I agree with Moriah’s evaluation of the characters and morals (or lack there of) of the “heroes” in the first few chapters of The Watchmen. I also find it very interesting that, in most cases, the characters admit to their flaws. I think that their biggest weakness is that they put themselves in the shoes of superheroes but still view themselves as “only human”. Rather than accepting responsibilities as true “watchers” of and examples for the human race, they pretend to be superheroes because it makes them happy and then whine about the consequences.

Some of these human flaws are spelled out very directly on page 30 of Chapter 2 in an excerpt from the original Nite Owl’s book. He describes the various flaws of the team including sex fetishes, insanity, political extremity, etc. “… we were crazy, we were kinky, we were Nazis, all those things that people say.”

Overall, I think this book is a great study so far on what the world would be like if people tried to act like superheroes, but I do not consider it to be a book about actual superheroes. Perhaps one could even use this book as a study on why super heroes cannot exist.

Even Dr. Manhattan with his real “super” powers is an example of the improbability of super beings as heroes. Like we talked about in class on Tuesday, his omnipotent powers left him bored with humanity and even the rest of the universe. The idea that such a being would waste his time on Earth is not probable in the “real world” – a world in which The Watchman is clearly based.