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Merriam-Webster defines Nihilism as a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless (Merriam-Webster). This is a philosophy that is portrayed in The Watchmen repeatedly and quite obvious. One of Alan Moore’s character, The Comedian, says’ “its all a joke”. He is referring to the fact that the entire existence of human beings are based on greed, and power. This dark portrayal of this graphic novel is closely related to how our society is run by politicians and big corporations. Alan Moore’s graphic novel was written in the 80’s, which was a time when the Cold War was ending. Moore had pushed the envelop in re-creating a significant time in history where, “what if”, the cold was was engaged between two super power nations? “What if”, the entire human race becomes extinct? Moore gives us a window of a new beginning, where a society are run by the most intelligent and most powerful individuals.

Dr. Manhattan is portrayed as a superhero that is somewhat similar to Superman. However, Dr. Manhattan is involved in the violence of war where a superhero kills his enemies in order to fulfil his duties as a soldier. A soldier that realizes that the existence of human life is somewhat, insignificant. The character of Dr. Manhattan, realizes that he has understood the human nature and there is nothing left to learn to discover about human beings.

In Barne’s paper, he explains the frustration of Dr. Manhattan as he disconnects himself from his existing world and creates another one in Mars (56). It is evident that Dr. Manhattan has had enough of being told what to do and tired of being manipulated by the people around him. Barnes also explains “ He creates his own system, symbolized by the palace...crystalline palace becomes an image of timeless singularity and of a transpersonal, transmoral, transcendental perspective”(57).

It is quite amusing to see the layers and the symbolism in a graphic novel where superheroes abuse their powers. Sure we have seen good vs. bad, Superman vs Lex Luthor, Batman vs. Joker. For Alan Moore, he want to reach out to an audience that sees a closely paralleled universe of fiction and non-fiction universe. Superheroes are suppose to be a symbol of justice and equality among society. However, Moore broken the barriers of of how society looks at reality and the truth about politicians, corporations and government system. Alan Moore illustrating a message that we as a society should not be governed by power hungry leaders or the ideology of the monetary system.

As a society, we should not be praising individual or a system of individuals to run a democratic society. Is it a democratic nation to exist in a society that is pushing people to make money? How about claiming land and property? Is it a democratic society where people live below the poverty line? Would these people believe or comprehend the the philosophy of Nihilism?

Work Cited

Barnes, David. “Time in the Gutter: Temporal Structure in Watchmen”. KronoScope 1

Sep. 2009: 51-60. Print.

Merriam-Webster. merriam-webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2011.