Watchmen and Philosophy: A Rorschach Test

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: They Left It Entirely in My Hands ix

Introduction: A Rorschach Test 1

PART ONE

THE POLITICS OF POWER: WHO WATCHES THE WATCHMEN?

1 The Superman Exists, and He’s American: Morality in the Face of Absolute Power 5
Christopher Robichaud

2 Can We Steer This Rudderless World? Kant, Rorschach, Retributivism, and Honor 19
Jacob M. Held

3 Super-Vigilantes and the Keene Act 33
Tony Spanakos

4 Superheroes and Supermen: Finding Nietzsche’s Übermensch in Watchmen 47
J. Keeping

PART TWO

THE VEIDT PLAN: WATCHMEN AND ETHICS

5 Means, Ends, and the Critique of Pure Superheroes 63
J. Robert Loftis

6 The Virtues of Nite Owl’s Potbelly 79
Mark D. White

7 Rorschach: When Telling the Truth Is Wrong 91
Alex Nuttall

PART THREE

THE METAPHYSICS OF DR. MANHATTAN

8 Dr. Manhattan, I Presume? 103
James DiGiovanna

9 A Timely Encounter: Dr. Manhattan and Henri Bergson 115
Christopher M. Drohan

10 Free Will and Foreknowledge: Does Jon Really Know What Laurie Will Do Next, and Can She Do Otherwise? 125
Arthur Ward

11 I’m Just a Puppet Who Can See the Strings: Dr. Manhattan as a Stoic Sage 137
Andrew Terjesen

PART FOUR

THIS IS NOT YOUR FATHER’S COMIC BOOK

12 “Why Don’t You Go Read a Book or Something?” Watchmen as Literature 157
Aaron Meskin

13 Watchwomen 173
Sarah Donovan and Nick Richardson

14 Hooded Justice and Captain Metropolis: The Ambiguously Gay Duo 185
Robert Arp

15 What’s So Goddamned Funny? The Comedian and Rorschach on Life’s Way 197
Taneli Kukkonen

CONTRIBUTORS: Who Writes about the Watchmen? 215

INDEX: After the Masquerade 221