Chapter 172: Flawed Heroes II
The second half starts of with Nite Owl or specifically Nite Owl II by story importance.
Nite Owl is a retired hero. He dressed like an owl and used gadgets to fight crime. Like Rorschach, he is also Batman-esque with a different set of problems and flaws of his own.
Given that he is retired, he only finds it embarrassing when he looks back on it. He realized that punching criminals doesn't actually make the world any better. The costumes and gadgets were just a childish fantasy.
For most of the story, Nite Owl is just Dan. In his 40s, gained weight, and was generally not happy. Rorschach does warn him of a conspiracy and the threat of war but Dan feels powerless to face these dangers.
He feels lonely, useless, impotent. He wants to be with Silk Spectre Laurie but he's awkward and unconfident. When they try to have sex, Dan can't get it up, he knows something is missing from his life.
However, he, along with Laurie, does find and rediscover the excitement of being heroes. They get back into costumes, help Rorschach out.
The power, danger, and the fun of it all spark magic in their Nite Owl and Silk Spectre relationship. So superheroes are silly and childish but there is also a hidden meaning to them.
Dan eventually writes an essay about ornithology, the scientific study of birds. He says sometimes science loses the beauty of poetry and nature. Meaning there's no point in life in being rational and sensible all the time.
People need wonder, romance, and silliness because it's fun and brings people together.
Dan and Laurie fell in love from that and embraced their heroic identities to face the looming threat of nuclear war.
Out of all the mess that their other compatriots were on throughout the entire Watchmen run, only the Dan and Laurie duo find happiness despite their troubles.
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Of course, Laurie still has a messy story of her own. Despite her being the most normal person among the superheroes. She never really wanted to be a superhero but her mother Sally was the original Silk Spectre and pushed her into becoming one.
Just like the beauty pageant mother-daughter dynamic, Laurie was trained by her mother to continue her mantle. Like how parents unwittingly control the career of their children, the Silk Spectre family faces the same set of problems.
Laure does hate the Comedian as he is the one who tried to rape her mom but it turns out that her mother loves the Comedian anyway. As it also revealed, the most despicable Comedian is Laurie's father.
When she finally finds out about this, her whole world seems to have collapsed. She struggles to keep calm to herself as her life seems to have become much messier and darker.
Everything she knew wasn't what it seemed. It was a revelation and a loss of innocence for Laurie and turns back to the meaning of the bloodstain on the smiley face.
Overall, Laurie's character isn't as deeply explored as the other characters, however, this story design is also another rib on female superheroes and how superhero comic publishers portray them.
Laurie and Sally are largely defined by their sexuality and relationships with men. So depictions of women are one comic trope that Watchmen does so little to try and subvert.
In the end, Laurie along with Dan, Dr. Manhattan, and Rorschach discovers a much deeper controversy that the looming threat of nuclear war. It just so happen to be masterminded by the last Watchmen to be discussed- Ozymandias.
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Ozymandias is Adrain Veidt. Another retired hero and said to be the smartest man on Earth. Like some of the 'smartest' man comic tropes before him, Veidt is an ambitious, super-rich, super arrogant dude who wants to be like Alexander the Great and the Egyptian pharaohs.
His dream is to unite the world under his design. Veidt realized that superheroes couldn't save the world from nuclear war, so instead, he hatched a crazy plan.
He put a bunch of scientists and artists on a secret island and genetically engineered a giant squid ink monster. He kills the Comedian when the Comedian finds out about his plan. He uses a cancer hoax to get rid of Manhattan, frames Rorschach to get him jailed, and he hires an assassin unto himself to throw off suspicion, and finally teleport the giant squid monster to New York, killing 3 million people.
He made sure to get rid of people that would hinder him, erased traces of his potential involvement, and made it look like aliens attack to scare the world into ending the Cold War, uniting humanity, and bringing peace on Earth.
It's a crazy supervillain plan but it actually succeeds. America and Russia are so freaked out by the supposed alien that they signed a peace treaty.
Rorschach, Silk Spectre, Nite Owl, and Dr. Manhattan fail to stop Ozymandias and save millions of people- so much for the so-called superheroes.
The villain-esque Ozymandias saves the world, not by punching anyone or using superpowers but by science, determination, and the psychopathic willingness to kill 3 million people. He made the big decision while he is in a position alike to the Trolley Problem.
He saved the world at a terrible cost- so is he truly a hero or a villain?
Throughout Watchmen, there's a comic book within a comic book, The Tales of the Black Freighter. It tells the story of a sailor who tries to save his town from an apocalyptic pirate ship but he ends up killing innocent people and becoming just as evil as what he tried to prevent,
Noble intentions led him to atrocity just like Ozymandias plan. At the end of Watchmen, Ozymandias has a dream of the Black Freighter and he is alone and separate from the world.
Like the sailor, Ozymandias is marooned from the rest of humanity because of the evil he did. However, Ozymandias says that someone had to take the weight of that awful, necessary crime.
Maybe one can see Ozymandias' plan as a heroic self-sacrifice. He did the terrible necessary crime so no one else had to. Or… one can say he's a delusional, egomaniacal, mass-murdering psychopath. A person who represents the criticism of rich people having way too much power in the world in the first place.
Does Ozymandias really care about saving people or is he just serving his pride and ambition? Philosophically, his plan is utilitarian, he kills 3 million people to save the entire world… so that the good outweigh his evil.
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In any case, the deconstruction of superhero or superhuman characters is still present, and how it all subverts everything that current 1980s heroes stand for.
From the Comedian to Ozymandias, they were the flawed version of heroes and a much deeper introspection of what the superhero genre could be. Smiling optimism can be stained with blood as well and the comic book industry is about to know that.
Since DC Comics along with Alan Moore forced Alexander Creed into the spotlight, it was best that they get such a comeback that was all directed towards them.
The plundering of a magnum opus has just begun its first issue though but those affected by this array of flawed heroes have their work cut out for them already.