In Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen graphic novel, a more realistic portrayal of the superhero figure is achieved by allowing genres to be incorporated separately within the fully developed identities of Rorschach, the Comedian and Doctor Manhattan. Rather than being bound by the stale clichés of an existing “mythical character,” as its predecessors have been, Watchmen strives to implement a multitude of literary categories into unique characters, granting them a more robust and less limited representation of reality. While broadening the focus risks diluting these categories, this graphic novel demonstrates that it sacrifices nothing through the use of rotating points of view. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Because Watchmen is an original piece, free from the demands or confines of previous literature or characters, it immediately gains strength, in the sense that it can derive its own interpretation of genre and sense of realism. Authors often feel a responsibility to uphold the trends followed by those who previously depicted figures like Batman or Superman in their “original” versions of these heroes. However, like Frank Miller's The Dark Knight, Watchmen, by selectively drawing inspiration from previous graphic novels, is able to “converge weak readings into its own strong vision” (Klock 118). This comic does the same with every genre it tries to employ. While Batman's detective persona is certainly fascinating, it is sometimes overshadowed by the broad requirements of the existing Batman series. Moore and Gibbons, in giving the detective genre their name in the character of Rorschach, allow themselves the opportunity to elaborate detective fiction to the maximum extent they see fit; they successfully avoid sullying detective fiction with the novel's other undertakings. Since most versions of the Batman series are unable to focus on Batman solely as a detective, much of the realism of the investigation is lost. For example, in The Return of Doctor Death, when searching for a hidden safe full of diamonds, Batman is able to discover what he is looking for almost instantly, a task that, in reality, would have required a much more thorough investigation (Kane 35 ). This can be contrasted with a Rorschach investigation, in which he is shown observing the Comedian's death scene for multiple pages (Moore 13-16). Instead of getting a small, clichéd taste of detective fiction, we get to see it realized in its realistic entirety. Another example of realism in Watchmen comes from the shocking and rather bold nature of The Comedian's character. Occasionally showing similarities to Captain America from an earlier period, The Comedian proves himself to be a unique and realistic character who does not conform to the essential representativeness of the Captain America character. Since many depictions of Captain America occurred during the Silver Age of comics, his embodiment of the American Dream is normally overly optimistic and simply isn't applicable to the dark times of war and poverty in American history. Edward Blake argues against this idealistic portrayal of the American dream when, while observing New York in the midst of a riot, he is asked “what happened to the American dream?” and he coldly replies “It came true. You're looking at it” (Moore 60). While it would be nice to imagine America as the epitome of patriotism, that's not always the case, and The Comedian has no interest in hiding this stark reality. Because it refuses to take on a face of hope and nationalism.