Watchmen (comics)/Characters

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Spoilers follow. Read at your own risk.

Heroes Who Became Active During The 1930's

Captain Metropolis (Nelson Gardner)

"Please! Don't all leave...Somebody has to do it, don't you see ? Somebody has to save the world..."

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.
• Brought To You By The Letter "M"
• The Cape (trope)
• Demoted to Extra: In The Movie he has no lines, and his role in the Crimebusters is transferred to Ozymandias.
• Heroic Build: In his day. Toward the end of his career, he went to seed.
• Noble Bigot with A Cape: Racist and hidebound, but he means well enough.
• Invisible to Gaydar
• The Strategist
• Superhero Packing Heat: A .38 special, to be exact. (According to the RPG.)
• Superheroes Wear Capes
• Yaoi Guys: With Hooded Justice.

The Comedian (Edward Blake)

"Blake is interesting. I have never met anyone so deliberately amoral. (...) As I come to understand Vietnam and what it implies about the human condition, I also realize that few humans will permit themselves such an understanding. Blake's different. He understands perfectly -- and he doesn't care." —Dr. Manhattan

A veteran 'hero' who was vicious even when young, and has since become a full-blown hired gun on government payroll. Dies on the first page, though we only later find out why.

• Anti-Hero: Type V
• Anti-Heroes Want Redheads
• 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.
  • Also, he defies this trope when he discovers Ozymandias’ plan and raves about it to Moloch: He discovers that even he cannot laugh this off as another joke:

I mean, what’s funny? What’s so goddamned funny? I don’t get it. Somebody explain… Somebody explain it to me.

• 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".
• Combat Pragmatist: Prefers Guns and a straight fighting style the more stylised moves others use.
• Deadpan Snarker
• 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.
  • Comedian also looks a lot like Bucky in his Minuteman days who somehow grew into a wise-cracking, cigar smoking, woman beating version of Captain America (comics), with a bit of Wildcat and a pinch of Nick Fury.
    • Not to mention The Killing Joke Joker.
• Glasgow Grin: Half of one, courtesy of his upset Vietnamese girlfriend.
• The Gump
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Genuinely attempted to connect with Laurie on two separate occasions and notably didn't react the way he usually does after she publically lashed out at him and dashed him in the face with a drink. According to the RPG, he was also composing a letter to her before Ozymandias killed him. He also seems to have had real feelings for Sally Jupiter.
• Even Evil Has Standards / Heroic BSOD: He freaks out when he discovers Ozymandias' plan
• The Gunslinger
• Heel Realization: He seems painfully aware of how cruel and amoral he is and desperately tries to change that before dying.
• He Knows Too Much
• Jerkass:
  • Jerkass Facade: Possibly.
• Me Love You Long Time: Brutally subverted as he got himself a Vietnamese girlfriend during the Vietnam war but eventually kills her and her unborn baby once the war is over.
• Kick the Dog: Killing a pregnant woman, assassinating JFK, and attempting to rape a fellow superheroine, for examples.
  • Some choose to see the first as his crossing the Moral Event Horizon
• Nietzsche Wannabe
• Porn Stache
• Posthumous Character
• Psycho for Hire
• Redemption Equals Death
• The Sociopath
• Superhero Packing Heat
• Token Evil Teammate
• Took a Level in Badass: He was already badass when he started out, but over the years he started wearing body armor (after getting stabbed) and carrying guns.
• Tragic Villain
• Villain with Good Publicity
• Villain Protagonist
• 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!"

Dollar Bill (Bill Brady)

A star college athlete from Kansas who was hired by a bank to be their in-house superhero. Died in 1947, when during an attempt to foil a bank robbery, his cape got caught in the door and he was shot.

• All-American Face
• Born Lucky: According to the RPG, his sporting and superhero career were studded with incredible strokes of good luck. Up until a certain day, that is...
• Impractically Fancy Outfit: The bank who sponsored him insisted that he wore the cape that led to his untimely death.
• Nice Guy: At least, according to Hollis Mason in Under the Hood.
• Superheroes Wear Capes: Deconstructed, as Alan Moore was showing how impractical wearing a cape is, and how wearing a cape lead to his death.

Hooded Justice (Possibly Rolf Muller)

"You sick little bastard, I'm going to break your neck..."

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.

• Anti-Hero: Type IV or V
• Berserk Button: Seeing women hurt, possibly. His first appearance involved him stopping a rape (crippling one of the attackers in the process), he beat the Comedian severely following his attack on Sally Jupiter, and according to the backstory presented in the RPG Rolf Muller's father abused his mother -- Until thirteen-year-old Rolf beat the crap out of him.
• The Berserker
• Bondage Is for Anti-Heroes
• The Brute: An anti-heroic version.
• The Cowl
• Culture Equals Costume: Justice's costume references the circus (leotard and cape), the KKK (face concealing hood), and bondage (ropes on ankles, wrists, waist and neck) -- all things Muller/Justice is associated with.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Was a big supporter of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich
• Manly Gay
• Lightning Bruiser: Fast enough to take on three armed men and win, strong enough to cripple and kill with his bare hands.
• NobleBigot With A Cape: More of the "bigoted", less of the "noble".
• 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.
• The Spook: His identity was never known and he promptly disappeared when people started asking questions, never to be seen again.
• Superheroes Wear Capes
• Yaoi Guys: With Captain Metropolis.
• Your Cheating Heart: ...and he cheated on him with younger men.

Mothman (Byron Lewis)

"Me, I hope we keep out of it. Just thinking about war, it scares me..."

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.

• The Alcoholic
• Hauled Before a Senate Subcommittee: Which didn't help his alcoholism one bit.
• Not Quite Flight: Thanks to the wings on his costume.

Nite Owl I (Hollis Mason)

"This is the left hook that floored Captain Axis!"

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.
• The Cape (trope): He was inspired by Superman, after all.
• Cool Old Guy
• Domino Mask
• Expy: Of the first Blue Beetle, Dan Garrett.
• Heroic Dog: Phantom.
• Nice Guy
• Only Sane Man: In a far, far less comedic sense than the usual application of the trope.
• Passing the Torch
• Retired Badass
• Superheroes Wear Capes: Tried it, but after he discovered how hard it was to walk around his own house with the thing on without it catching on things, he decided to go without.
• Token Good Teammate: Like Nite Owl II, he comes the closest of the Minutemen to being a true hero.

The Silhouette (Ursula Zandt)

"Perhaps the Poles thought so too, eh? You agree, Sally?"

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.

• Civvie Spandex: In the comics, her costume is a simple black pantsuit with a red sash. The Movie makes it look more super-heroic.
• Death Glare
• 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.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Being Jewish, she despised the Hooded Justice, who was openly supportive of the Nazi regime.

Silk Spectre I (Sally Juspeczyk/Jupiter)

"Laurie, I'm 65. Every day the future looks a little bit darker. But the past, even the grimy parts of it... well, it just keeps on getting brighter all the time."

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.

• The Beard: For Hooded Justice.
• Broken Bird
• The Chick
• Civvie Spandex: It's basically a showgirl costume.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Glory Days: See her quote.
• Hot Mom
• I Just Want My Daughter To Be Special

"So what if she didn't have a normal life? Normal life stinks! You can ask anybody!"

• I Was Quite a Looker
• Ms. Fanservice
• My God, What Have I Done?: Later in life, she would decry the expulsion of The Silhouette from the Minutemen as unjust.
• Pass Fail: Changed her name from Juspeczyk to cover up her Polish heritage.
• Redheaded Hero
• Rule 34: In-Universe. Sally has an unlicensed porno comic of herself among her memorabilia, making this trope Older Than The Internet.
• Stocking Filler
• White Dwarf Starlet

Heroes Who Became Active During The 1960's

Dr. Manhattan (Jon Osterman)

Comedian: "Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Pregnant woman. Gunned her down. Bang. And y'know what? You watched me. You coulda changed the gun into steam or the bullets into mercury or the bottle into snowflakes! You coulda teleported either of us to Goddamn Australia... but you didn't lift a finger!"

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
• Amazing Technicolor Population
• Anti-Hero: Type I
• Blessed with Suck / Cursed with Awesome: Manhattan's power. The accident erased him from existence, but he came back with godlike powers. Then again, he's gradually detaching from the rest of humanity...
• 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.
• Complete Immortality: The only thing that slows him down is the same thing that gave him his powers, and since he already overcame that problem to begin with, it's more of a minor hindrance than anything else.
• Deus Exit Machina: Laurie even called him that when he appeared at Daniel's apartment.
• Expy: Of Captain Atom.
  • There are also elements of Superman, a fact even commented on by characters in the story.
• Extreme Doormat: He only became a nuclear physicist because his father ordered him to. Even after he became the most powerful man in the world, he still remained a doormat, following the orders of the government.
• Full-Frontal Assault
• Freak Lab Accident
• Humanoid Abomination
• Innocent Fanservice Boy
• Insignificant Little Blue Planet: Dr. Manhattan sees it this way. All life on earth could end, "and the universe would not even notice."
• Nigh Invulnerability
• No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup
• Non-Linear Character
• Not So Stoic: He only shows genuine emotion during his interview and later when Adrian attempts to destroy him.

Doctor Manhattan: Please if everyone would just go away and leave me alone... I SAID! LEAVE ME ALONE!

• 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 a tachyon storm disrupts his ability to tell the future, he becomes excited, saying he had forgotten the joy of uncertainty.
• Person of Mass Destruction: He is definitely this. He is a reality warper that people say isn't as good as an atomic bomb because 'you don't have to get an atomic bomb laid'.
• Physical God
• Power Glows
• Pro-Human Transhuman: At times.
• Reed Richards Is Useless: Averted. His presence and abilities have definitely solved many of the world's problems. (Not as many as he could solve, though.)
  • Lampshaded by Niteowl I. He states that he plans to run a car repair shop after he puts up the cape, saying that even Dr. Manhattan can't change cars. Manhattan then explains how he can do exactly that.
• Story-Breaker Power: Ironically, it doesn't do much. Even when Dr. Manhattan is vaporized and comes back.
• Superpower Lottery: It's not even fair--nobody else in the series has any powers at all, and he's a Physical God!
• The Spock
• Time Dissonance
• Tin Man
• Unexplained Recovery
• Walking Wasteland: Dr. Manhattan's presence is said to give people cancer. Subverted, as it's actually Veidt deliberately inducing cancer in Manhattan's past acquaintances.
• Walking on Water
• 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: Miracles by definition are meaningless. Only what can happen does happen. Dr. Manhattan: (repeating himself twice) Excuse me Rorschach. I'm informing Laurie 45 seconds ago.

• You Can't Fight Fate

Nite Owl II (Dan Dreiberg)

Rorschach: Used to come here often, back when we were partners. Dreiberg: Oh. Uh, yeah... yeah, those were great times, Rorschach. Great times. Whatever happened to them? Rorschach: [exiting] You quit.

A former superhero fan, then full-fledged superhero, and now retired intellectual. A gadget-based hero who flies the night skies in his state-of-the-art airship, Archie, he sometimes questions his use of million-dollar technology to fight petty crime.

• Anti-Hero: Type I
• Ascended Fanboy
• Ambiguously Jewish: Apparently a lapsed Calvinist of Dutch extraction.
• Badass
  • Badass Normal
  • Badass Bookworm
• Bash Brothers: With Rorschach
• Blue Oni: To Rorschach (Red Oni)
• Covert Pervert
• Cool Airship: Archie
• 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. Why the Hell would you need one of those?
• Crimefighting with Cash
• Dating Catwoman: Implied to have had this going on with the Twilight Lady.
• Dogged Nice Guy: To Laurie.
• The Everyman
• Expy: Of the second Blue Beetle, Ted Kord.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Has an insane amount of gadgets devoted to fighting crime in his basement.
  • 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 Call It Vera: He calls his airship "Archie", short for Archimedes.
• I Just Want To Convince Myself That I'm Normal
• In Harm's Way: He probably could have gone on without it, but it's clear he missed his old hero days and was eager to go back.
• The Lancer
• Legacy Character: He even wrote a letter to his predecessor for permission to use the Nite Owl name.
• Nerd Glasses
• Nice Guy
• Odd Friendship: With Rorschach. No-one else seems to even like being in the same room as Rorschach.
• Passing the Torch
• Rich Idiot With No Day Job
• Stylish Protection Gear: It's ted protection gear all right, but it's not very stylish.
• 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?
• Wide-Eyed Idealist

Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt)

I DID IT! after he destroyed New York to stop a nuclear war

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.

• Affably Evil
• Ambiguously Evil: Was his master plan tragic, but necessary or just wrong?
  • It can be both.
• Anti-Villain: Type III
• Ambiguously Gay (Movie only)

Rorschach's Journal: Possibly homosexual? Must remember to investigate further. —His computer has a file in it titled "Boys".

• Badass
• Big Bad/Big Good.
• Broken Ace: 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.
• Brought To You By The Letter Eye
• Charles Atlas Superpower
• Expy: Of Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt.
• The Chessmaster
• Contemplative Boss
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Averted. Adrian really isn't motivated by greed or a lust for personal power. He's a Knight Templar or Well-Intentioned Extremist, but not a sellout.
• Dangerously Genre Savvy: "Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago."
• Fallen Hero
• Genghis Gambit
• Genius Bruiser
• He Who Fights Monsters / Not So Different: He would save billions of people from dying by causing millions of people to die.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: By his own admission.
• Lonely at the Top
• Karma Houdini
• Knight Templar
• Older Than He Looks: He is still quite good looking despite being in his forties.
  • As the unproduced movie screenplay describes him:

Although he's DREIBERG's age, his face is serene and unlined by worry. Blond and pale, he looks thirty. When he's sixty he'll look forty.

• Reed Richards Is Useless: He was averting this long before ...well, it hardly needs to be said at this point.
• Right-Hand-Cat: Ozymandias's genetically-engineered lynx, Bubastis.
• Self-Made Man: He inherited a fortune. He donated all of it and proceeded to make his own fortune from scratch; just to prove that it's possible.
• Superheroes Wear Capes
• Technical Pacifist
• This Is Reality: "I'm not a Republic serial villain."
• 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
• Villain with Good Publicity / Visionary Villain
• Well-Intentioned Extremist
• You Are Too Late: Was originally the trope namer, and has one of the most iconic uses of it.

Rorschach (Walter Kovacs)

"The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicans will look up and shout 'save us'... and I'll look down and whisper 'no.'"

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...

• Abusive Parents
• All of the Other Reindeer : Some bullies show this to Rorschach and he goes berserk on them.
• Ambiguous Disorder: He has No Social Skills, an extreme dislike of physical contact and bizarre monotone syntax.
• Ambiguously Evil
• Ambiguously Gay: The "holding a handshake too long" scene that demonstrates Nite Owl II's sexual tension for Silk Spectre II is mirrored later with confirmed bachelor Rorschach doing the exact same thing to Nite Owl II.
  • Although that may be due to the fact that he has No Social Skills.
• 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 had driven him nearer to the edge.
• The Anti-Nihilist: Rorschach believes that rules and principles are the most important in life because the world has no more meaning than the one we impose on it.
• 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.

"I had feelings when I woke up. Dirty feelings, thoughts and stuff. The dream, it sort of upset me, physically. I couldn't help it. I feel bad just talking about it."

• Ax Crazy: See what he did to the child abductor and his dogs.
• Badass
  • Badass Boast

"None of you seem to understand... I'm not locked in here with you. YOU'RE LOCKED IN HERE WITH ME!"

• • Badass Longcoat: More evocative of pulp heroes.
  • Badass Normal: Along with every main character except Dr. Manhattan.
• Bash Brothers: With Nite Owl.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: His quote above. He feels the complete opposite when New York is destroyed.
• Becoming the Mask: "NO! MY FACE! GIVE ME BACK MY FACE!"
• Berserk Button: The same as Batman's: don't ever harm a child.
  • 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
• Black and White Morality: How he sees himself, although to the other characters it's more like Black and Gray Morality.
• The Blank : The whole idea behind his mask.
• Bold Inflation: Aside from the ill-fated Crimebusters meeting (which took place long before the 1975 kidnapping case which completely redefined him), the only instances where he spoke like this are when he was unmasked by the police and when he goads Dr. Manhattan into killing him.
• Butter Face: A Rare Male Example. Has a very muscular and athletic body but, from the neck up, he's rather unattractive. Plain-looking at best.
• Byronic Hero
• Celibate Hero: He's freaked out beyond all recognition about anything to do with sex, due to child abuse. He has a massive madonna-whore complex and mentions once that he was "offered Swedish love and French love but not American love [by prostitutes]," however you want to interpret that.
• Combat Pragmatist: To an insane degree.
  • Rorschach's solution to the "Gordian Knot problem". When faced with an impossible lock, Rorschach will simply kick the door down.
• Conspiracy Theorist
• Civvie Spandex
• Coat, Hat, Mask
• Cool Mask: Made from a failed prototype for a designer dress. Contains black fluids in latex which move from heat and pressure but never mix into grey.
• Crazy Survivalist
• Creepy Monotone: In the comic book and to an extent in the film.
• Deadpan Snarker: Particularly with Big Figure ("Small world").
• Death Seeker
• Determinator: Even after he jumps out a window which is at least five stories up, he lies on the ground telling himself to get up while the police kick him unconscious. And them some.
• Does Not Know How to Say Thanks
• Does Not Like Guns
• Does Not Like Women: Rorschach, from his poor experiences with his mother.
• Do Not Call Me Walter
• The Dreaded: This was seen in the comic when Rorschach entered the bar and the bartender begged him not to kill anyone today.
• Dying as Yourself: Rorschach takes his mask off just before Dr. Manhattan kills him.
  • Possible subversion - perhaps 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.
  • Moore also puts in elements of Batman noting that "He would be considered a Nutjob in Real Life"
• Expressive Mask: And how. It does more than cover his face; to Rorschach, it is his face.
• Extreme Melee Revenge
• Fatal Flaw:

Rorschach: No. Not even in the face of Armageddon. Never compromise.

• 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, 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.
• Hero with an F In Good
• He Who Fights Monsters
• Homeless Hero
• Hypocritical Humor:

Rorschach: Why are so few of us left active, healthy, and without personality disorders?

• Improvised Weapon: He is the master of this.
• Indy Ploy
• Jackie Earle Haley: Plays him in the movie.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold
• Knight Templar
• Little No: What Rorschach fantasizes about doing when the world eventually destroys itself, as seen in the page quote. He eventually changes his mind.
• Nice Hat: In the movie, he keeps picking it up even when Ozymandias keeps kicking his butt.
  • It's also the only part of his outfit that doesn't get vaporised.
• No Social Skills
• Odd Friendship: With Nite Owl, who used to be his partner in crime-fighting.
  • Its telling that when he suspects a Mask Killer, Dan is the first one he warns.
• Ominous Walk
• Only Sane Man:
  • 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.
• Pet the Dog: Rorschach may be batshit insane, Axe Crazy and treat even his team-mates with suspicion and abuse, but he does make it very clear that he does value his friendship with Nite Owl and even apologizes when Nite Owl calls him out on his behaviour.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: The guy's 5'6". He wore elevated heels as a part of his outfit.
• Principles Zealot: YES.
• Properly Paranoid: Indeed, he is right to suspect right after the Comedian's murder that it's the beginning of a plot to off superheroes.
• Redheaded Hero
• Redheaded Stepchild
• Red Oni: To Nite Owl (Blue Oni)
• Running Gag: He keeps breaking into Dan's house throughout the novel, forcing Dan to call the locksmith.
  • Even more ironic when you notice the locksmith is the "Gordian Knot Lock Company".
• Serial Killer Killer
• Sociopathic Hero
• Son of a Whore
• Tranquil Fury
• Terse Talker
• The Unfettered
• Verbal Tic: 'Hurm' and 'Ennk'.
• Vigilante Man
• Walking Disaster Area

Silk Spectre II (Laurie Juspeczyk)

"I don't know anybody! I don't know anyone except goddamned superheroes!"

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.

• Action Girl
• Anti-Hero: Type I
• Badass Normal
• Beauty Mark: Has the same mole as her mother's.
• Closer to Earth
  • It's hard to imagine anyone who isn't Closer to Earth than Dr. Manhattan.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Expy: Of both Nightshade and the Phantom Lady.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Initially.
• Legacy Character
• Morality Pet: For Dr Manhattan.
• Ms. Fanservice
• Mysterious Parent: At first, she thought that her real father was the Hooded Justice. Then it turns out to be the Comedian.
• Only Sane Woman
• Stripperific: Her superhero outfit. She doesn't like it (and neither does Rorschach).
• Smurfette Principle: She was the only female "Crime Buster."
• Passing the Torch: More like having the torch shoved into her hand against her will, gratefully throwing it away, and then deciding it wasn't so bad after all.
• Pretty Freeloader: She was this for Doctor Manhattan and became this to Dan (he insisted). Can't blame her since she has no job skills aside from fighting crime.
• Second Love: With Dan.
• Teleportation Sickness: It always makes her ill.

Other Characters

Laurence Schexnayder

A description of the character goes here.

• 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.
• May-December Romance: With Sally. He seems to have hooked up with her when she was about seventeen or eighteen.

Moloch (Edward Jacobi)

A description of the character goes here.

• Antagonist in Mourning: He leaves roses at the Comedian's grave.
• Convenient Terminal Illness
• Diabolical Mastermind: Retired.
• He Knows Too Much
• Motif: In his day, he favored demonic/occult motifs, to the point of having his ears tapered.
• Pretty Little Headshots
• Punch Clock Villain: Maybe not originally, but after prison he has no desire to return to villainy.
• Reformed but Rejected: Mostly averted. After spending years in prison, only Rorschach is still suspicious of him.
• Retired Badass: Old, ill, and long retired, he's still ready to shoot what he thinks is a burglar.
• Unwitting Pawn

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