Watchmen - Ordinary People as Superheroes

I would like to revisit and expand my previous post about the Watchmen. This time, I want to focus my attention on the main characters of the movie 

Superheroes have become a part of our lives. From a young age we hear about the stories of powerful figures, such as Superman and Wonder Women. All of these characters share a sense of justice and righteousness.  We all look up to them and wish to have their supernatural powers. Unfortunately, superheroes are extraordinary humans. Hence, they merely represent an ideological and unattainable image of the perfect individual.

 
In contrast, the superheroes of Watchmen are a group of ordinary citizens who came together to fight crime. They wore masks but had no admirable powers or abilities, were not indestructible, and did not possess unquestionable morals. They just wanted to help the city in the best way that they could. But, as regular people, they engaged in actions that were not necessarily the most appropriate. Instead, these heroes were morally tormented and even cruel at times.

I ask, why are the superheroes in Moore’s narrative different from all other superheroes? And even though they counter our expectations of heroes, why are viewers still interested in this movie? I really think that these characters trigger the contradicting emotions of fascination and discomfort because, of all the heroes, Watchmen gives us characters that most accurately mirror real life people.  They are fallible humans that struggle with their everyday decisions.

As a group, the characters could not reach an agreement on the appropriate course of action to stop crime and keep the peace. Rorschach was disgusted by the filthiness and horrors of the world, while at the same time violently killing murderers by feeding them to wild dogs. He held the truth as most sacred value and never compromised for the sake of righteousness. Nite Owl was passive, confused and scared. Most of the time, the conflicts in his head prevented him from taking any action. He preferred to alienate himself and just blend in with society.  Silk Spectre was consumed by her desperate search for love and affection. Adrian had Machiavellian beliefs and was willing to sacrifice anything and anyone as long as the end result seemed appropriate to him. There was only one character that obtained superhero-like powers, Dr. Manhattan. He became omnipotent through science, but paid the price of losing all empathy for humanity. Therefore, he was not a heroic figure as he had no inclination towards helping others.  As we can see, all of these characters vary in their personalities, struggles, and moral standards.

By creating superheroes that are conflicted ordinary people instead of non-achievable extraordinary humans, the story places the responsibility of the world’s condition on individuals. As the Watchmen heroes’ morals and actions dictated and affected the conditions of the world, it is also an individual responsibility to take action in order to make changes. In this sense, anyone can be a hero. Like them, we are flawed and unsure of how to achieve righteousness. But we should use moral reflection to guide our actions. Nite Owl and Rorschach had a discussion in which Nite Owl accuses Rorschach of hiding behind his mask. To that, Rorschach replies that at least he is not the one hiding in plain sight. The message seems clear to me. We must step up and be responsible for creating changes in the world.