Novel Report - Watchmen

The book that I will be doing a report on is called Watchmen, a twelve-issue comic book series published by DC Comics and written by Alan Moore. It was published during 1986 and 1987 and then reprinted into a graphic novel. It was adapted into a film by Zack Snyder on March 2009.

The story begins when an ex-superhero was killed in his apartment, that superhero was The Comedian. The police had no leads of who killed him, which is why Rorschach, a superhero vigilante, decides to investigate further. The story focus mainly on four ex-superheroes; Nite Owl II, Silk Spectre II, Doctor Manhattan and Ozymandias. Rorschach thinks that he has discovered a plot to terminate all superheroes, he then tells his superhero comrades, but no one believes him. When Doctor Manhattan was on television, he was accused of giving cancer to his friends, he then decides to teleport himself to Mars. Ozymandias, now a successful business man, was almost killed by an assassin. When Rorschach knew that, he was sure that there was really a plan to terminate all superheroes.Silk Spectre and Nite Owl decides to don their costume and resume being superheroes, but they are seen as costumed vigilante by civilians. Nite Owl and Rorschach discovers evidence that Ozymandias is behind the plan to eradicate the superheroes. The pair then confronts Ozymandias in his retreat at the Antarctic. Ozymandias than explains his plans, but it was not the same plan that Rorschach thought it would be. Ozymandias plan is to save humanity from impending Atomic war between the United States and the Soviet Union by faking an alien invasion in New York City, which will annihilate half of the population of New York City. He hopes this will unite the nations against a common enemy. It is also revealed that it was him that murdered The Comedian, and staged the attempt on his own life. Rorschach and Nite Owl tries to stop him but they soon discovered that he had already enacted his plan. The bomb killed half of the population of New York, as for the result, the world agrees to unite and cooperate against this new threat, just like Ozymandias planned it to be. The superheroes decide to conceal the truth about Ozymandias to prevent chaos, but Rorschach refuses to accept it and plans to reveal the truth to the world, but Doctor Manhattan kills him.

The novel really touched me because it is original, it is not like other superhero story that the bad guys wants to rule the world and the hero tries to stop him. The story is more deep and darker and reveals what a life would be willing to do to save another person's life. That is why I thought that the book was good.

If I had to do a sequel to this story, it would go like this; Nite Owl struggles by the facts that he knows what really happens to New York City and cannot live with himself. He then decides to go on national television to reveal what really happens. When the truth was revealed, the world eventually went to chaos, and the government decides to execute all superheroes for what they have done. By doing so, Ozymandias decides to launch a second nuclear bomb on New York City, but this time, it annihilates all of the United States. By discovering what he has done, Ozymandias could not live with himself, he then puts a bullet in his head and dies. The story ends as Doctor Manhattan watches New York City burning down by the bomb and tells himself: '' Humans really are disgusting.''