The world of superheroes is long gone. This book begins after all the original costumed heroes (Dr. Manhattan and The Comedian) and heroines (book doesn’t state superhero name but her real name is Laurie) have given up their crime fighting ways. The novel takes place during WWII. Everyone is afraid of the end of the world, even the superheroes. What Veidt (another superhero) ends up doing at the end of the novel is spectacular. This novel shows that human beings cannot enjoy what they have. They don’t realize the value of something until it’s lost. In this case, the people, because of the superheroes’ constant vigilance and disturbance, drive out the superheroes. What they don’t realize is that those superheroes are the only ones that can bring peace to the world. Peace is achieved at the end of the story. Readers may disagree about the ending of the novel but I believe it’s the only way. Humans tend to destroy each other until something happens to force them to think otherwise, which is when peace is achieved.
The novel is full of philosophy. I bet no one ever realized that superheroes are all human beings. They think like human beings and still have feelings. For example, The Comedian was always the macho man, but what people don’t realize or care about is the fact that he’s suffering just as much, or perhaps more than the other “normal” human beings. The book tells about his crude humor but also describes how he came to begin telling those jokes. What’s funny is that he wasn’t telling jokes. He believed everything he said and hates the fact that people laugh at what he believes in. He lived in depression throughout his entire life and even probably after his death, which happens at the beginning of the novel. The part that struck me the most was when the author said that The Comedian once told a joke about a depressed person who went to the doctors for a cure. The doctor told him that Pagliacci (a clown) was in town and that he probably should go find a cure there. The guy says, “But doctor, I am Pagliacci.” This was the moment I started my interest in the book. Judging by the cover, I thought it was just another superhero comic book with crime fighting and other nonsense. This book teaches many lessons of life. It’s not so much don’t judge the book by its cover as don’t read a book unless you can truly understand the meaning and why it was written. Don’t read this novel if you want an action packed story. Read with the intention of learning about the true world. Superheroes aren’t happy with life. In fact, the only reason they became superheroes was because of their misery or someone forced them to. “Normal” human beings place huge loads of pressure on these superheroes because they don’t want to deal with the problems themselves. They put their anger and blame on the superheroes to make themselves feel less guilty. This is human nature and is also why the novel was written – to depict and punish the evil and to show how evil all human beings can be.