Table of Contents
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 Power5 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 DoOtherwise? 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
