What is it like to study at Midtown High School?

This is the first time Allen really felt the existence of Ouroboros.

After the Ultra Brain was activated, Allen felt intense pain in the brain, but after the pain passed, he found himself in an incredible world just like Alice.

This is a void, the only real existence is himself, but what are the overlapping lights and shadows in front of him?

Allen reached into the flowing light and shadow in front of his eyes, and pulled out a strand of white silk thread. The silvery-white light without substance stayed obediently in Allen's hands.

hair.A thought suddenly flashed in Alan's mind: This is Ouroboros' hair.

This inexplicable idea began to take root as soon as it appeared, and a feeling grew in Allen's heart. He wound the white thread around his hand, trying to find another Uroboros along this hair, but soon He saw the other end of the white line.

He... is no longer here.

Allen looked at the white line in his hand, feeling lost. In a certain world, the fragments of Ouroboros have left, perhaps disappeared, or gone to the border of nothingness.

This was the first time Allen really felt the existence of Ouroboros. He finally realized that that person was not just a legend, not just an existence close to God, but a person who had existed and left traces. people.

Allen read Ouroboros' emotions from this hair-intense love and deep cruelty.

Don't know what he went through.

Allen continued to search. He stretched out his hand to push aside the overlapping light and shadow, and carefully searched for white light. He successively read about Ouroboros who was full of jealousy, Ouroboros who was pessimistic, and Ouroboros who was anarchist. ... The fallen strands of hair still shone silvery white under Alan's feet. While searching, he guessed, what kind of hair would he leave if one day he died?

"It's you." Allen threw down the messy white thread in his hand, smiled slightly, and reached out to touch the white thread that was obviously thicker than other hairs, but the moment his fingertips touched it, Allen fell completely into darkness.

……

A smiling face with bloodstains fell down...

A homeless man walks through the night holding a sign that the end is coming...

At midnight, all the spies came out...

The dying city screams hysterically...

A comedian lost his life in New York on Friday...

Many years ago, someone lost his face, someone lost his body...

The blue god set foot on Mars, and the hands of the huge clock fell one after another...

The old friend is absent, and someone in the voice of silence offers a bouquet of fate...

The only thing to protect is to keep them from being hurt by myself...

I see the past and the future at the same time...

Those who gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you...

No, it's a joke...

The gears are raining down one after another...

The world I've tried to save is beyond redemption...

A world strong and loving comes...

Who will watch the Watchmen?

……

The pointer was turned to twelve o'clock, and Allen watched the monster created by the Pharaoh descend on New York. Everyone died, the evil, the good and the mediocre, their flesh and blood smeared on the walls and streets. New York City is dead...

Allen closed his eyes, but the strong smell of blood still filled his brain, making him almost nauseous.

When I opened my eyes again, it was already Antarctica.

Fortress of the Pharaohs.

Rorschach was walking towards the wind and snow, and Dr. Manhattan stopped him.

--Where are you going?

— back to the spaceship.Evil must be punished.People need to know the truth.

The blue god held out his hand.

—You know I can't let you do that.

The person under the mask suddenly coughed and laughed, and he suddenly took off the mask with trembling hands. The homeless man had an ordinary face and not-so-ordinary short red hair.

His lips quivered, almost growling.

——Of course, in order to protect Werther's new utopia, what difference does it make to have one more corpse in the foundation.

He glared at Dr. Manhattan, growling in his eerie voice.

- Do it!

The compassionate God waved his hand.

Bloodstains in the shape of broken butterflies were left on the snow.

God turned and went to seek out the King of Kings who claimed to be God.

Ye Xiao and Si Hun were lying naked on the edge of the swimming pool. The newly born Adam and Eve seemed to be no longer interested in things outside of their bodies.

The pharaoh was immersed in great ecstasy, and he looked at Dr. Manhattan.

—I did the right thing, didn't I?It finally fixed everything.

--"finally"?Nothing ends, Adrian, nothing ends.

The king who created the new world looked at the blue god in puzzlement, as if he wanted to find some answers from that indifferent face, but the god just looked at him indifferently and then disappeared.

"Adrian, everything will not end." The white-haired boy approached Allen and said softly.

The boy's voice seemed to be a sharp knife, shattering the scene in front of Allen's eyes, and then disappeared into the void, and the suspicious king also disappeared.

Allen clenched his fists, tried hard to control his body not to tremble, and then calmly called out the boy's name: "Ouroboros."

"What a coincidence, you too." The white-haired boy sat down in the void, and a comfortable sofa immediately appeared under him, "Would you like to sit down and talk?"

Allen also sat down and looked at the white-haired boy at the same time.

He doesn't look very old, about sixteen or seventeen years old, and has the same white hair as Alan, but compared with the mess that Alan doesn't bother combing all day long, the other's white hair seems to be much neater—although he is also rebellious Tilt up tamely.

Seeing that Allen was only staring at his face, the boy suddenly laughed. Allen noticed that he had a young and lively face, but he had a pair of vicissitudes of eyes, and there were fine lines at the corners of his eyes when he smiled.

"So, why did you come to me?"

Allen shook the hand in front of him, and said cautiously: "Come and see the truth."

Yes, he didn't come looking for answers, he just wanted to come and see the truth.

The boy turned his head, as if seeing an interesting toy. In fact, he was saying, "Interesting, so your world is so interesting." From the first moment he saw Alan, the boy accepted Alan All of his memories, likewise, were received by Alan.

"So, you have seen it." The young man waved his hand, and all the people in his memory returned to the screen in the void, passing by and dying one by one, and finally the picture was frozen on the broken butterfly.

Allen watched Rorschach's death and felt a great sadness: "Yes, I saw it, the end of the superhero."

The teenager shook his head: "This is just a possible future."

Allen smiled wryly: "The Keene Act, the Superhero Registration Act, whatever it is called, it pulls superheroes from legend into reality, and turns them from vigilantes into lynchers."

But superheroes have existed from the beginning as "regulating social behavior by their own will". They have existed beyond reality from the beginning. If the bill is passed, Captain America, Iron Man and others will no longer be superheroes If they do, they will lose their identity and become civil servants who receive salaries from the federal government, or choose to retire.

Like a comedian.Like a night owl.

Or, they can become criminals.

Just like Rorschach.

The boy naturally knew what Alan was thinking. He looked at the other person and reminded slyly: "But people have already started to express their opinions, haven't they?"

Allen twitched the corner of his mouth weakly.

Yes, the people have already begun to deny their heroes, and it is they who pushed the bill.

"The times...the times have changed." Allen said with difficulty, "The era of superheroes is coming to an end. If the people no longer believe in their heroes, then superheroes will no longer exist."

The public trusts heroes, and heroes shoulder the responsibility of defending the public. This is the cornerstone of the existence of superheroes.

However, what if these heroes, who have powers that ordinary people cannot resist, no longer put the collective interests at the forefront, but choose their own interests?

Once this question is remembered by the masses, it will be a disaster for superheroes.

Is it really reasonable to participate in the norms of social behavior in an individual capacity?

If it is unreasonable, the definition of a superhero will face a logical collapse.

Allen saw the facts clearly, and saw the inevitability of the outbreak of civil war.

Uroboros put his palms together on his chin, showing a playful smile: "My world has shown you a possible ending, do you want to see others?" In the new world created by the Pharaoh, No more superficial heroism.

"I've seen it." Alan smiled bleakly, "But this Gordian knot, I can't untie it."

It is impossible for him to imitate the pharaoh and create a catastrophe for all human beings to force everyone to put aside their attention to the registration law and work together to recognize the existence of heroes-he has neither the qualifications nor the will.

Who will watch the Watchmen?Who will oversee these superheroes?Who can supervise the person who supervises the hero?

When power and power are combined with self-interest and cruelty, people will eventually destroy the world.

In the future that Allen can see, the heroes will eventually go to the end.

Uroboros smiled even more happily: "So what are you going to do?"

"What?" Alan seemed to be talking to himself, "Don't expect the end of the world too much... What else can I do? Do what I have to do, I should protect something-that's me world."

Uroboros finally patted the sofa and laughed, and Allen saw tears in the corners of his eyes.

"Alan? Alan Parker, right?" Ouroboros suddenly stood up and walked in front of Alan. He looked at Alan's face seriously, "You are such an idiot~"

This sentence was so sincere that Allen almost wanted to nod and admit it, but Uroboros then patted his head fiercely: "Parker idiot! You must go back properly! Gordian Knot or something , I don’t understand, but if you can’t untie the knot, it’s fine, you know? Idiot Parker?”

"Can't solve it... forget it?"

Uroboros laughed loudly and almost rolled over: "Idiot! Idiot! Idiot Parker, Uroboros is dead! You must go back!"

"Hey, what the hell are you talking about?" Allen got up and wanted to hold Ouroboros, who was stumbling around with a smile, but Before he touched him, Ouroboros disappeared.

The paused story started to play again. Allen saw the fragments of Ouroboros flashing past, and then merged into the body of Dr. Manhattan. The god created by technology looked at his hands indifferently, and then left this place step by step. world.

The pharaoh was still in his fortress, half-joyed and ecstatic.

It's time for Daniel and Sally to change their names, turn around and plunge into the new world, burying their old selves with the old times.

The old diary was under the pile of debris, waiting to be found by the obese handyman.

Allen closed his eyes and didn't stay any longer.

The author has something to say: The plot of "Watchmen" is quoted here, mainly to express: pull superheroes into reality, and what they have to face in the end is the situation that the watchmen face.

If Captain America wins, and the superheroes fight against the government under his leadership, it will only lead to more aggressive suppression by the government. After the war escalates, not only the heroes will die, but also the people will be hurt—heroes will no longer be heroes.

If Iron Man wins, and superheroes become civil servants of the federal government, and put these extraordinary powers into the hands of those in power, they will lose the premise of "acting with individual will"-heroes are no longer heroes.

So no matter which side wins, the superheroes will lose their identity.

But the contradiction has existed since the appearance of the first masked hero, and it is inevitable. To face it is to deny the rationality of superhero comics themselves, and drive heroes into the denial of self-identity.

In fact, in the comic "whatifcivilwareendeddifferently" there was a seemingly happy hypothetical ending: the US team reconciled with Iron Man, the US team mastered the list of all heroes, and the heroes supervised themselves.

But what if Captain America dies?Captain America will die, and the list may fall into the hands of others.

This already perfect ending also makes me very sad, because I still can't escape the identity dilemma of superheroes.

It involves the plot of "Watchmen", so I will introduce it a little here.

This is a fictional history of the United States from the 20s to the 40s, when the United States was on the brink of nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

It was a special era. Although superheroes helped the United States win the Vietnam War, spontaneous masked heroes were banned by law—that is, the enactment of the Keene Act.The masked heroes were declared outlaws and all their chivalrous deeds outlawed, so most of the superheroes retired (Night Owl, Silk Soul, etc.) and a few continued to work for the government (The Joker).In fact, some superheroes have died in the changing times, and some continue to act as criminals-Rorschach is the representative.

On a certain Friday, the comedian was suddenly killed. Rorschach thought it was a purge plan against superheroes, so he reminded the second generation of Ye Xiao and others one by one, but no one believed him. As the investigation deepened, they discovered that the whole This is the overall situation laid down by the Pharaoh.Pharaoh scoffed at the superficial heroism of the Watchmen. What he wanted to do was to end it all—nuclear crisis, social chaos, and superheroes—so he created a monster that came to New York to show that it was ahead of its time. The lethality deterred the two superpowers, causing them to stop the nuclear war and work together to fight against possible even more terrible disasters.

Rorschach was completely unacceptable to pay the price of millions of lives for a "powerful and loving world", so he was seconded by Dr. Manhattan.But Dr. Manhattan also knew that the peace created by the pharaoh was just an illusion, so he left the earth.