As a former-comic-book fan (not of Western comics, however) I was interested to begin reading Watchmen as I was familiar with how famous it was, but not its content (other than the bloody smiley face). As I progressed through the graphic novel, what struck me most was how I found myself reacting to certain panels. As Rosen discusses, Rorschach’s opening, “The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood” (Moore 1) made me feel as though I was seeing something different than Rorschach was viewing. I was uncomfortable, I will admit, but the amount of blood in the comic (though I’m not particularly squeamish) but while I found myself unsure of Rorschach – with his hatred of sex, violence, and crime – and his perspective, I also found myself thinking, comforted, “This man knows what he’s after.”

I noticed that in the third panel on page, in the top right-hand corner, where Rorschach describes  the “filth of all their sex and murder [will] foam[ing] up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout…” (1) a similarity not just in the language in the Book of Revelation, but linked (to me) to the Whore of Babylon and her cup of fornication. It is interesting how even if one were to miss the direct similarity between Rorschach’s language and the Old Testament, his own personal story of a boy who grew up amidst dirt, scum, and prostitution – someone that many, I think, would assume would grow up to be the most amoral of all people – there are plenty of obvious ties in Rorschach’s life and development that don’t only remind me of the Bible, but of John, the author of the Book of Revelation. There is this anti-sex, anti-sexual quality to Rorschach, which is both almost childlike and disturbingly adult in its hard view of how things “should” be and how things “are.”

Despite Rorschach being only one of three people that Rosen calls Moore’s “deities,” I did notice that a sexually detached element is visible in all of them. While Doctor Manhattan does make love, and seems to experience romantic feelings (or at least did as a human), he is unable to connect fully with the women in his life, at least for a longer period. This seems to be due to the fact that he’s out of time, displaced, but also that he finds it difficult to stay the same, too, while people age. This is evidenced by his fight with Janey Slater, when she accuses him of liking Jupiter because she’s younger, and Dr. Manhattan’s voice-over says, “It’s true. She’s aging more noticeably every day….”

I also found that Ozymandias to be slightly asexual in a large part of his depiction. This contrasts starkly to a character like The Comedian, whom Rorschach identified as being closest to him, and his heavy, almost cruel sexual penchant. Though I do think The Comedian possessed a cold, hard view of the world similar to Rorschach’s, it is interesting that one seemed to exclude sexuality entirely and one used it in ways that led to destruction and dehumanization.