When looking at Watchmen today, readers may not recognize how politically and socially significant this comic-style novel truly is. It was originally released as separate comics during the late Cold War era. Our nation was living in a time of nuclear threat, post-Vietnam politics, political disasters such as JFK’s assassination and Watergate. This novel reflects many of the issues that the U.S. was facing in the time it was written.

What I like about Watchmen is how it approaches the “superhero” genre with such an interesting approach. It establishes that superheroes are hiding out from the government, and Moore gives off the impression that these particular superheroes are just psychotic humans. We can see this present with Rorschach, who can either be interpreted as a brilliant man that understands the way society works, or as a deranged lunatic who must act out as a result of his mothers’ poor nurturing. All of the characters are just regular people with corrupt pasts except Dr. Manhattan.

Dr. Manhattan holds God-like powers and he is the United States’ greatest asset in the war. He represents how science has triumphed over ethics, and it is especially important that he was once human. Over the course of the story he loses almost everything that makes him human, creating a disconnection between humans and God.

In the end, the superheroes try to stop war by putting an Alien in the middle of Manhattan. Millions of people die, and I am not sure whether we are supposed to think that this was successful or not. The book ends with Rorschach’s journal potentially being found, rendering everything the superheroes did pointless. Is the nuclear apocalypse inevitable?