Alex Knapp at Heretical Ideas looks at the different moralities demonstrated by Watchmen's main characters: Comedian's nihilism, Ozymandias' utilitarianism, Rorschach's existentialism, and Nite Owl's eudaimonia. He writes that the book provides "a truly nuanced, insightful look into serious moral and ethical issues" and "plenty of food for thought:"
Watchmen is one of the richest, multi-layered works of art of the past thirty years. What on the surface appears to be a "deconstruction" of the superhero is really a layered look at ethics and other aspects of philosophy.
I ordinarily shy away from pop philosophy, but Watchmen is a work that warrants such scrutiny. Knapp's analysis is an intriguing one, and whets my appetite for William Irwin's book Watchmen and Philosophy.
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