Watchmen (comics)/Characters: Difference between revisions

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== Heroes Who Became Active During The 1930's ==

=== Captain Metropolis (Nelson Gardner) ===

 

 

A former Marine who applied his knowledge of military strategy to crime-fighting. A very insecure and nervous person. Remained active until 1974, when he was decapitated in a car crash.

 

* [[Batman Gambit]]: In one of the RPG modules (which had input from the original creators), he secretly arranged the kidnappings of the 1960's heroes' loved ones in order to force them to work together, in an effort to make them more amenable to the idea of teaming up as The Crimebusters. If considered canon (there's nothing in the comic that contradicts it), the plan obviously didn't work, but he wasn't exposed as the mastermind.

* [[Demoted to Extra]]: In [[The Movie]] he has no lines, and his role in the Crimebusters is [[Composite Character|transferred to Ozymandias]].

* [[Heroic Build]]: In his day. Toward the end of his career, he went to seed.

* [[The Strategist]]

* [[Superhero Packing Heat]]: A .38 special, to be exact. [[All There in the Manual|(According to the RPG.)]]

* [[Asshole Victim]]

* [[Becoming the Mask]]: At one point Rorschach theorizes that The Comedian took on his persona in order to become a satirical reflection of society's corruption. If this theory is true (Rorschach is hardly an unbiased observer), Blake appears to have gotten into the part a bit too much.

* [[Carpet of Virility]]

* [[Cool Old Guy]]: Remained a very effective solo agent right up until his death at sixty-one. "Cool" doesn't necessarily mean "nice".

* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: His most brutal on-screen acts take place in response to attacks upon his person...which he provoked, mind you.

* [[Expy]]: Of Peacemaker.

*** Not to mention [[The Killing Joke]] Joker.

* [[Glasgow Grin]]: Half of one, courtesy of his upset [[Asian Baby Mama|Vietnamese girlfriend]].

* [[Even Evil Has Loved Ones]]: Genuinely attempted to connect with Laurie on two separate occasions and notably didn't react [[Berserk Button|the way he usually does]] after she publically lashed out at him and dashed him in the face with a drink. [[All There in the Manual|According to the RPG]], he was also composing a letter to her before {{spoiler|Ozymandias}} killed him. He also seems to have had real feelings for Sally Jupiter.

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]] / [[Heroic BSOD]]: {{spoiler|He freaks out when he discovers Ozymandias' plan}}

* [[Jerkass]]:

** [[Jerkass Facade]]: Possibly.

** Some choose to see the first as his crossing the [[Moral Event Horizon]]

* [[Nietzsche Wannabe]]

* [[Superhero Packing Heat]]

* [[Token Evil Teammate]]

* [[Tragic Villain]]

* [[Villain Protagonist]]

* {{spoiler|[[Who Shot JFK?]]: He's also implicated to be behind Woodward and Bernstein's deaths (which didn't happen in our timeline), although this is much more speculative. In the movie, the assassination is shown outright, and The Comedian also remarks while he's violently dealing with an angry mob: "I haven't had this much fun since Woodward and Bernstein!"}}

=== Hooded Justice (Possibly Rolf Muller) ===

 

 

Possibly the first costumed superhero. Little is known about him, save that he was extremely violent and brutal, and a supporter of the KKK and Nazis. Disappeared in 1955, possibly at the hands of The Comedian.

* [[Manly Gay]]

* [[Lightning Bruiser]]: Fast enough to take on three armed men and win, strong enough to cripple and kill with his bare hands.

* [[Shrouded in Myth]]: He ''might'' have been a circus strongman by the name of Rolf Muller. The implication is strong, but still somewhat ambiguous.

** There are semi-canonical sources from Moore that imply that he ''was'' Rolf Muller, but that was just ''one of his many aliases''.

=== Mothman (Byron Lewis) ===

 

 

A millionaire playboy who decided to become a superhero both out of a desire to add spice to his life and out of guilt over his privileged lifestyle. Ultimately, his alcoholism (and being hauled before the HUAC) turned him into a shell of his former self, and was eventually committed to a sanitarium.

=== Nite Owl I (Hollis Mason) ===

 

 

One of the first superheroes to fight crime, and a former police officer, Hollis Mason has since retired, revealed his identity and written an autobiography that provided dramatic insights into the world of superheroes. He has seen the rise and fall of superheroics in the world, and fears for the new generation of costumed crimefighters.

 

* [[Badass Grandpa]]: He was more than capable of giving a hell of a fight guys at least half his age.

* [[Cool Old Guy]]

* [[Domino Mask]]

=== The Silhouette (Ursula Zandt) ===

 

 

A bored Jewish aristocrat who fought crime for thrills. Was exposed as a lesbian and drummed out of the Minutemen in 1946, and killed by an old foe afterward.

* [[Lipstick Lesbian]]

* [[Rich Bitch]]: Her only line is an insulting dig at Sally (who had covered up her heritage), and she's mentioned as being a rather unpleasant person.

 

=== Silk Spectre I (Sally Juspeczyk/Jupiter) ===

 

 

A former model who started fighting crime for publicity and became a founding member of the Minutemen, but hasn't been doing much since, except training her daughter to follow in her footsteps.

* [[Hot Mom]]

* [[I Just Want to Be Special|I Just Want My Daughter To Be Special]]

* [[I Was Quite a Looker]]

* [[Ms. Fanservice]]

* [[Pass Fail]]: Changed her name from Juspeczyk to cover up her Polish heritage.

* [[Redheaded Hero]]

* [[Stocking Filler]]

* [[White Dwarf Starlet]]

=== Dr. Manhattan (Jon Osterman) ===

 

 

The only truly superpowered character in the story, due to a [[Freak Lab Accident]], Jon Osterman gained godlike powers. He's used his powers to revolutionize the world, provide energy for electric cars and blimps, and continues to work on amazing new technology... but as time has passed he has turned more emotional distant to the people around him and indifferent towards humankind in general, and just doesn't seem to care about anything any more, or do anything unless he's told to.

 

* [[Achilles in His Tent]]

* [[Anti-Hero]]: Type I

* [[Blue and Orange Morality]]: Even after rediscovering the value of life, he sees life in terms of predictable/unpredictable, instead of good/evil.

* [[Came Back Strong]]

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Due to his intellect and power, Jon becomes very distant from everyone.

** Case in point: he treats "What's up" ''as if it's a logical question''.

* [[Deus Exit Machina]]: Laurie even called him that when he appeared at Daniel's apartment.

* [[Expy]]: Of Captain Atom.

* [[Non-Linear Character]]

* [[Not So Stoic]]: He only shows genuine emotion during his interview and later {{spoiler|when Adrian attempts to destroy him}}.

* [[The Omniscient]]: In the first part of the story, while he's still a side character.

* [[Prescience Is Predictable]]: Dr. Manhattan describes himself as "a puppet who can see the strings." Since he literally views all time simultaneously, he can't change the future because, to him, it's already happening. This causes him to stop caring about what happens and just go with the flow. When {{spoiler|a tachyon storm disrupts his ability to tell the future}}, he becomes ''excited'', saying he had forgotten the joy of uncertainty.

* [[Physical God]]

* [[Power Glows]]

* [[Unexplained Recovery]]

* [[Walking Wasteland]]: Dr. Manhattan's presence is said to give people cancer. {{spoiler|Subverted, as it's actually Veidt deliberately inducing cancer in Manhattan's past acquaintances.}}

* [[You Cannot Change the Future]]: Dr. Manhattan exists in a multidimensional quantum solid state, and quickly tires of listening to his friends talk about what "could have happened" or what "should happen", since he already sees his entire time-stream. For him, the only difference between past and future is directional causality. The effects of causality on Dr. Manhattan himself are slightly contradictory, as future events can affect him backwards by causing him to report them, but not in any other way; he's unable to use the knowledge to interfere, and sees himself as bound by one-directional causality much like normal people.

'''Dr. Manhattan:''' ([[Department of Redundancy Department|repeating himself twice]]) Excuse me Rorschach. I'm informing Laurie 45 seconds ago. }}

* [[You Can't Fight Fate]]

=== Nite Owl II (Dan Dreiberg) ===

 

Rorschach: [exiting] You quit. }}

 

* [[Crazy Prepared]]: When Laurie frets that the cops have figured out Dan is Nite-Owl, he nonchalantly mentions that he had set up back-up identities ''years'' ago, just in case. Note that he also made one for ''her''.

** Dan is like the poster boy for the [[Silver Age]]. The amount of equipment he had built for himself is just plain silly. His ship, build for fighting urban crime, has a fog generator, flame thrower and air to freaking air missiles. He also had a different Nite-Owl suit for pretty much every environ you could possibly imagine. He even has a Snow-Owl suit for crime fighting in extreme cold. [[Chekhov's Gun|Why the Hell would you need one of those?]]

* [[Dating Catwoman]]: Implied to have had this going on with the Twilight Lady.

* [[Dogged Nice Guy]]: To Laurie.

** Also, while we repeatedly see Airships are commonly used in 1985 as a viable form of transport due to Dr Manhattan being able to synthesise Helium; the fact that Archimedes on the other hand is able to ''hover'' with ''no visible jets'' seems to suggest that Dan invented some form of anti-gravity technology. That he has Archie in the first (and only) Crimebusters meeting, means that he had cracked this technology ''as early as 1965!''

* [[Geek Physiques]]: He's rather chubby, and very geeky.

* [[I Just Want to Be Normal|I Just Want To Convince Myself That I'm Normal]]

* [[The Lancer]]

* [[Legacy Character]]: He even wrote a letter to his predecessor for permission to use the Nite Owl name.

* [[Passing the Torch]]

* [[Rich Idiot With No Day Job]]

* [[Superheroes Wear Capes]]

* [[Technical Pacifist]]

* [[Token Good Teammate]]: Alan Moore says that of all the Watchmen, he is the most like a classic superhero.

* [[Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?]]

 

=== Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt) ===

 

 

Probably the most successful and effective hero of the lot. Adrian has honed his body and mind to near-superhuman perfection, created a multibillion dollar corporate empire, and mastered the sciences to change the world.

* {{spoiler|1=[[Big Bad]]/[[Big Good]]}}.

* {{spoiler|[[Broken Ace]]}}: {{spoiler|He is a young, blonde supergenius who is insanely rich, pretty much has America in his hands and defeats Rorschach, Silk Spectre, Nite Owl and Dr Manhattan at the end. He is also the antagonist, and portrayed as deludedly idealistic to believe that his plan will work.}}

* [[Expy]]: Of Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt.

* {{spoiler|[[The Chessmaster]]}}

* [[Genius Bruiser]]

* {{spoiler|[[He Who Fights Monsters]] / [[Not So Different]]: He would save billions of people from dying by causing millions of people to die.}}

* {{spoiler|[[Karma Houdini]]}}

* {{spoiler|[[Knight Templar]]}}

* [[Older Than He Looks]]: He is still quite good looking despite being in his forties.

** As the [[Watchmen (Script)|unproduced movie screenplay]] describes him:

* [[Reed Richards Is Useless]]: He was averting this ''long'' before {{spoiler|...well, it hardly needs to be said at this point.}}

* [[Right-Hand-Cat]]: Ozymandias's genetically-engineered lynx, Bubastis.

* {{spoiler|[[Tragic Villain]]: He is never punished for his actions; they do hurt him psychologically, though. But the real tragedy is that in trying to save humanity, Ozymandias loses his soul by becoming the very evil he wanted to destroy.}}

* [[The Unfettered]]

* {{spoiler|[[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]}}

* {{spoiler|[[You Are Too Late]]: Was originally the trope namer, and has one of the most iconic uses of it.}}

=== Rorschach (Walter Kovacs) ===

 

 

The only non-government superhero still active as of the beginning of the book, Rorschach is a ruthless, disturbed vigilante who believes the world to be falling apart around him. He speaks in fragments and lives like a bum, having devoted his life almost entirely to fighting crime--and it's his devotion that allows him to pick up the trail of a man's mysterious death...

* [[Anti-Hero]]: Type IV or V.

** Type II or III during the early days of his career. He was in better health mentally, being a vigilante was still legal, and he would leave criminals to be arrested by the police, instead of murdering them. But the Keene Act and mentally snapping after the brutal murder of a girl [[Jumping Off the Slippery Slope|had driven him nearer to the edge]].

* [[Anti-Villain]]: Type III

* [[Asexual]]: He likes to think of himself as this, although he may not be completely asexual due to his active Oedipal hang-ups. He says once that putting on his mask lets him be free of "fear or weakness or lust", and he once had some kind of creepy wet-dream nightmare about his mom when he was a kid. Of course, this may signify the start of his asexuality.

* [[Ax Crazy]]: See what he did to the child abductor and his dogs.

* [[Badass]]

** [[Badass Boast]]

** [[Badass Longcoat]]: More evocative of pulp heroes.

** [[Badass Normal]]: Along with every main character except Dr. Manhattan.

* [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]: His quote above. He feels the complete opposite when {{spoiler|New York is destroyed}}.

* [[Becoming the Mask]]: "NO! MY FACE! GIVE ME BACK MY FACE!"

** Also Rorschach's one limit. He won't punish his landlady for (falsely) telling the news he slept with her, because her kids are with her. Also, perhaps, because he saw himself in her son. And unlike ''his'' mother, she was holding her kids like she loved them.

* [[Black and White Insanity]]

* [[Does Not Like Guns]]

* [[Does Not Like Women]]: Rorschach, from his poor experiences with his mother.

* [[The Dreaded]]: This was seen in the comic when Rorschach entered the bar and the bartender begged him not to kill anyone today.

** Possible subversion - perhaps {{spoiler|he had conceptualized Rorschach as some kind of force of justice and only allowed Walter Kovacs to be the one who really died}}.

* [[Expy]]: Of [[The Question]] and Mr. A.

* [[Extreme Melee Revenge]]

* [[Fatal Flaw]]:

* [[Friend to All Children]]: Well, ''friend'' is stretching it to breaking point, but it matters to him that children aren't hurt.

* [[Genius Bruiser]]

* [[Grappling Hook Pistol]]: One of Rorschach's signature tools, {{spoiler|until the police take it away after his arrest}}. It gets turned into an [[Improvised Weapon]] at one point.

* [[Guttural Growler]]: In the film, at least. In the comic it's mentioned that he speaks in a 'creepy monotone', but growling or lack thereof isn't specified.

* [[He Who Fights Monsters]]

* [[Homeless Hero]]

* [[Hypocritical Humor]]:

* [[Indy Ploy]]

* [[Jackie Earle Haley]]: Plays him in the movie.

* [[Knight Templar]]

* [[Little No]]: What Rorschach fantasizes about doing when the world eventually destroys itself, as seen in the page quote. [[Character Development|He eventually changes his mind.]]

** It's also the only part of his outfit that {{spoiler|doesn't get vaporised.}}

* [[No Social Skills]]

** Its telling that when he suspects a Mask Killer, Dan is the first one he warns.

* [[Ominous Walk]]

** [[Subverted Trope]]: He paints himself as one in a [[Crapsack World]]. However, he is also batshit insane...

** [[Double Subverted]]: ...but he was onto something with his "mask killer" theory; he was, initially, the only person to notice something odd.

* [[The Unfettered]]

* [[Verbal Tic]]: 'Hurm' and 'Ennk'.

* [[Walking Disaster Area]]

 

=== Silk Spectre II (Laurie Juspeczyk) ===

 

 

Stage-mothered almost from birth into continuing her mother's legacy, Laurie has become very bitter and disillusioned since the Keene Act and starts out in the story as Dr Manhattan's girlfriend.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]

* [[Expy]]: Of both Nightshade and the Phantom Lady.

* [[Legacy Character]]

* [[Morality Pet]]: For Dr Manhattan.

 

=== Laurence Schexnayder ===

 

* [[The Heart]]: Managed to keep six (briefly seven) people together as an effective crime-fighting team, in spite of their neuroses and occasional hatred for each other. Perhaps a subversion in that he didn't actually ''care'' about any of the individual members (except for Sally) and dumped the team when he saw that they weren't going to be profitable for much longer.

 

=== Moloch (Edward Jacobi) ===

 

* [[Antagonist in Mourning]]: He leaves roses at the Comedian's grave.

* [[Diabolical Mastermind]]: Retired.

* {{spoiler|[[He Knows Too Much]]}}

* {{spoiler|[[Pretty Little Headshots]]}}

* [[Punch Clock Villain]]: Maybe not originally, but after prison he has no desire to return to villainy.

* [[Unwitting Pawn]]

 

[[Category:Watchmen]]