In comics, it is never difficult to find a good villain to accompany each hero: Superman has Lex, Batman has the Joker and Space Ghost has Zorak. In fact, it's hard to find a classic comic book in which there is no clear protagonist and antagonist. Traditionally, there has always been a hero to fight his nemesis. However, in Alan Moore's Watchmen, there is no clear opponent for the heroes to face. Instead, we are set up with six central characters who spend most of the novel searching for the bad guy. Although each of the six is ​​almost completely unique, Watchmen's main heroes are presented in parallel pairs: Rorschach with Ozymandias, Dr. Manhattan with The Comedian, and Nite Owl II with the second Silk Spectre. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The most surprising of these couples is that of Rorschach and Ozymandias. While it most certainly seems like the two heroes – or more correctly called anti-heroes – are different in every way, they share one surprisingly similar trait. Rorschach is raised in the city's slums by his mother, a prostitute. He is an ugly, poor, reserved and almost worthless man. Even unable to pay his rent, he spends his days roaming New York City as a wandering, mute doomsday prophet holding a sign reading "The End is Near." After the passage of the Keene Act, Rorschach remains an active superhero in open defiance of the law. Ozymandias, on the other hand, is a handsome, rich, public and powerful man. When he loses his parents' fortune at the age of 17, he gives every penny he has to charity, only to get it all back with his own hands. In anticipation of the Keene Act, Ozymandias retired two years before the law was passed. While Ozymandias is a generous liberal, Rorschach is a quasi-fascist. At first glance, the two characters look nothing alike. However, the two anti-heroes firmly share a common belief: the end justifies the means. As a moral absolutist, Rorschach views every act as absolutely right or wrong, without regard to the context of the act. Consequently, he believes that all evil must be punished quickly and violently. This absolutism is reflected in his mask: the white and black patterns on the mask are always changing and transforming, but they remain completely separate at all times; there is never a gray area. A childhood fan of Harry S Truman, Rorschach admires the ability to make difficult, morally right decisions for the good of the people. Throughout the novel, we see that to acquire the information necessary to achieve a moral goal, Rorschach will unflinchingly snap the fingers of those he knows are in no way involved in the crime. It doesn't matter what you have to do to achieve your goal: the end justifies the means. Ozymandias has the same conviction, although he realizes it on a very different scale. To do what he believes is necessary to save humanity from itself, he gives several people cancer, murders many others, and ends up wiping out half of New York's population. However, he believes his actions are completely justified to end the Cold War and unite the world under one cause. While Rorschach commits a large number of relatively minor acts of violence throughout his life, Ozymandias spends several years preparing to carry out one gigantic act. However, the concept behind both characters' actions is the same. The parallels betweentwo are further suggested in "Chapter V: Fearful Symmetry", which focuses almost entirely on Rorschach and Ozymandias. This volume of the novel is perfectly symmetrical in almost every respect. That is, the first and last pages (and all corresponding pages in between) have perfectly mirrored panels, the same characters per page, and the same plot; the entire episode is perfectly split down the middle. Allowing readers to relate the two characters to each other, Moore depicts the two anti-heroes as complete opposites, although each attempts to perform acts that he believes will change humanity. In this regard, it's clear that Rorschach and Ozymandias are meant to be complete opposite characters in almost every way, except for this one, but overwhelming, trait. Another pair introduced to readers is that of Dr. Manhattan and the Comedian. These two heroes are the only ones in history who chose to keep their identities secret and register with the U.S. government after the passage of the Keene Act. Throughout the novel, the effects of one person's life provoke those of the other. The actor began his career as a vigilante very young, where his behavior was far from exemplary. After a meeting of a group of masked heroes, he attempts and fails to sexually assault the Silk Specter (whom we'll call Sally Jupiter for the sake of clarity). It is later discovered that the two later have an intimate relationship and that the Comedian is in fact the father of Sally's child Jupiter, who later becomes the second Silk Specter (which we will simply call the Silk Specter). . Manhattan, originally Jon Osterman, chose early as an adult to lead the life of an ordinary watchmaker, until his father pushed him to become a nuclear physicist. During his work in this profession, Jon is caught in a nuclear accident in an experimental test chamber and is transformed into the only true "superhero" in the novel - as he is the only one with powers truly superhuman. From there, Osterman is made into a hero by the US government due to his incredible abilities. Shortly after his transformation, Dr. Manhattan meets Silk Specter and begins an intimate relationship. After the passage of the Keene Act, the government teams up with Manhattan and The Comedian to help the United States win the war in Vietnam. Here, both heroes begin to feel alienated from the rest of humanity and begin to adopt the philosophy of nihilism, where they no longer believe in the morality of any action. The comedian shows this with his past sexual assault against Sally Jupiter as well as the murder of the mother of his unborn child in Vietnam. Dr. Manhattan's views are much more egregious, such as when he decides to go into exile on Mars during a time of potential nuclear annihilation of the planet during the Cold War. In fact, after deciding to let humanity decide its own destiny, the Silk Specter is the only one who can convince him to return to Earth and save the human race. Indeed, she is the only person who has ever been important to Manhattan (after her transformation), just as her mother, Sally Jupiter, was the only person who has ever been important to The Comedian. Although The Comedian and Dr. Manhattan seem like very different characters, they are surprisingly related. The final hero pairing in the novel is that of Nite Owl II (whom we'll simply call Nite Owl) and the Silk Specter, also known as Laurie Juspeczyk. The two are remarkably similar, and each appears to be the opposite sex of the other. Laurie begins her career as a crime fighter when she is practically forced into it by her mother. After Sally Jupiter retired,..