Watchmen
is a twelve-issue comic book limited series created by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins, and was initially published by DC Comics in 1986 and 1987. Watchmen
focuses on six main characters: The Comedian, Doctor Manhattan, Nite Owl, Ozymandias, Rorschach, and Silk Spectre. These characters are primarily based on superhero properties DC had acquired from Charlton Comics in the early 1980s. Series writer Alan Moore created the main characters to present six "radically opposing ways" to perceive the world, and to give readers of the story the privilege of determining which one was most morally comprehensible. [1]
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DR. MANHATTAN TICKETS
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Main characters
The Comedian
The Comedian is Edward Morgan Blake, who began his vigilante career in the 1940s as a teenager. Over the years, he became a patriotic hero for the United States. The Comedian was based on the Charlton Comics character
Peacemaker, with elements of the
Marvel Comics spy character
Nick Fury added. Moore and Gibbons saw The Comedian as "a kind of
Gordon Liddy character, only a much bigger, tougher guy".
[2]
Already deceased when the story begins, his murder is what sets the plot of
Watchmen
in motion. The character appears throughout the story in flashbacks and aspects of his personality are revealed by other characters.
[3] Richard Reynolds described The Comedian as "ruthless, cynical, and nihilistic, and yet capable of deeper insights than the others into the role of the costumed hero".
He and Doctor Manhattan are the only two superheroes to be government-sanctioned after the
Keene Act banning vigilantism is passed. Although he attempted to rape the first Silk Spectre in the 1940s, issue nine reveals that years later he fathered her daughter Laurie (Silk Spectre II).
In the
Watchmen
film he is played by
Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
Doctor Manhattan
Scientist Jonathan "Jon" Osterman was transformed into a blue-skinned superpowered being after he was caught in an "Intrinsic Field subtractor" in 1959. Afterwards, he became a superhero contracted by the United States government, who gave him the name Doctor Manhattan. He is the only character in the story who possesses real superpowers.
[4] As a result, the existence of Doctor Manhattan has given the U.S. a strategic advantage over the Soviet Union, which has increased tensions between the two nations at the start of the series.
[3]
Doctor Manhattan was based upon Charlton's
Captain Atom, who in Moore's original proposal was surrounded by the shadow of nuclear threat. However, the writer found he could do more with Manhattan as a "kind of a quantum super-hero" than he ever could have with Captain Atom.
In opposition to other superheroes that lacked scientific exploration of their origins, Moore sought to delve into
nuclear physics and
quantum physics in constructing the character of Dr. Manhattan. The writer believed that a character living in a quantum universe would not perceive time with a linear perspective, which would influence the character's perception of human affairs. Moore also wanted to avoid creating an emotionless character like
Spock from
Star Trek
, so he sought for Dr. Manhattan to retain "human habits" and to grow away from them and humanity in general.
Gibbons had created the blue character
Rogue Trooper, and explained he reused the blue skin motif for Doctor Manhattan as it resembles skin tonally, but has a different hue. Moore incorporated the color into the story, and Gibbons noted the rest of the comic's color scheme made Manhattan more unique.
[6] Moore recalled that he was unsure if DC would allow the creators to depict the character as fully nude, which partially influenced how they portrayed the character.
[7] Gibbons wanted to tastefully depict Manhattan's nudity, selecting carefully when full frontal shots would occur and giving him "understated" genitals — like a classical sculpture — so the reader would not initially notice it.
[8]
In the
Watchmen
film he is played by
Billy Crudup. In the 1989 Sam Hamm script, which was never produced into a film, Veidt's ultimate goal is to kill Osterman so that Dr. Manhattan never occurs; Dr. Manhattan kills Veidt and then alters time so that Osterman is never transformed into Dr. Manhattan.
[9] [10]
Nite Owl II (Dan Dreiberg)
===
Nite Owl is Dan Dreiberg, a retired superhero who utilizes owl-themed gadgets, in a manner which led Dave Gibbons to consider him "an obsessive hobbyist... a comics fan, a fanboy."
[11] Nite Owl was based on the
Ted Kord version of the Charlton superhero
Blue Beetle. Similar to how Ted Kord had a predecessor, Moore also incorporated an earlier adventurer who used the name "Nite Owl", the retired crime fighter Hollis Mason, into
Watchmen
.
While Moore devised character notes for Gibbons to work from, the artist provided a name and a costume design for Hollis Mason he had created when he was twelve.
[8] Richard Reynolds noted in
Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology
that despite the character's Charlton roots, Nite Owl's modus operandi has more in common with the DC Comics character
Batman.
[13] According to Geoff Klock, his civilian form "visually suggests an impotent, middle-aged
Clark Kent."
[14]
In the
Watchmen
film he is played by
Patrick Wilson.
Ozymandias
Adrian Veidt was formerly the superhero Ozymandias, drawing inspiration from his hero
Alexander the Great and the Egyptian pharaoh
for whom he is named. At the start of
Watchmen
he has retired to devote his attention to the running of his own enterprises. Ozymandias was directly based on
Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt, whom Moore had admired for using his full brain capacity as well as possessing full physical and mental control.
Veidt is believed to be one of the smartest men on the planet, and is often accompanied by his genetically-engineered lynx, Bubastis. Richard Reynolds noted that by taking initiative to "help the world", Veidt displays a trait normally attributed to villains in superhero stories, and in a sense he is the "villain" of the series.
[15] Gibbons noted "One of the worst of his sins [is] kind of looking down on the rest of humanity, scorning the rest of humanity."
[16] In 2008, he was ranked number 10 on the
Forbes Fictional 15
.
[17]
In the
Watchmen
film he is played by
Matthew Goode. In the 1989 Sam Hamm script, which was never produced into a film, Veidt is not referred to as Ozymandias; he plans to destroy Jon Osterman in the past so that Dr. Manhattan never occurs; Dr. Manhattan kills Veidt.
Rorschach
A vigilante who wears a white mask that contains constantly shifting ink blots, Rorschach continues to fight crime in spite of his outlaw status. Born Walter Kovacs, his mother was a prostitute. He was raised in an orphanage and worked in the garment industry. By the time the story begins, he is seen walking around New York carrying a "The End Is Nigh" notice. In 1975, after a failed attempt to find and rescue a young kidnapped girl before she was murdered, he loses his sanity, viewing Rorschach as his real identity and Kovacs as his "disguise."
Moore based Rorschach on the
Steve Ditko creation
Mr. A. Moore said he was trying to "come up with this quintessential Steve Ditko character — someone who's got a funny name, whose surname begins with a 'K,' who's got an oddly designed mask".
[18] As a result, Rorschach's real name is given as Walter Kovacs. Ditko's Charlton character
The Question also served as a template for creating Rorschach.
Comics historian Bradford W. Wright described the character's world view as "a set of black-and-white values that take many shapes but never mix into shades of gray, similar to the ink blot tests of his namesake". Rorschach sees existence as random and, according to Wright, this viewpoint leaves the character "free to 'scrawl [his] own design' on a 'morally blank world'".
[19] Moore said he did not foresee the death of Rorschach until the fourth issue when he realized that his refusal to compromise would result in him not surviving the story.
In the
Watchmen
film he is played by
Jackie Earle Haley. In the 1989 Sam Hamm script, which was never produced into a film, Rorschach does not die.
Silk Spectre II (Laurie Juspeczyk)
===
Laurie Juspeczyk (
IPA: [ju'sp?t????k] ("you-SPETCH-ick")), the second Silk Spectre, is the daughter of Sally Jupiter, the first Silk Spectre. Laurie's mother apparently wanted her to follow in her footsteps and so she fought crime for ten years before the Keene Act banned vigilantes. Unlike the other protagonists, Silk Spectre was not based on a particular Charlton character, although her relationship with Dr. Manhattan is similar to that between Captain Atom and the heroine
Nightshade. Moore felt he needed a female hero in the cast and drew inspiration from comic book heroines such as
Black Canary and
Phantom Lady.
Laurie is kept on retainer by the government because of her relationship with Doctor Manhattan and lives on a government base at the beginning of the comic. When Doctor Manhattan leaves Earth, the government has her removed from the base and suspends her expense account, forcing her to move in with Dan, with whom she starts a romantic relationship. At the end of the eighth issue, Doctor Manhattan appears and takes her to Mars because he knows she wants to convince him to save the world. On Mars, she realizes that the Comedian was her biological father. After the final encounter with Veidt at the end of the series, she assumes the identity of Sandra Hollis. In a 2003 draft script of
Watchmen
by
David Hayter, which was reviewed by
IGN
, Laurie has the family name Jupiter and the alter ego name "Slingshot."
[20]
In the
Watchmen
film she is played by
Malin Akerman.
Supporting characters
Key to the success of
Watchmen
is the wide range of characters it features beyond the 'main' stars. Moore stated in 1988 that, in
Watchmen
, "we spend a good deal of time with the people on the street. We wanted to spend as much time detailing these characters and making them believable as we did the main characters."
[21] Moore and Gibbons deliberately wanted all their characters "to have a place in this vast organic mechanism that we call the world."
The fleshing-out of the world was, in Moore's words, to demonstrate that "all the way through the entire series human life is going on with all of its petty entanglements and minor difficulties and all the rest of it."
[22] Moore adds that it is possible to see the story as being as much about the supporting as the main characters:
Comic and film
{{#ifexist:Category:Articles needing additional references from March 2009
- Hollis Mason
: the first Nite Owl (retired, 1962) and author of the autobiography "Under the Hood" which appears in excerpts throughout the story. On Halloween the Knot-Tops, lead by Derf, assault Hollis in retaliation for the release of Rorschach, which was caused by the second Nite-Owl (Dan Dreiberg) and the Silk Spectre II (Laurie Juspeczyk); Derf hits Hollis on the head with Hollis's Nite Owl trophy, killing the former superhero (this event is not depicted in the theatrical version of the film). He is roughly based on the Dan Garret version of the Blue Beetle from, at different times, Fox Feature Syndicate, Holyoke Publications, and Charlton Comics. In the film, he is played by Stephen McHattie.
- Sally Jupiter
, the first Silk Spectre
(real name Sally Juspeczyk): Domineering mother of Laurie Juspeczyk, and founding member of the Minutemen, now retired. She married her manager, Laurence Schexnayder, shortly after retiring. She narrowly avoided being raped by The Comedian, although she later forgave him, and ultimately bore his child (Laurie, however, believed her father to be Hooded Justice, with whom her mother had been pretending to have a relationship). Sally adores the attention she receives from fans of "Silk Spectre." In the film, she is played by Carla Gugino.
- Captain Metropolis
(real name Nelson Gardner
): Gardner is an ex-Marine Lieutenant and one of the more active proponents of the Minutemen, a group of superheroes formed in the 1940s; he suggested that a collaboration of forces would be the most effective way to fight crime. He is briefly mentioned as having been decapitated in a car accident in 1974. Allusions were made to a relationship with Hooded Justice, which Moore tacitly confirmed in 1988, saying "I wanted to approximate real life as much as possible and that meant giving each of the characters a sexual identity." [23] Gardner was named after E. Nelson Bridwell and Gardner Fox. He was played by Daryl Scheelar.
- Hooded Justice
: The first masked vigilante, his real identity is never conclusively revealed but is strongly suggested to be circus strongman Rolf Müller. Involved in a phony relationship with Sally Juspeczyk to hide his involvement with Captain Metropolis, Hooded Justice disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Moore's hints within and without Watchmen
suggest very strongly that "when the events of the 50s overtook him, Hooded Justice decided to go on the run to protect his identity." It is suggested that he was probably killed by the Comedian in 1955 [24] He was played by Glenn Ennis in the film.
- Moloch
(real name Edgar William Jacobi): a former super-villain who was jailed for a time. He is dying of cancer, received from Adrian Veidt. Rorschach is later framed for his murder. In the film, he is played by Matt Frewer.
- Dollar Bill
(real name Bill Brady): a bank sponsored member of the Minutemen who died during a bank robbery in 1946. His cloak was caught in the bank's revolving doors and Dollar Bill was shot at point-blank range. Sally Juspeczyk hints that he might have been gay. In the film, he is portrayed by Dan Payne.
- Mothman
(real name Byron Lewis): a former member of the Minutemen who suffered from alcoholism and mental illness later in life. He is forcibly brought to a mental asylum, but was briefly released for the Minutemen's reunion. In the film, he is portrayed by Niall Matter.
- Silhouette
(real name Ursula Zandt): a former member of the Minutemen who was forced into retirement in 1946 after her status as a lesbian became public knowledge. She and her partner were murdered shortly thereafter. She is portrayed by Apollonia Vanova in the movie.
- Detective Steven Fine
: the policeman that investigates Edward Blake's murder, and captures Rorschach. He deduces that Dan Dreiberg is Nite Owl II, and hints at this to Dreiberg in an effort to warn him away from further activity. Fine dies when Veidt's monster appears in New York. He is portrayed by Jerry Wasserman in the film.
- Detective Joe Bourquin
: the partner to Detective Steven Fine. Bourquin dies when Veidt's monster appears in New York. In the film, he is rebatized Detective Gallagher
and is portrayed by Don Thompson.
- Janey Slater
: Janey is the first girlfriend of Jon Osterman. She leaves him in 1966 after she perceives a relationship building between Osterman and Laurie. Veidt gives Janey cancer as part of his scheme to exile Dr. Manhattan; Janey erroneously believes that Jon Osterman gave it to her. In the film she is played by Laura Mennell.
- Laurence "Larry" Schexnayder
: Schexnayder was the agent of Sally Jupiter. Schexnayder influenced the Minutemen's decisions. He told Sally to not press charges against the Comedian and he told the group to expel Silhouette after her lesbian status became public knowledge. After Sally retired, Schexnayder married her. The two were married for nine years. Laurie remembers Schexnayder as a bully who picked on her as he knew that he did not father her.
- Bernard
: Bernard is a news vendor who appears recurringly on the central New York street corner. Bernard is amongst the many characters who dies when Veidt's monster appears in New York, and he dies trying to protect his young namesake. Moore has stated that he "is in some ways every man, because he's a complete pratt and doesn't know what's going on... [h]e is like a lot of people, he is a function of the news... [regurgitating news headlines] think[ing] that's an opinion." [25]
- Bernie
: Bernie is a boy who reads Tales of the Black Freighter
by Bernard's newsstand. Bernie dies when Veidt's monster appears in New York.
- Dr. Malcolm Long
: the psychiatrist who is assigned to evaluate Rorschach after he is apprehended. He is initially very hopeful of "curing" Rorschach, even though his utter lack of emotion makes Long's psychiatric evaluation techniques useless. Rorschach's unveiling of events that shaped his uncompromising mindset greatly affect Dr. Long's own outlook and marriage. Malcolm dies when Veidt's monster appears in New York.
- Big Figure
: underworld leader with dwarfism brought down by Rorschach and the second Nite Owl. Attempts to gain revenge on Rorschach in prison. It is strongly implied that Rorschach murders him in a prison toilet. He is portrayed by Danny Woodburn in the movie.
- Derf
: the leader of the Knot-Tops, Derf kills Hollis Mason. Derf dies when Veidt's monster appears in New York.
- Hector Godfrey
: Godfrey is the chief editor of the New Frontiersman
. Godfrey constantly criticizes Seymour.
- Seymour
: Seymour is a junior worker at the New Frontiersman
magazine offices, designed by Moore to be "the ordinary common slob"
- Douglas "Doug" Roth
: Doug Roth is a reporter for the Nova Express, a left-leaning newspaper. Roth interrogates Dr. Manhattan in the interview. In addition Roth interviews Adrian Veidt; this interview is entirely depicted in print within Watchmen
.
- Wally Weaver
: Wally Weaver was Osterman's friend and coworker. He dies of cancer; Dr. Manhattan attended Weaver's funeral.
- Richard Nixon
: The President of the United States. In the Watchmen
storyline, Nixon's success in Vietnam resulted in the abolishment of term limits and Nixon remained president by 1985. It is strongly implied that the Comedian took action to contain the Watergate scandal by eliminating or intimidating investigative reporters hence his mentioning of Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. In the movie, he is portrayed by Robert Wisden.
- Bubastis
: Bubastis (named after the Egyptian city) is Veidt's genetically engineered lynx that also accompanies him to Antarctica. She is the subject of a television cartoon made by Veidt's company. As Dr. Manhattan and Bubastis confront each other in Veidt's intrinsic subtractor, Veidt activates it to destroy Dr. Manhattan, killing Bubastis in the process.
- Gerald Grice
: Gerald Grice kidnapped and killed Blair Roche, a little girl. Rorschach broke into his home and confirmed that Grice killed the girl; Rorschach proceeds to kill Grice when he comes home. Rorschach describes this incident as the incident that mentally changed him into Rorschach from Walter Kovacs.
- Vietnamese woman
: The Comedian had a relationship with a Vietnamese woman when he fought in the Vietnam War. After the war ended the Vietnamese woman, pregnant, confronts The Comedian and asks him to talk about the situation. The Comedian says that he will leave as soon as possible and refuses to deal with her. The angry woman slashes The Comedian's face with a glass bottle, giving him the scar; in retaliation The Comedian shoots and kills the pregnant woman.
Comic only
- Gloria Long
: The wife of Malcolm, Gloria Long becomes frustrated by her husband's increasing devotion to the Rorschach case. Gloria dies when Veidt's monster appears in New York.
- Max Shea
: In the comic book Max Shea is a writer who works on Adrian Veidt's project. He begins a relationship with Hira Manish. Shea dies when the ship he travels on explodes.
- Hira Manish
: In the comic book Hira Manish is an artist who works on Adrian Veidt's project. She begins a relationship with Max Shea. Manish dies when the ship she travels on explodes.
- Dolores Shairp
: Dolores Shairp is Rorschach's landlord. Shairp had multiple children via multiple fathers. Rorschach confronts Shairp after his release from prison, accusing her of falsely saying that Rorschach made sexual advances towards her. After seeing Shairp's children cower and Shairp's pleas towards Rorschach, Rorschach leaves with Dreiberg.
- Josephine "Joey"
: A homosexual taxi driver who works for Prometheus Cab Company, Josephine asks Bernard to post the "Gay Women Against Rape" posters. Josephine fights her former girlfriend, a member of the Knot Tops, before being killed by Veidt's monster.
References
- Eno, Vincent; El Csawza. "Vincent Eno and El Csawza meet comics megastar Alan Moore". ''Strange Things Are Happening''. May/June 1988.
- Cooke, Jon B. "Alan Moore discusses the Charlton-Watchmen Connection". ''Comic Book Artist''. August 2000. Retrieved on October 8, 2008.
- Reynolds, p. 106
- Wright, p. 272
- Reynolds, p. 106
- "Watchmen Secrets Revealed". WatchmenComicMovie.com. November 3, 2008. Retrieved on November 5, 2008.
- "A Portal to Another Dimension". ''The Comics Journal''. July 1987.
- Kallies, Christy. "Under the Hood: Dave Gibbons". SequentialTart.com. July 1999. Retrieved on October 12, 2008
- Alan Moore endorsed ''Watchmen'' Movie... in 1987
- The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made
- Gibbons, "Watchmen Round Table: Moore & Gibbons" in ''David Anthony Kraft's Comics Interview'' (1988), p. 47
- Kallies, Christy. "Under the Hood: Dave Gibbons". SequentialTart.com. July 1999. Retrieved on October 12, 2008
- Reynolds, p. 32
- Klock, p. 66
- Reynolds, p. 110
- "Talking With Dave Gibbons". WatchmenComicMovie.com. October 16, 2008. Retrieved on October 28, 2008.
- Ewalt, David M. "The Forbes Fictional 15 No. 10 Veidt, Adrian". Forbes.com. December 18, 2008. Retrieved on January 17, 2009.
- Stewart, Bhob. "Synchronicity and Symmetry". ''The Comics Journal''. July 1987.
- Wright, p. 272-73
- Stax. "The Stax Report: Script Review of Watchmen." ''IGN''. September 9, 2004. Retrieved on March 5, 2009.
- Christopher Sharrett, "(Interview with) Alan Moore," in ''David Anthony Kraft's Comics Interview'' #65 (1988), p. 7
- Moore, "Watchmen Round Table: Moore & Gibbons," in ''David Anthony Kraft's Comics Interview'' #65 (1988), p. 37
- Moore talking in ''Comics Interview'' #65 (1988), p. 11
- Moore talking in ''Comics Interview'' #65 (1988), p. 9
- Moore in ''Comics Interview'' #65 (1988), p. 41