Characters of Watchmen
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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. The series 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. Watchmen writer Alan Moore created the main characters to present four or five "radically opposing ways" to perceive the world, and to give readers of the story the privilege of determining which one was most morally comprehensible.
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Main characters
The Comedian
The Comedian is Edward Blake, who began his vigilante career in the 1940s as a young man. 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 and DC Comics villain the Joker added. Moore and Gibbons saw The Comedian as "a kind of G Gordon Liddy character, only a much bigger, tougher guy".
Already deceased when the story begins, his murder is what sets the plot in motion. The character appears throughout the story in flashbacks and aspects of his personality are revealed by other characters. 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 Dr. Manhattan are the only two government-sanctioned superheroes after the Keene Act banning superheroes 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.
Doctor Manhattan
Scientist 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 obvious superpowers. 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.
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 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. 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."A Portal to Another Dimension". The Comics Journal. July 1987. Gibbons wanted to be tasteful in depicting 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.
Nite Owl (Dan Dreiberg)
Dan Dreiberg has an interest in ornithology. He becomes the second Nite Owl and talks often with the first one, Hollis Mason. He is friends with Rorschach and partnered with him in order to take down Underboss in the early 1960s. Dan is forced into retirement by the government. At the beginning of Watchmen, he initially doesn't believe in Rorschach's "mask killer" theory. After the Comedian is murdered, Manhattan exiled, Rorschach arrested, and Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt) shot at, he takes this theory seriously and rescues Rorschach from prison. He and Rorschach then break into Ozymandias' office, where Dan correctly guesses the password and finds that Veidt was behind the pyramid deliveries company that ordered his assassination attempt.
He and Rorschach fly to Antarctica in his Owl Ship. There, he finds out that Veidt planned to create a fake alien threat to stop nuclear war between the United States and the USSR. He, Manhattan, and Silk Spectre agree to keep quiet about the true nature of the alien. He later marries Laurie Juspeczyk and takes on a new identity at the end of the novel.
The character of Nite Owl (Dan Dreiberg) is inspired primarily by the Blue Beetle, and also displays similarities to Batman. Zack Snyder described Dan as someone who, as Nite Owl, is complete, and is lost in retirement until he finds purpose.
Ozymandias
Adrian Veidt was formerly the superhero Ozymandias, drawing inspiration from his hero Alexander the Great. 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 pet 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. Gibbons noted "One of the worst of his sins is kind of looking down on the rest of humanity, scorning the rest of humanity." He was recently placed at #10 on the Forbes Fictional 15.
Rorschach
see Rorschach
At the beginning of the novel, Rorschach is the only illegal vigilante still active. He discovers that homicide victim Edward Blake was the government-sponsored vigilante the Comedian, and he believes that someone is killing costumed heroes. In the course of the novel Doctor Manhattan exiles himself to Mars, someone attempts to assassinate Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt), and Rorschach is arrested by the police. Rorschach's friend Nite Owl springs him from jail and they head to Veidt's base in Antarctica, where they find that Veidt planned to unite the world by creating a fake alien threat. The other vigilantes present agree to keep silent, but Rorschach refuses to compromise and is vaporized by Doctor Manhattan.
The character of Rorschach is primarily inspired by The Question and Mr A, both characters created by Steve Ditko.
Silk Spectre
Laurie Juspeczyk, the second Silk Spectre, is the daughter of the Comedian and 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. 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 kicks her off the base and suspends her expense account. At the end of the eighth issue, Doctor Manhattan appears and takes her to Mars to convince him to save the world. On Mars, she realizes that the Comedian was her father. After the final encounter with Veidt at the end of the series, she assumes the identity of Mrs. Hollis.
Supporting characters
- Hollis Mason: the first Nite Owl, now retired. On Halloween, he was assaulted and killed by a gang who confused him with his successor.
- Sally Juspeczyk: the first Silk Spectre and mother of Laurie Juspeczyk, who changed her name to Sally Jupiter. Now retired.
- Captain Metropolis (real name Nelson Gardner): 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 was decapacitated in a car accident.
- Hooded Justice: the world's first masked vigilante, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. His real name is never revealed.
- Moloch the Mystic (real name Edgar William Jacobi): a former supervillain who was jailed for a time. He is dying of cancer. Rorschach is later framed for his murder.
- Dollar Bill: a member of the Minutemen who died during a bank robbery in the 1940s.
- Mothman (real name Byron Lewis): a former member of the Minutes who suffered from alcoholism and mental illness later in life.
- Silhouette (real name Ursula Zandt): a former member of the Minutemen who retired after her status as a lesbian became public knowledge. Was murdered by one of her enemies.
- 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.
- Detective Joe Bourquin: the partner to Detective Steven Fine.
- Janey Slater: the first girlfriend of Jon Osterman. She leaves him after she perceives a relationship building between Osterman and Laurie.
- Laurence Schexnayder: the ex-agent of and husband to Sally Jupiter.
- Bernard: a news vendor who appears recurringly.
- Bernie: a kid who reads Tales of the Black Freighter by Bernard's newsstand.
- 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. When Rorschach reveals the exact details of his past to him, Long is profoundly affected.
- Gloria Long: wife of Malcolm.
- 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 implied that Rorschach murders him in a prison toilet.
