Mercy is for liberals and commies.

Yeah, they definitely don't do that anymore though. SOme don't outright kill, but even Spidey beats people bloody before they go to jail, if they don't accidentally blow themselves up or something beforehand. So maybe Ditko won in the end? So glad Moore deconstructed this for what it was, which is also kind of weird, because I think I actually like Rorschach the best out of the Watchmen cast.

He was the only one I had any real sympathy for. He was seriously damaged, probably enough to be considered insane, i.e. not really able to differentiate right from wrong and unable to control his own actions.

The rest of them were just a bunch of total assholes.

I can't say I'm fond of most attempts to "deconstruct" superheroes; of course superheroes wouldn't work in real life, if it wasn't already obvious in the late 1980s it's obvious today. So I don't have a whole lot of use for "heroes" who are in it primarily to get a hit of action or attention; that's not telling me anything new. But yeah, I can get behind Rorschach to the extent that he's motivated by doing the right thing, as he perceives it.

Of the various major attempts to deconstruct superheroes, I say the best one was the first and yet it goes largely ignored: "Squadron Supreme". This was a Marvel comic about the Justice League (er, Squadron Supreme) taking over their world to restore order after calamity, then trying to improve the world, and arguably making it worse for their efforts. The storytelling is kind of clunky by 21st century standards, but what "Squadron Supreme" does right is it plays fair with our heroes: they genuinely try to be heroes even if they sometimes make mistakes or if they can be pushed to the point of bending their moral code. They even abandon their plans in the end, not because they were beaten in a fight, but because they are persuaded it's the right thing.

Mr. A's superpower is lecturing people. Seriously, 90% of each of his stories is just him droning on and on about how there are no gray areas and all evil is absolute and also how no bad person can be redeemed.

Luckily the world he lives in conforms perfectly to his opinions. All victims are angelic, blameless, and pure, all criminals are monsters with nothing to offer the world but evil.

Invariably the villain of each story ends up hanging from a ledge or something, always through a mistake of his own, and Mr. A has to choose between saving the criminal or saving an innocent, and doesn't hesitate for an instant to let the crook die. Then he spends the next nine panels talking about how great he is for doing that.

Of course, he's never placed in a situation where he actually has to choose whether or not to kill the villain himself. Ditko always softballs the moral choices to him by having the bad guy trip and fall off a cliff like a Disney villain.

I don't get the shame people have in thinking Rorschach the coolest. Its quite obvious he is. Despite being based on Mr. A he's still his own character and far superior. What makes Rorschach so cool is his determination. He's the only Watchman still actively involved in vigilante activity when the story starts and he's the only one aware of a sinister plot at hand. Rorschach doesn't lecture the bad guys, he beats them up and kills them brutally if need be. What he does to them doesn't come from preachy morals, just his own intense rage.

I'm pretty sure Moore made him "the coolest" on purpose just to prove how easy it is to dupe nerds into rooting for fascist bigots.

Fascist bigots can be among the good guys. If you're rooting against Rorschach because of his views you're missing the point of the story. Being a right wing conspiracy nut made the whole story possible. Without him Ozzy would have giant squidded the world unopposed.

It just occurred to me Libya 2 that your dislike of Rorschach puts you in agreement with Ditko. In the Watchmen Rorschach is fighting to stop the murder of vigilantes and then learns he's also fighting to stop the murder of millions, but you don't like him because he's flawed. He's homophobic, right wing, and adheres to a philosophy you don't. Well since he's not 100% good I guess he's evil. Well done Morocco 5, or should I say Mr. A!

Who watches the Watchmen? Horseshack, according to Moore. Me? I think it's turtles all the way down...

You should have gone to your local bar. There's a highly accurate love-o-meter in the corner, and it only costs a quarter. Far less of an investment than two bullets. Plus it contains Abe Simpson's ghost.