Moral Hero and Immoral World: A Study of Ethics in Watchmen

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2,7, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Department of English and Linguistics), course: Reading American Comics, language: English, abstract: Watchmen belongs to the most complex comics ever published by DC Comics and tackles a grand variety of themes on a tectonical level. This paper will particular shed light on the actions and conduct of Veidt and Rorschach. By doing so, it will discuss whether their behavior is - according to our Western system of values - morally and ethically sustainable. Another question this paper will touch upon is to which degree both characters deconstruct our classical notion of the superhero.