America has been home to many amazing stories, but perhaps the greatest of them is Watchmen by Alan Moore. This story takes place in a reimagined version of the Cold War, and follows the tale of various members of the superhuman community as they deal with the loss of one of their own. Despite the retired status of the majority of these individuals, their existence still serves to severely influence the world. Watchmen’s unique use of size helps to evince the distance between these amazing individuals and the people they protect.

The opening scene of Watchmen provides the image of a detective leaning out of a window at a minuscule corpse splayed out on the cement below. This panel gives the reader their first view of the superhero known as the Comedian, one of the few government-sanctioned heroes employed by the United States government. The over-the-shoulder view provided by this panel induces vertigo like feelings in the reader, showing the height from which the Comedian fell. This fall is used to represent the fall from greatness that the Comedian experienced. During his life he carried with him an immense presence, but in his death, he was reduced to nothing more than a stain on the sidewalk, ignored by the people he once protected as they carry on with their daily lives. Furthermore, by depicting the Comedian as a small stain of red on the cement, Moore deemphasizes the importance of the character. While his death is without a doubt the focus of the shot, he is nearly invisible in the shot, with the focus instead being on the detective. This shift in focus exemplifies how the dynamics of the hero has changed, with his death he has gone from being a hero, to mattering almost nothing to his fellow man. 

In Watchmen, there is only one individual who truly stands above all others, and his name is Dr. Manhattan. As the only true super powered individual in the series, and in all reality a veritable deity, Dr. Manhattan offers a unique view into the value of humanity. In this panel, Dr. Manhattan is depicted as a giant, physically towering over even his fellow superhero Rorschach. This size difference is used to evince the vast difference between him and his fellow man. Revealing Dr. Manhattan at such a size gives the readers given a better sense of the unimaginable abilities that he has, and how truly separate he is from the rest of humanity. When Rorschach reveals the Comedian to be dead, the excellent use of color scheme in the scene is used to highlight the emotions that each character feels. By depicting Dr. Manhattan in a light shade of blue, a color usually associated with calmness, the artist evinces Dr. Manhattan’s lack of interest in the death of his friend, further highlighting the distance between himself and the rest of humanity. The next character that the audience’s eye is drawn to is Laurie, Dr. Manhattan’s wife, depicted in this scene in varying shades of red. These vibrant shades of red, a color that evinces feelings of passion and anger, represent the emotional shock that she experience upon hearing of the Comedian’s death. This response humanizes Laurie as the only member of the superhuman community who retains her humanity. Finally, there is Rorschach, depicted in shades of grey, the readers are privy to the lack of concern that he has for his fallen comrade. Ultimately revealing that even though he has no superhuman abilities, he still lacks any form of humanity evincing his lack of attachment to his fellow man. Ultimately, power creates separation, and by giving these individuals this power, society separated them from the people they were charged with protecting.

The next member of the superhuman community introduced to the reader is Ozymandias, the so-called world’s smartest man of the Watchmen universe. In this panel, the audience is shown a view of Ozymandias standing in his office beside his desk staring out at the city below. The first aspect of this image that catches the eye of the reader is how large Ozymandias looks in comparison to the city in the background. By using this perspective, the artist emphasizes the importance of Ozymandias compared to the insignificant populace that he looks out over. The next item in the panel that draws the attention of the reader are the golden statues of Ozymandias sitting on the desk. These smaller effigies to Ozymandias evince the larger-than-life nature of the character as a whole, and help to demonstrate how far his abilities have taken him from the rest of humanity. The final key element of this panel is the prevalent use of the colors gold and purple. These colors, historically strongly associated with ideas of royalty and nobility, make up nearly the entirety of the scene as well as Ozymandias himself. By using these colors to introduce the character, the artist further points to the significance of the character overall. Despite the lack of supernatural abilities, Ozymandias has truly risen to stand far above his fellow man.

Ultimately, there is nothing that truly separates an individual from the heroes that they worship. No matter how fancy a mask someone puts on, underneath it they are still only human. Through its unique use of size, Watchmen highlights the vast gap that separates these heroes from the people they protect.
