I Might Have To Throw Out My Rorschach Shirt: A Watchmen Reevaluation

Between the fantastic HBO show and my new girlfriend who’s been gobbling up my comic collection, I felt compelled to re-read Watchmen. I want to make it clear that it will always be a masterpiece and that the Moore/ Gibbons team is genius. But goddamn if reading that comic as a 30-year-old had a very different feeling than doing so as a teenager. As recently as a year ago I was thinking of getting a Dr. Manhattan symbol as a tattoo, since he’s my favorite “True Neutral” character. Imagine my surprise when my girlfriend tells me he’s a child molester. “Excuse me? You shall not besmirch my big blue boy’s name”. Then I read it again and yep. Miss Juniper was a teenager when Dr. Manhattan was fucking with her. For a refresher, Watchmen is this ahead-of-its-time story about superheroes and their effect on a Cold War society. It’s very much like Superman: Red Sun in reverse. “God exists and he’s American”. If you’re not working for the government, then your ass is not superhero-ing. Now grant me some time to evaluate my impressions of the major characters and how it has changed upon engaging with the text as an adult. First, Rorschach. Rorschach reminds me of characters like the Joker and Rick from Rick and Morty. Even as a teenager I could understand that he was a man dwelling in toxic behavior but rocking a quirky personality. This made him compelling and downright consuming to a young (particularly cis/ heterosexual/ male) mind. There’s an appeal to reading a character who’s unc…