produced the leaked US embassy cables.

In the same year the Guardian not only wrote headlines but made headlines with its globally acclaimed investigation into phone hacking, In recent years the Guardian has significantly developed and expanded its digital operations. Between 2009-2010 the Guardian launched a range of new digital products and services, including apps for iPhone and iPod Touch, Open Platform and Datablog, the first national data journalism site.

  • In June 2011 Guardian News & Media announced plans to become a digital-first organisation, placing open journalism on the web at the heart of its strategy.
  • Since the launch of the strategy the Guardian has continued its digital expansion with the launch of new applications and platforms, including Kindle and iPad editions, Android and Blackberry apps, Facebook app, GuardianWitness and new digital editions in the US and Australia,

For more information on the history of the Guardian’s digital developments see the timeline of key moments in the Guardian’s history, On 15 January 2018, the newspaper was relaunched in a new tabloid format, On the same day, a redesigned Guardian went live for online readers globally, across the mobile, apps and desktop editions of the website.

A fuller redesign of the Guardian Weekly as a news magazine followed on 11 October 2018. On 1 May 2019 The Guardian announced that it had successfully completed its three-year turnaround strategy by breaking even for the first time in recent history, In March 2023, the Scott Trust published a comprehensive report on the Guardian’s historical connections with transatlantic slavery, sharing an apology and its restorative justice response.

The research identified links between John Edward Taylor and the associates who funded the Manchester Guardian’s creation, and slavery.

Is Rorschach a villain or a hero?

Publication history – Dave Gibbons ‘ original design of Rorschach As with the rest of the main characters of Watchmen, Alan Moore based Rorschach on Charlton Comics characters, using them as a “starting point”. The characters Rorschach was specifically based on were the Question (a Charlton character) and Mr.

A, two comic book characters created by Steve Ditko, Ditko, who was inspired by the writings of Ayn Rand ‘s personal philosophy of Objectivism, created both the Question and Mr. A as followers of the ideology. Regarding Rand’s philosophy, Moore said he personally found it “laughable”. In spite of this, Moore had a healthy respect for Ditko despite having different views politically.

Moore recalled that Ditko’s very right-wing agenda was quite interesting to him at the time, and that “probably led to me portraying Rorschach as an extremely right-wing character”. In trying to create Rorschach, Moore said he was trying to “come up with this quintessential Steve Ditko character—someone who’s got a funny name, whose surname begins with a ‘K,’ who’s got an oddly designed mask”.

  1. On how he decided Rorschach’s name, Moore recalls: I noticed, when I was a teenager, that Ditko had got some fixation about the letter K, probably because it occurs in his own name.
  2. It’s sort of “Kafka,” and “Ditko,” and there seemed to be a lot of Ditko characters with prominent Ks,
  3. Ted Kord,
  4. Ditko seemed very fond of that sort of sound, so in some half-assed way, that observation influenced me in giving Rorschach the name Walter Kovacs.

The Question was used as the prototype for creating Rorschach, while Mr. A, being a far more radical right-wing character than the mainstream-suited Question, served as the main inspiration for Rorschach’s right-wing views as well as his black-and-white morality.

  1. Moore came to view Rorschach as a logical extension of both Mr.
  2. A and the Question.
  3. On the other hand, upon being asked whether he had seen Watchmen, Ditko himself described Rorschach as being “like Mister A, except Rorschach is insane.”,
  4. Rorschach, was perhaps the most disturbing hero ever created for comics.

His brutal perception of black-and-white morality reflected writer Alan Moore ‘s critical deconstruction of the whole notion of heroes—a popular theme recurring in comic books since the 1980s. – Bradford W. Wright Moore stated that Rorschach was created as a way of exploring what an archetypical Batman -type character—a driven, vengeance-fueled vigilante —would be like in the real world.

He concluded that the short answer was “a nutcase”. Moore also stated that the tone of Rorschach’s diary was inspired by the Son of Sam letters David Berkowitz sent to the newspapers, and that his speech patterns were based on Herbie the Fat Fury, While Moore came up with Rorschach’s name and descriptions, Dave Gibbons was in charge of the character’s appearance.

In Gibbons’ initial designs, Rorschach wore white clothing which had inkblots not only on his head but all over his body. He also wore a large blue trench-coat, red gloves, red-blue hat and items that look like jodhpurs or spats over his boots. When designing the characters of the series, Gibbons said Rorschach was his favorite to draw due to his relatively simpler features.

He described: If I had a favorite character to draw,, the one that I’ll draw is Rorschach. Basically, you just have to draw a hat. If you can draw a hat, then you’ve drawn Rorschach, you just draw kind of a shape for his face and put some black blobs on it and you’re done. So he’s a favorite to draw in that circumstance.

Moore said he did not foresee the death of Rorschach until the fourth issue when he realized that his refusal to compromise would result in his not surviving the story. He claimed that initially he knew a lot about the character’s surface mannerisms, but did not realize what was inside him until he “started to dig.” Moore added that Rorschach had a “king-sized” deathwish due to his psychologically troubled life, and actively wanted to die but in his own dignified and honorable way, no matter how “twisted” it might have been.

Why did Mr Manhattan kills Rorschach?

What happened to Rorschach at the end of the comics? – The short version is that he’s vaporized by Doctor Manhattan, but it’s a little bit more complicated than that, Throughout the comics, Rorschach believes that someone is trying to kill off former heroes when there’s an assassination attempt on Adrian Veidt, a former masked adventurer called Ozymandias, who revealed his own identity and turned himself into a titan of industry.

Rorschach ends up enlisting retired superheroes Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl) and Laurie Juspeczyk (Silk Spectre) to help his investigation. In the end, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre, and Rorschach learn that Veidt is behind these assassinations as part of a plan to prevent nuclear war. Unfortunately, his plan involves teleporting a massive squid-like alien into the middle of New York City, where it will emit telepathic energy and kill millions, and trick the U.S.

and Soviet Union into thinking Earth is under attack by aliens. The two global forces, believing the threat of humanity is at stake, will join forces to fight a common enemy. The heroes are unable to stop Veidt from carrying out his plan, and he succeeds in killing millions in New York City.

  • Nite Owl, Silk Spectre, and Doctor Manhattan know that exposing Veidt would only bring a nuclear disaster, that all those lives lost would be for nothing.
  • But Rorschach believes the truth must be told.
  • In order to stop him from ruining the global balance of power, Doctor Manhattan is forced to vaporize Rorschach.

Veidt is left to wonder if he did the right thing, while Doctor Manhattan leaves our galaxy for a less complicated one. Dreiberg and Juspeczyk develop new identities and start a life together. But, before he died, Rorschach sent his journal to a far right publication for them to expose the truth. Warner Bros./courtesy Everett Collection

What does Rorschach’s mask symbolize?

Rorschach ‘s mask symbolizes his view of ethics and morality, as well as his use of a constructed identity to hide his vulnerable true self, Walter Kovacs. Rorschach’s mask is white with shifting black shapes on it, resembling a moving Rorschach blot test (a tool once used in psychology to assess a person’s thoughts and emotions).

  • The shapes are either completely white or completely black; there is no gray.
  • This reflects Rorschach’s view of reality, since he believes that the world divides clearly and easily into good and evil people; he leaves no room for moral ambiguity or gray areas.
  • However, the fact that the shapes on his mask constantly move and morph symbolize how Rorschach’s judgments of what is good and what is evil are inconsistent, constantly changing.

He hates evil people, for instance, yet commits torture and murder and still sees himself as a good person. Rorschach’s mask also represents his constructed identity as a whole, which he assumes as his true identity in order to gain a sense of control over the world.

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Why is Rorschach a hypocrite?

Rorschach’s Hypocrisy: The Moral Ambiguity of Watchmen’s Black and White Antihero

  • Photo via Unsplash
  • By Ingrid Sit
  • (UBC Arts One, Prof. Miranda Burgess Seminar)

From the saturated pages of Watchmen emerges Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ antihero protagonist Rorschach, a stark representation of black and white against the vivid colouring of Watchmen ‘s setting and other characters. As the only character that does not adorn any bright colours, Rorschach appears to become Watchmen ‘s moral centre—the black and white amidst the chaotic colouring of his environment.

  1. For Rorschach, the monochrome inkblot mask he dons serves as the physical embodiment of the set of impossibly rigid moral ideals that he places before his own identity.
  2. As a character, his championing of a clear sense of morality and a refusal to compromise added to the advantage of the story being told in his perspective earns Rorschach the reader’s favour as a clear-cut hero at first glance.

However, upon examining his character without the inclinations one naturally develops for a story’s protagonist, it becomes evident that Rorschach’s unwavering moral code is underlain by the outright hypocrisy of his actions. Rorschach’s sense of morality is in fact, not so black and white and his actions venture into what many might consider morally questionable.

  • The hypocrisy of Rorschach’s character is not difficult to uncover, yet upon its discovery, the reader still feels an inclination towards him and his motivations, because his inherent hypocrisy may very well be Rorschach’s greatest source of appeal as a compelling character.
  • After all, a character that blatantly advocates strict morals but betrays those morals more than they realise is perhaps more relatable to the average person than one would care to admit.

Rorschach’s insistence on projecting his black and white sense of morality upon the world reflects on a need to categorise the world in an effort to simplify humanity. When discussing the concept of black and white morality itself, Swiss psychologist Philippe Rochat raises the example of Adolf Hitler being a vegetarian, a piece of information that finds many by surprise: The majority reaction regarding Hitler’s vegetarianism captures something essential about our morals.

It reveals that for the majority of us there is an inclination toward overly simplistic and categorical ways of judging the morals of others, typically in black and white, either/or, or knee-jerk eliminative terms, leaving little to no room for scepticism and critical thinking, Hitler was a vegetarian? A profound oxymoron, a blatant contradiction, a moral absurdity deduced from our majority categorical inclination to think of the world in black and white, good or bad terms with no shades of grey.

(p.9) Rochat dissects how the human need for simplistic explanations lends to a willingness to overlook anything that contradicts established moral assignments that were overly simplistic, to begin with. In actuality, the world is rarely so simple. Humanity is messy and often chaotic, as reflected by the oversaturation of Watchmen ‘s colouring.

To look at the world through a monochromatic lens disregards the chaos of humanity, instead offering every encounter or event the simple assignment of either good or bad. The idea of being able to view morality as black and white accepts that immorality does exist in the world and is just as prevalent in humanity as morality.

What it does not accept is that the two may not be all that removed from one another. This mentality reflects on a human need for simple answers, for plain categories that explain everything that is messy. To think of morality as black and white is to refuse the possibility of moral grey.

  • Across the colour-stained pages of Watchmen, not once is Rorschach’s “face” ever tinted by any trace of colour, representative of his adamant refusal of letting the world taint his sense of morality (Moore, 6.10.9).
  • Upon his entrance, Rorschach is characterised as a no-nonsense vigilante who embodies moral absolutism.

From how he views his peers, Rorschach definitively distinguishes between what he deems heroic and what he deems not heroic. He considers fellow masked vigilante the Comedian to be a hero for having “stood up for his country, never anybody retire him”, and “never in on his reputation” (Moore, 1.17.6).

Whereas Adrian Veidt, who retired from being Ozymandius to become a billionaire businessman, is described in Rorschach’s journal as “pampered and decadent, betraying even his own shallow, liberal affectations” (Moore, 1.19.2). Rorschach applauds the Comedian for remaining anonymous and active while expressing distaste for what he saw as Veidt capitalising on the vigilante cause.

When handling the criminals of New York, Rorschach believes in matching the crime to the punishment. Speaking of his treatment of criminals before 1975, Rorschach describes himself to have been “soft”, for “” criminals and ” them live”, a treatment he did not think they deserved (Moore, 6.14.3-5).

However, in the event of discovering Gerald Grice, a criminal that had abused and fed a young girl to his dogs, Rorschach fully takes on becoming Rorschach—the vigilante with an uncompromising moral code—and proceeds to kill the criminal’s dogs and set his house on fire with him handcuffed to a chair, repaying the violence that Grice had inflicted upon the girl upon himself.

This is how Rorschach distinguishes between black and white and determines what consequences correspond to what actions. The comedian is a hero because he “didn’t care if people liked him”, and was “uncompromising”; Adrian Veidt is undeserving of the title of hero because he monetised his vigilante career; Gerald Grice deserved to burn in flames for what he did to a young girl (Moore, 6.15.3).

Rorschach relies on his clear-cut morality to make sense of the world he lives in. Regardless of the moral ambiguity around him, he refuses to acknowledge it because doing so would threaten his entire worldview and sense of self. In the act of wearing a Rorschach blot test upon his face, Rorschach erases his identity as Walter Kovacs and instead allows his rigid sense of morality to become his entire identity.

In a case study of the costumes of Watchmen, Barbara Brownie and Danny Graydon suggest that Rorschach’s decision to devoid his “face” of facial features reflects on “his feelings of shame about all things human”(Moore, 6.10.9; Brownie, p.140). Such a decision may even be borne of Rorschach’s need to remove his past as Walter Kovacs from who he has become.

  • Brownie and Graydon argue that “Rorschach’s anonymity seems to protect him from the cruelties that he experienced in his own past” (p.140).
  • To take this point further, I would suggest that Rorschach’s reliance on his moral code compels him to simplify the world.
  • Within his strict boundaries of good versus evil, he leaves no room for the complications of individual experiences.

Hence, it is only by removing himself and his past from his persona of Rorschach completely, that he can enforce his moral code to its full extent. Since he depends on his sense of morality for every decision he makes, Rorschach must eliminate anything that could blur the lines he has clearly drawn between what is black and what is white, even if that includes the face of Walter Kovacs.

  • Despite the literal act of adorning his morals upon his face, the reader will come to find that Rorschach’s morals do not extend much further beyond the appearance of his persona.
  • Regardless of Rorschach’s every effort to strip his persona of human bias and ambiguity, he still falls victim to the very hypocrisy and moral ambiguity he champions against.

Even if the black and white on a Rorschach test never mix, its “meaning is projected onto it by its viewer”, thus shifting in shape and interpretation per person. Similarly, the character’s morals tend to vary depending on what situation they are applied to.

At the mention of the sexual assault Sally Jupiter (the Silk Spectre) experienced at the hands of Edward Blake (the Comedian), Rorschach declares that he is not concerned with ” on the moral lapses of men who died in their country’s service” (Moore, 1.21.8). The “service” Rorschach refers to is the Comedian’s vigilantism as well as his participation in the Vietnam War on behalf of the US government, under Richard Nixon (Moore, 1.21.8).

Seeing the Comedian’s contributions to the country as patriotic and noble, Rorschach has simply labelled him as morally good and is willing to disregard all other aspects of his character. Were the Comedian a common ruffian that tried to assault someone, Rorschach might treat him with the same violence he delivers to any other criminal, but because his rigid moral code allows no room for grey area, he cannot consider the possibility of the Comedian’s complicated moral standing.

  • A study done at the University of Kansas defined moral hypocrisy as “the human capacity to appear moral—even to oneself—without being so”, finding that “In the masquerade of moral hypocrisy, moral rationalization and moral motivation are allies, not opponents” (Batson et al, p.12).
  • To Rorschach, the Comedian’s classification as heroic denies the possibility of him being morally ambiguous.

He relies on his oversimplified judgement of the Comedian to excuse any other behaviour he sees from him. Hence, he disregards all of the Comedian’s faults and rationalises his actions even if they inherently violate Rorschach’s moral code without even realising his hypocrisy.

Whether he is able to recognise it or not, Rorschach’s morals may not be as black and white as he would like to think, and his actions come to reveal the deep-rooted hypocrisy of his views. From Rorschach’s judgement of the Comedian, it is made clear to the reader exactly what he deems to be the qualifications that make someone a hero.

But what is a hero? And how do we form our own ideas on what makes someone a hero? A study done for the Journal of Moral Education at the University of Kansas begins by stating that “our beliefs about and identification with heroes reflects on how we perceive ourselves, or at least what we hope to be” (White and O’Brien, p.81).

A perhaps, more operational definition would identify a hero as someone courageous, noble, and admired for being so. Yet when asked to describe a hero, many of the mid-teens participating in the study described a hero as someone who “stands up for beliefs, regardless of consequences”, and “has own ideas and is not afraid to stand up for them” (White and O’Brien, p.88).

The study found that with increased maturity, the students in their teens no longer find heroism in “glitz and glamour” but in those they deem worthy of emulating, people who “demonstrate moral excellence” (White and O’Brien, p.93). In other words, a hero is meant to be someone that represents a sense of morality that we can look up to.

  1. With that definition in mind, one can turn to the character of Rorschach to determine whether he himself fits into his concept of a hero.
  2. From his idolisation of the Comedian emerges Rorschach’s partial adoption of Kantianism.
  3. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy identifies Immanuel Kant’s “Categorical Imperative” as “an objective, rationally necessary and unconditional principle that we must always follow despite any natural desires or inclinations we may have to the contrary” (Johnson and Cureton, p.1).

To Rorschach, the Comedian is admirable because he acts as an unsung vigilante that enforces a strict ideal of justice without compromise or public recognition, traits Rorschach sees as indicators of “moral excellence” (White and O’Brien, p.93). As a result, Rorschach tries to emulate the sense of morality he idolises, going as far as trying to impose his sense of morality upon the world.

Rorschach fails, however, because as he excuses the Comedian’s less-than-moral actions, he excuses the same for himself. In the same manner he disregards the Comedian’s brutality and acts of sexual assault, Rorschach excuses his acts of extreme violence because he sees himself to be morally correct. Ultimately, Rorschach fails to be a hero because his idea of a hero does not exist, in the same way the world does not exist in black and white.

The Comedian, whom Rorschach idolises is not simply good like Rorschach thinks him to be; Rorschach himself, therefore is not the morally upright vigilante he sees himself as either. To counter Rorschach’s inability to see through his own hypocrisy, Watchmen presents Doctor Manhattan as a moral counterpart.

If Rorschach fails as a hero because he does not realise the hypocrisy of his refusal to compromise, Doctor Manhattan presents a doctrine that is the exact opposite—he not only sees the value of compromise but unhypocritically acts on it, which perhaps makes him the true hero of Watchmen, While Rorschach embodies moral ambiguity disguised by moral rigidity, Doctor Manhattan offers the opposite—moral apathy that lends itself to a position in a moral middle ground.

The difference between the two stems from their varying sense of connection to the rest of the world. Although Rorschach is socially isolated, he still sees himself as a part of humanity. Doctor Manhattan, on the other hand, feels no connection to the world other than through his relationship with Laurie Juspeczyk.

Rorschach is willing to do whatever it takes on his way to achieving justice because he firmly believes in what is right, while Doctor Manhattan struggles to find a reason to care for the fate of the world. Following his self-inflicted exile to Mars, he explains to Laurie that she had been his “only concern with the world”, without which he no longer has any motivation to remain involved in its affairs (Moore, 9.8.8).

Ironically, Doctor Manhattan’s disconnect from humanity is exactly what allows him to judge its state without the same degree of bias as the other characters of Watchmen, He embodies a sense of calm moral ambiguity that is able to adapt to the situation at hand, whatever it may be.

  1. At the end of Watchmen, Doctor Manhattan kills Rorschach to prevent the exposure of what Adrian Veidt had inflicted upon humanity.
  2. While Rorschach insists that one should “never compromise” “even in the face of Armageddon”, Doctor Manhattan calmly determines that a compromise must be made for what is left of humanity (Moore, 12.20.8-9).

To preserve the unity that has formed amidst disaster, the truth cannot be revealed. Doctor Manhattan’s sense of morality that allows for compromise makes him the true moral ideal of Watchmen, One that is arguably as unattainable as Rorschach’s hypocrisy is relatable.

While the Doctor’s consistency between his actions and his preachings set an admirable example for the reader, the almost artificial smoothness of his overall character risks distancing the reader, who instead turns to Rorschach despite all his faults. Creator Alan Moore himself has mentioned in an interview that despite his intention of making Rorschach a “bad example”, he encounters readers on the street proclaiming that ” Rorschach! That is story” (Moore).

Indeed, Rorschach was named the 16th “Greatest Comic Book Character” by Empire magazine in 2008 and was famously named by American politician Ted Cruz as one of his favourite comic book characters. Realistically, Doctor Manhattan’s sense of morality is hard to find among the average person.

In reality, humans tend to set a moral standard that they fail to reach even if they are unable to realise it themself. Yet, this unavoidable hypocrisy does not stop the individual from establishing a moral ideal for themselves. Carol Gilligan’s work on the Concepts of Self and Morality notes that the potential for “enhancement in self-worth” requires “a conception of self that includes the possibility for doing ‘the right thing,’ the ability to see in oneself the potential for being good and therefore worthy of social inclusion” (p.78).

Despite Rorschach’s feelings of isolation, he still identifies with the rest of the world, which is why he holds on to his rigid sense of morality even if he cannot live up to it. Compared to Doctor Manhattan’s unrealistic positioning in a moral middle ground, this sentiment is more relatable to the average person than one might realise, which explains why the reader is more drawn to Rorschach’s character, even beyond his positioning as the protagonist of the story.

  • It is not until he has reached his final moments that Rorschach begins to realise the impossible standard he has set for himself and, by extension, for the rest of the world.
  • After Veidt’s scheme causes the death of millions in New York City, Rorschach alone insists that “evil must be punished” and the “people must be told” the truth (Moore, 12.23.5).

Even in a moment of crisis Rorschach latches on to his rigid set of principles in search of simple clarity—inflicting death upon millions is an act of evil no matter the intentions. Yet, in the face of an impossible situation, even Rorschach himself begins to see that the situation at hand cannot be reduced to the simple classification of black or white.

  • When Doctor Manhattan tries to stop him from announcing the truth, Rorschach removes his “face”, thus removing the physical representation of his moral code, and tells Doctor Manhattan to kill him, which he does (Moore, 6.10.9, 12.24.1-4).
  • The moment Rorschach realises his sense of morality may not have a place in humanity is also the moment in which he decides he can no longer bear to live.
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The black and white sense of morality Rorschach has placed before his identity is no longer enough to ground him amidst the chaos of the world. He strips off his inkblot mask, accepting the futility of his moral code, and lets his life end. Ironically, the crisis Rorschach witnesses is not much different from a situation he once wrote of.

In a piece of writing from his childhood, a young Rorschach (Walter Kovaks) praises Harry Truman’s use of the atomic bomb: I like President Truman, the way Dad would of wanted me to. He dropped the atomic bomb on Japan and saved millions of lives because if he hadn’t of, then there would of been a lot more war than there was and more people would of been killed.

I think it was a good thing to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. (Moore, 6.31) Veidt’s plan of introducing an alien threat to unite the world follows the belief that by sacrificing the lives of millions, the rest of the world will be saved, a sentiment that echoes Rorschach’s views as a youth on the bombing of Japan.

  1. In theory, Rorschach would be willing to go along with the scheme for the sake of the rest of humanity.
  2. Yet, when he is personally involved, Rorschach struggles to find the clear-cut sense of right and wrong that he relies on, struggling to enforce the same moral code he champions.
  3. Even if concealing the truth would preserve the peace borne out of disaster, Rorschach refuses to carry the weight of protecting a lie that involved the death of millions.

In his failure to abide by his black and white sense of morality, Rorschach is forced to face his hypocrisy. Upon realising the hypocritical nature and impossibility of his moral code, Rorschach’s entire identity crumbles, and whatever remains of Walter Kovaks cannot bear to live either.

By positioning Rorschach as the protagonist at the centre of Watchmen, Alan Moore seems to set him up to be the story’s moral compass. In actuality, the same attributes that have earned Rorschach a following among readers—his unwavering set of morals and unwillingness to compromise—only renders him a hypocrite.

Rorschach constantly breaks the moral code he expects others to abide by, and upon the realisation of the impracticality of his principles, Rorschach, unable to face the reality of his own morality, chooses death. Rorschach spent his career upholding an impossible ideal, to the extent of making his moral code the sole foundation of his identity.

  • His overreliance on his moral code is why Rorschach could not exist without the insistent belief that everything was black and white.
  • Rorschach’s determination to categorise everything in plain terms ultimately fails him becausehumans are complex beings that cannot and should not be explained away by a mere designation of good or bad.

Despite being a failed advocate for the violent enforcement of moral uprightness, the underlying humanity of Rorschach’s character earns him the reader’s inclination regardless. Rorschach, in spite of all his glaring faults, is able to strike a chord with the reader as his hypocrisy is innately human and serves as the reason behind his relatability; because ultimately, everyone is a hypocrite, whether they are willing to face it or not.

Works Cited Barden, Jamie, et al. “‘Saying One Thing and Doing Another’: Examining the Impact of Event Order on Hypocrisy Judgments of Others.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol.31, no.11, 2005, pp.1463–1474., doi:10.1177/0146167205276430. Batson, C. Daniel, et al. “Moral Hypocrisy: Appearing Moral to Oneself Without Being So.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol.77, no.3, 1999, pp.525–537., doi:10.1037/0022-3514.77.3.525.

“Case Studies: Watchmen.” Superhero Costume: Identity and Disguise in Fact and Fiction, by Barbara Brownie and Danny Graydon, Bloomsbury, 2016, pp.139–144. “Concepts of Self and Morality.” In A Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development, by Carol Gilligan, Harvard University Press Cambridge, 1982, pp.64–105.

75–99., doi:10.1177/0952695117722719.

Johnson, Robert, and Adam Cureton. “Kant’s Moral Philosophy.” Edited by Edward N. Zalta, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 7 July 2016, plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-moral/. Kreider, S. Evan. “Who Watches the Watchmen?” Homer Simpson Ponders Politics: Popular Culture as Political Theory, by Joseph J.

  • Foy et al., University Press of Kentucky, 2013, pp.97–111.
  • Levy, Neil.
  • Hard Luck: How Luck Undermines Free Will and Moral Responsibility,
  • Oxford University Press, 2011.
  • Moore, Alan, and Dave Gibbons.
  • Watchmen,
  • DC Comics, 2014.
  • Pindling, LeJorne, and Alan Moore.
  • Interview with Alan Moore.” Street Law Productions, 2008.

Rochat, Philippe. Moral Acrobatics: How We Avoid Ethical Ambiguity by Thinking in Black and White, Oxford University Press, 2021. Sherman, Gary D., and Gerald L. Clore. “The Color of Sin: White and Black Are Perceptual Symbols of Moral Purity and Pollution.” Psychological Science, vol.20, no.8, 2009, pp.1019–1025., doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02403.x.

“The 50 Greatest Comic Book Characters – #16 Rorschach.” Empire Magazine, July 2008. White, Steven H., and Joseph E. O’Brien. “What Is a Hero? An Exploratory Study of Students’ Conceptions of Heroes.” Journal of Moral Education, vol.28, no.1, 1999, pp.81–95., doi:10.1080/030572499103322. Zarkadi, Theodora, and Simone Schnall.

“‘Black and White’ Thinking: Visual Contrast Polarizes Moral Judgment.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, vol.49, no.3, 8 Dec.2012, pp.355–359., doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2012.11.012. : Rorschach’s Hypocrisy: The Moral Ambiguity of Watchmen’s Black and White Antihero

Is there a villain in Watchmen?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adrian Veidt
Adrian “Ozymandias” Veidt with his pet lynx Bubastis. Art by Dave Gibbons,
Publication information
Publisher DC Comics
First appearance Watchmen #1 (September 1986)
Created by
  • Alan Moore
  • Dave Gibbons
In-story information
Alter ego Ozymandias
Team affiliations Crimebusters Watchmen (cinematic version)
Notable aliases The World’s Smartest Man
Abilities
  • Peak human strength, speed, stamina and resilience
  • Genius-level intellect
  • Unrivaled understanding of human psychology
  • Master martial artist and hand-to-hand combatant
  • Body reading ability
  • Ultra-fast reflexes
  • Indomitable will
  • Skilled in tactical analysis and business management
  • Proficient engineer and historiographer

Adrian Alexander Veidt, also known as Ozymandias ( OZ -ee- MAN -dee-əs ), is a fictional anti-villain in the graphic novel limited series Watchmen, published by DC Comics, Created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, named “Ozymandias” in the manner of Ramesses II, his name recalls the famous poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, which takes as its theme the fleeting nature of empire and is excerpted as the epigraph of one of the chapters of Watchmen,

Asked By: Jackson Morgan Date: created: Jan 20 2024

What does the watch symbolize in Watchmen

Answered By: Devin White Date: created: Jan 23 2024

This is a page for the symbolic representation of the Doomsday Clock. For the series, see Doomsday Clock (comic), Clock striking “12” on the cover of Watchmen Chapter XII, The Nuclear Doomsday Clock is a symbolic representation of how close the world is to catastrophic destruction by nuclear war. It is based on the real-world Doomsday Clock, which performs a similar function.

Asked By: Gordon Thompson Date: created: Dec 14 2023

What does Rorschach mask mean in Watchmen

Answered By: Reginald Davis Date: created: Dec 16 2023

Rorschach ‘s mask symbolizes his view of ethics and morality, as well as his use of a constructed identity to hide his vulnerable true self, Walter Kovacs. Rorschach’s mask is white with shifting black shapes on it, resembling a moving Rorschach blot test (a tool once used in psychology to assess a person’s thoughts and emotions).

  1. The shapes are either completely white or completely black; there is no gray.
  2. This reflects Rorschach’s view of reality, since he believes that the world divides clearly and easily into good and evil people; he leaves no room for moral ambiguity or gray areas.
  3. However, the fact that the shapes on his mask constantly move and morph symbolize how Rorschach’s judgments of what is good and what is evil are inconsistent, constantly changing.

He hates evil people, for instance, yet commits torture and murder and still sees himself as a good person. Rorschach’s mask also represents his constructed identity as a whole, which he assumes as his true identity in order to gain a sense of control over the world.

Asked By: Hayden Turner Date: created: Jul 02 2024

What does it mean to be a Watchmen on the wall

Answered By: Nicholas Hill Date: created: Jul 03 2024

Watchmen on the Wall: Pastors Prepare to Take Back America O n the evening of May 21, a group of fifty pastors stood soaking wet in the Capitol rotunda, undeterred by the rainstorm outside. Beneath the giant painting Baptism of Pocahontas, David Barton, an evangelical advocate for what he believes is the besieged Christian heritage of the United States, was holding forth on the nation’s spiritual history.

  1. Pocahontas, he was saying, really wanted to be known by the Christian name Rebecca, but America’s politically correct textbooks insist on calling her Pocahontas.
  2. President James Garfield, he continued, preached one day and 34 people accepted Jesus as their savior.
  3. The Capitol building’s Statuary Hall used to be a chapel, he added, and remember, “This is a government building.” Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) walked up and hugged Sen.

Ted Cruz’s father, Rafael, who was in the group, murmuring his ‘Amens’ as Barton spoke. When he gets discouraged with the state of politics or the country, Lee said, he likes to make a late night pilgrimage though the Rotunda and look at all the paintings and statues to be reminded of America’s early religious life.

  • That really is what the American dream is all about,” he said.
  • We are a shining city on a hill but we have to resume acting like that shining city.” The group applauded, and then closed their tour with a blessing for the country: “God Bless America,” they sang, many with hands outstretched and eyes closed in prayer.

The pastors had come to the nation’s capital as part of the annual “Watchmen on the Wall” Washington briefing, a conference sponsored by the Family Research Council to connect pastors with policy makers and legislators and to encourage the pastors to advocate for those Biblical values FRC believes should be advanced in America.

  1. This year’s event, held May 21-23, marked the 11th year of the program, and more than 650 people from a total of 42 states attended, including 500 pastors and their wives.
  2. Nearly half were repeat participants, and most come from conservative or evangelical congregations.
  3. Watchmen on the Wall is FRC’s network of 28,000 pastors nationwide.

A “Watchman” pastor is one who has committed to watch what goes on in the culture, pray for wisdom to engage the culture and sound the alarm of perceived cultural transgressions from the pulpit. The group gets its name from a passage in the Old Testament book of Isaiah: “I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night.

  1. You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest.” This year’s briefing focused on defending the idea that marriage only should exist between a man and woman and on countering what many conservative Christians believe are widespread attacks on Christian religious liberty.
  2. There is an all-out assault on Biblical marriage, with judges overturning the will of the vast majority of voters in some states Religious organizations and Christian-owned businesses are being forced to provide insurance plans that cover abortions and abortion-inducing drugs or face fines and punishmentand the list goes on,” FRC president Tony Perkins wrote in a welcome letter to attendees.

“It would appear that lawlessness has been unleashed upon our country and culture as we witness an unprecedented and outrageous abuse of power by governing authorities.” The conference brought together 46 speakers, including Duck Dynasty’s Al Robertson, Sen.

Ted Cruz’s father Rafael, Franklin Graham, Tony Evans, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), and Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI). Pastors pay $199 to attend, and FRC pays an additional $800 per pastor, bringing this year’s total cost to near half a million dollars. But all of that is worth it, organizers say, to guide Americans toward what the FRC says is the correct Biblical path.

“The cure is to be found in a return to the God of the Bible,” explained Perkins. “Now, more than ever, America’s Bible-preaching pastors must serve as the spiritual catalysts for this radical return to God, first in the Church and then as the leaders on the front lines of our communities in this struggle for the heart and soul of America.” The conference walks the line between prophetic ministry and political engagement.

  1. Watchmen provides pastors with a Voter Impact Toolkit, created by FRC, Focus on the Family, and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, designed to get like-minded believers to the ballot box.
  2. FRC also provides pastors with a Culture Impact manual, with policy goals including action steps like, “Do not misuse civil rights laws to protect homosexual conduct and gender identity disorder.” The pastors, for their part, say they are grateful for these practical resources and for the encouragement the event gives them to press on with their goals.

Jack Hibbs, founder and pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, Calif., has been involved with the Watchmen movement since the beginning. He worries the United States has become a nation of intolerance for Christians, especially when it comes to changing public opinion about sexuality.

  • His church helped to file a referendum to repeal California’s AB1266, commonly called the transgender bathroom law.
  • As pastors, we need to stand up for what’s right,” he says.
  • I’m not here to make this a Christian nation, but I believe that freedom should be for everybody.” J.C.
  • Church, pastor of Victory in Truth Ministries in northeastern Ohio, helped to develop Awake88, a pastoral network throughout all of Ohio’s 88 counties, and is reaching out to the state’s Latino community.

Church, like others in the Watchmen leadership, see Latino evangelicals as key allies in their fight, especially given their shared views on the nature of the family. “There is an absolute undeniable attack and a hostility toward Christianity, we have a double standard, tolerance is supposed to be a two-way street,” he says.

“We believe that anything that threatens the biblical definition of family, faith, and freedom, are the things that we are finding that pastors will meet and work together on.” The Watchmen views may be unpopular as the country increasingly supports marriage equality and believes religion is losing its public influence, but that’s all the more reason the Watchmen are gearing up for a fight, the pastors say.

For many of them, the battle goes beyond politics: it is spiritual warfare. As senior FRC fellow E.W. Jackson preached to the gathering, the ACLU and the Foundation for the Freedom from Religion, in trying to stop Christian prayer at public events, represent a movement “not simply human beings who disagree with us—it is demonic power moving to shut down the power of God.” Sen.

  1. Tim Scott (R-SC) reminded the group that their place in the country is still significant.
  2. The foundation of the American dream is the Judeo-Christian foundation,” he said.
  3. But if our pastors don’t ignite our pews we may lose this unique anointing we have as a country.” FRC hopes to grow the Watchmen to 40,000 pastors by 2015, just as the battle for the White House begins to heat up.

“They may call us racists, Uncle Toms and what they will, but Jesus said, ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you,'” Jackson said. “You have read the back of the Book like I have—you know that we win.” The auditorium leapt to its feet in applause.

Asked By: Carlos Thomas Date: created: May 05 2024

What does quis custodiet ipsos custodes meaning

Answered By: Cody Gonzales Date: created: May 08 2024

Latin for “who will guard the guards themselves?” Generally used to describe a situation in which a person or body having power to supervise or scrutinise the actions of others, is not itself or themselves subject to supervision or scrutiny. An example, cited by Lord Justice Toulson in the case of R (Guardian News and Media Ltd) v City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court EWCA Civ 420 ; QB 618 at, is the courts themselves: “Open justice.

The words express a principle at the heart of our system of justice and vital to the rule of law. The rule of law is a fine concept but fine words butter no parsnips. How is the rule of law itself to be policed? It is an age old question. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes —who will guard the guards themselves? In a democracy, where power depends on the consent of the people governed, the answer must lie in the transparency of the legal process.

Open justice lets in the light and allows the public to scrutinise the workings of the law, for better or for worse. Jeremy Bentham said in a well known passage quoted by Lord Shaw of Dunfermline in Scott v Scott AC 417, 477: ‘Publicity is the very soul of justice.

  1. It is the keenest spur to exertion and the surest of all guards against improbity.
  2. It keeps the judge himself while trying under trial.'” Another example (in some ways related) is the power of the press to hold public figures to account.
  3. Who holds the press to account? It can’t be the government, because that would threaten the potential for the press to hold it to account.

It can’t be the courts, because open justice depends on scrutiny by the press acting (in theory) as the “eyes and ears of the public”. Attempts to create a credible regulatory regime, following the recommendations of the Leveson Inquiry, have not, as yet, proved successful.