Watchmen, a new movie based on a Alan Moore's ground-breaking mid-80s comic series, opens today.

Rorschach Test

Steven Padnick, Tor.com

Watchmen is not a particularly political story.

While its central question of unchecked authority does concern the role of politicians and governments, it is really about all authority figures, from abusive or absent parents to a cold and distant God. To focus on the political angle misses most of the story.

Which is why I’m going to be disappointed (but not surprised) when I read the following headline some time next week:

REPUBLICANS CLAIM WATCHMEN A CALL FOR CONSERVATIVE HEROES IN AGE OF OBAMA.

Read the rest...

A comment to the post explains why Alan Moore's work, whether in film or drawings with word balloons, functions as a Rorschach test.

"One of the more brilliant aspects of the comic is that it presents a spectrum of political, ethical, and philosophical beliefs and sides with none of them."