In the history of the comic book industry, there has been one book that has not only stood the test of time but also influenced the world outside of comics: Watchmen. One of the many things that makes Watchmen an iconic book is its use of various themes within the story. These themes vary anywhere from nostalgia to survival to even the decline of mankind. A specific theme however that carried predominantly across the entire book was the theme of a call to duty. Alan Moore made each character in Watchmen take this call of duty in their own different ways. Four of the characters that predominately made duty their main driving force behind their decisions were Nite Owl, Ozymandias, the Comedian, and finally Rorschach.
The first character in Watchmen that bases his life decisions based of a sense of duty would be Nite Owl. In the story Dan Dreiberg, also known as Nite Owl in Watchmen, understood that there was injustice in the world and that it was his duty to fight it. Because of his inheritance from his father, who was a wealthy banker, Dan Dreiberg was able to invest a lot of money into various technological advantages to assist his duty to take on some of the worst criminals out there. This changed once a law, the Keene Act, banned masked vigilantes from existence (Moore 18.1). Once the Keene Act gets put into effect, Dreiberg sees that society no longer wants masked heroes running around the streets to protect them. It is at this realization that Dreiberg knows that it his new duty to hang up the costume and proceed into a retirement. A responsibility, if you will, to uphold the laws the society has created.
Dan Dreiberg spends the next eight years trying to uphold his duty to society by no longer roaming the streets as Nite Owl. Dreiberg however is torn between his duties to the Keene Act that the United States put into effect, and also by his duty to protect society from the evils that the street thugs put onto the innocent. Alan Moore portrays this perfectly in a scene from chapter one of Watchmen.
In this scene, Rorschach is speaking with Dreiberg about how they used to be partners out on the streets protecting the innocent from criminals. Dreiberg attempts to take on a nostalgic approach to it and ask Rorschach: “Whatever happened to them?” As a reply Rorschach simply states that Dreiberg walked out on his duty to combat the evils of the world. In the last panel of this conversation between Dreiberg and Rorschach, Dan is simply sitting down looking defeated and torn by his choice of retiring.
This becomes an ongoing battle for Dreiberg until he decides that it is his responsibility and duty to society to take up the mantle of Nite Owl again. To sum, the theme of a call to duty in Watchman that Alan Moore implemented was highly evident through Dan Dreiberg.
The next character in Watchmen that portrayed the theme of a call to duty was Ozymandias, also known in the story as Adrian Veidt. In the story Veidt envisions himself essentially as a walking god among men. Veidt is known to all in Watchman as the smartest man in the entire world. Because of this fact, Veidt takes on a God complex and believes that it his duty to ensure that humanity does not kill itself. This is impeccably illustrated in chapter one of Watchman, where Moore wordlessly places Veidt his tower in the sky over looking the doomed society with a newspaper explaining the heightened friction between rival nations.
In Watchman, Moore creates a heightened Cold War tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. It is to the point in the story where everyone living in that war understands that a nuclear war starting is inevitable.
*spoiler alert*
In lieu of this war brewing, Veidt (through his narcissism) believes that the only way that humanity will stop its war with itself is through the usage of a common enemy. As a result of the sense of duty that Veidt feels he must comply to, Veidt begins and successfully completes a complex plot in which he creates an alien force to attack a major city in the United States killing millions.
The third character in Watchmen that uses duty as the main driving force behind his actions would be the Comedian, also known in the story as Edward Blake. Blake differs from the previous two mentioned characters in Watchman in the sense that he is a vigilante that works exclusively for the government instead of going into retirement after the Keene Act is put into effect.
Blake in the story is driven by his duty and allegiance to the United States and does whatever he needs to do to make sure that the United States always comes out on top. For example, Blake inserts himself into the Vietnam War because he understands the importance of making sure that the United States comes out a victor in the conflict. While in the conflict Blake’s sense of duty to his country makes him hold nothing back, murdering anyone who he perceives as a threat.
This is not only the only sense of duty that Blake feels however. In Watchmen, Blake chooses to name himself the Comedian. Blake chooses this name because:
Blake saw it his duty to show society that mankind was disintegrating and those trying to fix it were simply attempting to put a finger into a slowly cracking dam. To summarize, Eddie Blake’s overall sense of duty to his country and to showing society that they are heading towards the end of the line with no hope lead to all of his decisions that he made in the story.
The last character that Alan Moore created in Watchman that completely embodies the theme of a call to duty would be Rorschach. In the story Rorschach has the purest moral compass, meaning that he is without conviction that what he does is right. Rorschach describes his following of his creed as such:
Rorschach knows and sees that the justice system in the United States is full of flaws, letting criminals who deserve to be locked away from society free to roam the streets with little to no penalty. Rorschach unfortunately learned this lesson the hard way, witnessing a brutal end to a kidnapped little girl that he was searching for.
At this point, Rorschach galvanized his belief that criminals were to evil to put simply behind bars. Rorschach knows that it is his duty to do whatever he can to put a stop to the madness of the city.
Even though society banned vigilantes through the Keene Act, Rorschach’s sense of duty to protecting the innocent goes beyond what any law can put into place. Rorschach’s call to duty and moral compass is so pure that even in the face of inevitable death in chapter twelve, Rorschach still stands by his belief in doing what he knows to be right.
*Spoiler Alert*
By not compromising his view to tell the world of Veidt’s role in murdering millions, this ultimately lead to Dr. Manhattan murdering him.
All in all Watchmen held various, and at times complicated, themes within its many pages. It is because of this fact that Watchmen is known to all as one of the greatest graphic novels, and possibly one of the greatest pieces of literature, of all time. Be this as it may, the theme of a sense of duty is one that is predominantly shown throughout its entirety. Alan Moore personifies this theme though his four major characters Nite Owl, Adrian Veidt, the Comedian, and Rorschach. Even though the characters differ dramatically in what they perceive their sense of duty should be used for, it is this same duty that is the main driving force behind all of their actions throughout Watchmen.
Moore, Alan, and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. New York: DC Comics, 1987. Print.
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