Continuing our look back over our favourite Alan Moore moments, resident writer Will Pond chooses from the comic book equivalent of Sgt Pepper’s; Watchmen. It was bound to come up.
Rorshach’s Death
The Alan Moore moment that really comes to my mind for me is Rorschach’s death at the end of Watchmen; so many issues that are integral to the book and the sheer complexity of Rorschach’s character are wrapped up in this one gripping scene. Moore rips apart the hero/villain stereotype as ‘a hero’ (and I use that term lightly) has to die at the hand of another hero to let a ‘would be’ villain’s plans go un-exposed, try getting your head around that after a few!
Dr Manhattan’s final action in this scene really shows his character, his lack of emotion leads him to make the most informed decision regardless of human life, consequence, or ‘what is right’ – but that phrase drowns in deep murky waters all the way through Watchmen. Even though Rorschach is a deranged and violent killer I would still dare anyone to read this scene and not feel even a little choked up, this is the skill and brilliance of Moore’s writing. Rorschach may be all the things I listed above but he still stood for what he believed in and made a memorable last stand in front of Dr Manhattan, accepting he didn’t have a chance of surviving.
Join us again tomorrow! Editor Joe Innes will tell you ALL about how utterly horrified he was by Neonomicon #2 (and why that was a good thing).
