Watchmen and Philosophy
A Rorschach Test
Chapter One
THE SUPERMAN EXISTS,
AND HE'S AMERICAN:
MORALITY IN THE FACE
OF ABSOLUTE POWER
Christopher Robichaud
The Son of a Watchmaker
We've all heard the Spider-Man saying "With great power
comes great responsibility." But what kind of responsibility
comes with absolute power? In the world of Watchmen,
a freak accident turns physicist Jonathan Osterman into
Dr. Manhattan, a kind of "superman" who is able to perceive
events atemporally, live indefinitely, manipulate matter at its
most basic level, and travel unaided to distant worlds. In short,
there's very little Dr. Manhattan wants to do that he can't do.
And this puts him in a rather unique position. Dr. Manhattan
doesn't just have great power, he has a whole different magnitude
of power, a kind of hyper-power that makes him, in the
estimation of the esteemed Professor Milton Glass, more or
less a god on Earth. God's American, too-and ... read full excerpt from: Watchmen and Philosophy: A Rorschach Test ebook
