In Watchmen, a graphic novel by Alan Moore, we see a number of motifs arise that mimic the themes of the Apocalypse. These redundant themes uphold the strong consciousness and prevalence of apocalyptic phenomena in our contemporary culture.

Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen, serves as a very important and Godlike figure. He is capable of controlling the future and has a magical ability to transform or dictate another person’s reality. The connection to Godlike sovereignty is highly suggested throughout this book. He is able to teleport himself to Mars when he feels that his presence on Earth has sparked too much chaos; he can duplicate himself, is able to predict the future, and can control any preordained circumstances. May of his qualities and experiences resonate with those of God. Like Jesus, he is disassembled and his presence lives on through “ghosts” on Earth, which parallels God’s Reappearing. Even the positioning of his death mimics that of Jesus’ crucifixion on the cross. Interestingly enough, Dr, Manhattan is broken down by scientific means, an art of man, while Jesus is believed to have been killed by the hand of man. Perhaps this technical change is suggestive of scientific progression, which provides a nexus to our manmade end. Coincidentally, Dr. Manhattan is also called upon to save the people of Earth from the destructive war, as God is depended upon to save the faithful during the Final Judgment.

Moreover, Moore’s plot of the Missile Crisis and the onset of nuclear war is yet another element that resonates with doomsday criteria, particularly that of violence as characterized by Strozier as one of the “seven seals of fundamentalism”. We already know that the destructive and omnipotent nature of nuclear war is essentially a human demonstration of God’s apocalyptic end. It amazes me how a comic book can be founded upon such a controversial and religious concept, and saturated with so many accompanying particulates. Much like writers Michael Moorcok and Dylan Horrocks, I too marvel at Moore’s “ability to take a trashy formula or forgettable character and shape them into something fresh, profound, and beautiful- while at the same time managing to impart a genuinely respectful sense of what was precious about the original.” (Rosen 1)
Upon first reading Moore’s text, I had a predetermined mindset about comic books. Being someone who is not so familiar with the intricacies and symbolic details that comic strips may contain regarding society, I assumed that Watchmen was simply a comical take on the apocalypse. However, much to my surprise I quickly learned that a unique version of apocalyptic genre is embedded at the core of this novel. Scattered all throughout Moore’s book are themes of good vs. evil; we see this when superheroes are battling the evil criminals of the city. Its interesting that such an essential theme which has come to signify the more specific categories of faithful fundamentalists vs. religious dissenters and nonbelievers, can be relegated to such simple representations in comic strips.

Another unique feature of Moore’s comic strip is its ability to convey issues of pending importance (as some would say), in the form of panels. Making use of this idea of “closure”, as coined by Rosen to indicate the close relationship between text and image. I definitely agree that panels and pictures essentially “have no fixed meaning”, as they can signify violence and annihilation to a greater degree than some predicted through words; simultaneously, these pictures can just also downplay the level of seriousness of this issue altogether. As these panels serve to manipulate time and space into one entity, they again mimic the wavering imbalance between kairotic time and the psychological version of time that endists rebel against and ignore altogether.(Strozier,113) By manipulating time and place and redefining the dimensionality on a literal and metaphysical scale, it becomes apparent that no answers are direct and the apocalypse loses all sense of linearity. Hence, the incorporation of these panels further embody Rosen’s idea that in the wake of postmodern versions of the apocalypse, “endings become beginnings and vice versa. Absolute beginnings and endings disappear.” (xxiv)

This blatant resonance of postmodern apocalypse and fundamental apocalypse leads me to wonder whether the comic strip novel is a more appropriate medium for the expression of this phenomenon Perhaps, the closure conveyed by the panels, and the manipulation of abstract elements allows these ideas to reach a wider audience in our current society, one which so heavily relies on a balance between levity and fear. A comic series seems to be a very efficient way to reproduce this balance.