Notes on drafting thesis

1. What is the fundamental difference in the portrayal of vigilantes in the 80’s iconic comic books The Dark Knight Returns and The Watchmen?

2. How are Batman and Ozymandius similar?

3. How are Superman and Dr. Manhattan similar?

4. How did the authors of TDKR and Watchmen re-envision superheroes in response to the political climate of the 80’s?

1. In the 80’s readers saw a shift in the portrayal of the iconic heroes Batman and Superman. Batman, in the hands of writer Frank Miller, moved from the driven detective envisioned by 50’s creator Bob Kane to a noir-like brooding near sociopath. Superman also transformed, darkening to match the sinister feel of the Dark Knight by losing his power as a symbol of American pride in truth and justice; he became just a simple tool for government to further it’s own political agenda.

Later, almost in response to the new standard set by Miller, Alan Moore released his epic The Watchmen which for the first time attempted to honestly look at what the real world integration of vigilantes and superheroes would do to American society.

(There are characteristic similarities between Moore’s Ozymandius to Miller’s Batman that are also mirrored in the comparisons that can be drawn between Moore’s Dr. Manhattan and Miller’s Superman.)

2. In Ozymandius and Batman the reader is introduced to normal men driven to not just fix a governmental system that no longer works, but to destroy it completely to allow for the creation of a new system of justice.

3. In Dr. Manhattan and Superman the reader sees how a character with inhuman, nearly Godlike, abilities is subsumed by the ruling government to further it’s own political agenda.

4.
Frank Miller-
-using iconic pre-existing characters
-changing their world from a static mirror world to include segments of reality for political satire

Alan Moore
-creating new characters that parody pre-existing characters
-establishing them in our world but shifting it into the hypothetical to encompass the affects of their influence