When I was 15 by mistake i found in a very old book shop a very strange graphic novel.
I have always been comic fan with many favorites superheroes and I was familiar with comic books.
But this was something different...
From the first moment I realised that this isn't a comic book like the other that I have read till then.
It's was weird...dark, without colorful pics and with very strange characters in the front page.
I asked the owner but he didn't know to tell me anything about this.
I bought the graphic novel and on my way back home I was looking into the pages and then... just started a journey that till today I continue enjoying to be part of it...
The WatchMen...
Who watches the Watchmen?
At this point, who doesn’t? It’s sold over a million copies and is the first thing people mention when talking comics–for-adults. It’s the only graphic novel to make Time’s 100 Best Novels list, one of Entertainment Weekly’s Top 50 novels of the past 25 years, and has made fans of everyone from film directors Zack Snyder and Darren Aronofsky to the writers on Lost.
Watchmen takes place in an alternate world where the mere presence of American superheroes changed history: The US won the Vietnam War, Nixon is still president, and the cold war is in full effect. It begins with a murder-mystery before unfolding into a planet-altering conspiracy: When a retired hero is killed, his former teammates must investigate. The conspiracy they uncover will entwine their secret traumas and twisted psychologies, ultimately asking where the fine line is drawn between heroes and villains?
Popularly cited as the point where comics came of age, Watchmen’s sophisticated take on superheroes has been universally acclaimed for its psychological depth and realism. It’s slowly and inevitably become it’s own franchise, spawning a movie, video game, and the Before Watchmen prequel comics.
The Characters:
Eddie Blake/The Comedian
Eddie Blake had the longest crime fighting career out of all the costumed vigilantes. Edward Blake first started out as a crime fighter in the 1940's as The Comedian.
Minuteman
He was part of a group called the Minutemen, a team of eight masked crime fighting vigilantes. After a photo shoot for the Minutemen, The Comedian walked into a room to find Silk Spectre changing. He then attempted to rape her but was then stopped by Hooded Justice, who then proceeded beat Blake in a rage. The Minutemen then banned him from the group.
After being stabbed in the chest in 1941, he changed his green and purple costume to tough leather armor. Soon after the Minutemen disbanded in the 1950's, Blake was called to testify for the disappearance and killing of Hooded Justice, but he refused to testify. Nothing was ever proved against him.
Crimebusters
In the late 60's Blake joined a group called the Crimebusters, led by Captain Metropolis. However, their first meeting did not last long after the Comedian set fire to one of Metropolis's display and told everybody that the group was a joke.
After the the Keene Act in the 70's, the Comedian joined the fight in Vietnam with Dr. Manhattan, receiving a disfiguring scar on the left side of his face at war's end by an enraged Vietnamese woman he'd impregnated. He shot her in retaliation, telling Doctor Manhattan (who had watched the ordeal) that, despite the numerous chances at preventing the entire discretion; he did nothing.
Returning home, he assisted Nite Owl in attempting to quell a riot, only to become enraged after someone hits him in the head with a piece of debris, opening fire on the crowd with rubber bullets. After the riot disperses, Nite Owl questions his brutal choice of action.
Death
In October of 1985, he visited Edgar Jacobi a.k.a. Moloch, his former arch-enemy, while he was drunk. Sobbing, he tells him that everything in life is a joke before departing in an inebriated stupor. A few days later, he is attacked in his apartment; being tossed around and beaten before being thrown from the window and plummeting to his death below.
Powers and Abilities:
Abilities
Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced): The Comedian was a skilled hand-to-hand combatant in excellent physical condition, even at the time of his death at the age of 61. He is one of the few people to have beaten Ozymandias in a fight, but his skills diminished with age which lead to his ultimate demise.
Firearms: The Comedian is not an expert marksman per se, Blake was proficient with a .45 pistol and pump-action shotgun.
Tactical Analysis: His participation in World War II and Vietnam makes him skilled in military tactics.
Espionage: His government-sanctioned activities suggest that he was very talented in or received training in covert operations and unconventional warfare. It is implied that he was a CIA Black-Ops type agent during the 1960's and 1970's.
Investigation: The Comedian is a skilled detective. He not only is able to discover Ozymandias's plot, he also is the first character that recognizes Dr. Manhattan's growing detachment from humanity. He also correctly deduces Hooded Justice's sexual
orientation
Strength level
The Comedian possesses peak human-level strength that appears to be greater than most opponents. He has demonstrated sufficient strength to punch through a brick wall, lift grown men by the throat with one hand, and punch grown men several feet through the air.
Doctor Jonathan Osterman/
Doctor Manhattan
Due to an accident involving a nuclear physics experiment, Dr. Osterman was taken outside the physical realm and returned with god-like powers, including superhuman strength, telekinesis, the ability to teleport himself or others over planetary, and interplanetary distances, control over matter at a subatomic level, near total clairvoyance. Furthermore, he perceives the past, present and future as happening simultaneously, but at least believes that he cannot act on that knowledge since his own actions and reactions to chronological events are apparently predetermined.
While his military backers market him as a superhero, he grows increasingly disinterested in human affairs, despite his importance in the Cold War, and is unable to connect with others (especially his love interest Laurie, the second Silk Spectre). Like most characters in Watchmen, Manhattan appears to have a personality disorder, in his case, Schizoid personality disorder which is characterized by reclusiveness and voluntary withdrawal from socializing to the detriment of personal relationships.
Powers:
Unique Physiology: Jon's "intrinsic field" has been removed due to an accident that sent his atoms flying leaving him with barely enough control over his DNA structure. Over time he was able to reevaluate his physiology and become Doctor Manhattan, a quantum being of nearly unlimited power.
Chronokinesis: Limited only to his perception of time, Jon can clearly see his future and past from a third person perspective. Likewise, he can grant others with the "atemporal" vision.
Precognition: A product of his Chronokinesis, Jon can see his own future in a theoretical sense. This power has been blocked by theoretical particles called tachyons.
Molecular Reconstruction: Able to restructure himself after the removal of his intrinsic field, Jon is not limited to use this reconstruction power only on himself. He's taken apart most inanimate objects and even taken apart human beings as well as reconstructing martian sand into large glass structures.
Energy Projection: Jon doesn't need to touch or hold things in order to change their elemental structure, he doesn't even need to be solely conscious of his projections.
Energy Construct Creation: It is unknown whether some of the creations he makes it the manipulation of matter, molecules or entirely creative quantum energy constructs. He's stated he wishes to create his own life after manipulating matter on Mars as a sort of test.
Flight: Only seen as levitation, judging by Jon's slow and methodical process it can be termed that he could achieve must faster and dramatic appearances of flight but merely limits himself to hovering.
Immortality: Never seeming to age, Jon has never appeared any older both physically and mentally after his accident. He's stated that the world grows older around him.
Superhuman Strength: While in microscopic size, superhuman heights or in a seemingly normal form he has displayed great physical strength such as hurling tanks about, lifting planetary structures and heaving delicate technological equipment about.
Telekinesis: Telekinetic in his fabrication of lifting objects he focuses on with his mind, Jon is either limited or limits himself to only use his mental abilities to multitask as he takes apart or reassembles objects living and nonliving.
Intangibility: Bullets and blows travel through Jon, as such he can allow all objects to pass through him without so much as a reaction. He can extend this ability to others and other objects.
Teleportation: Able to remove and reassemble the particles and molecules of any object from one location to another with a single thought. Jon has teleported huge and small objects, people and animals alike.
Bio-Fission: Able to split and replicate his being, this ability has only been shown on himself. He's become many different completely sentient versions of himself that at first seem to be different entities, but are each a divided consciousness of Doctor Manhattan.
Bio-Fusion: Likewise with his Bio-Fission ability, Jon can bring his sentient copies back into his body without any adverse side effects. It is unknown what would happen if someone were actually able to kill one of the clones, but more than likely nothing would happen to the original.Size Alteration: Able to grow or shrink incredibly fast without a seeming limit. He displays great abilities and focus while at these sizes without a loss of control in any fashion.
Walter Joseph Kovacs/Rorschach
Rorschach (pronounced Roar-shack) is the vigilante name of Walter Joseph Kovacs; he was born March 21, 1940. His mother, a prostitute who resented his interference in her business, abused him viciously. His father never knew his son and nothing is known about him other then he liked President Truman and his name was "Charlie". At age 10, Walter attacked two bullies that had cruelly abused him, partially blinding one with the bully's own lit cigarette. Kovacs became a ward of the state and was sent to the Lillian Charlton Home for Problem Children. In high school, he excelled in religious education and literature, as well as in boxing and gymnastics. He also wrote an essay in which he praised President Truman's decision to use nuclear weapons against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, asserting that the bombs helped save lives by stopping the war.
During those high school years, at age 16, Walter was informed of his mother's gruesome murder; her pimp force-fed her a bottle of Drano until she died in agony. Walter's reaction consisted of only a single word: "Good."
At about the same time, he found work as an unskilled garment worker; noting later to a prison psychiatrist "Job bearable but unpleasant. Had to handle female clothing". Working in this capacity, in 1962 he grew fascinated by a new fabric made possible through technologies developed by Doctor Manhattan. Two viscous liquids, one black and one white, between two layers of latex, continually shifted in response to heat and pressure, forming symmetrical patterns like a Rorschach inkblot test while never mixing to produce a grey colour. Kovacs learned of the fabric when a young woman chose not to buy a dress which she had ordered made from it; subsequently Kovacs took the dress home and experimented with the fabric. He learned to cut the fabric and maintain the seal using heated scissors.
The real life 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese (in front of a building full of tenants who didn't bother to help her) was made part of the Watchmen universe backstory, providing a trigger for Kovacs's decision to avenge the powerless victims of crime. He decided that Genovese had been the woman who had ordered the dress ("Young. Pretty. Italian name. I'm sure it was her"), cut up the dress, and made it into a mask -- becoming Rorschach (taking his name from the test).
Eventually, in 1965 he teamed up with another superhero, the second Nite Owl, whose technical skills and resources complemented Kovacs' skills as an investigator.
In 1975, Rorschach was searching for a kidnapped child and found her captor's vacant hideout. A cursory inspection revealed, to his horror, that the girl had been murdered, butchered, and fed to two German Shepherd dogs. In the face of this atrocity, Kovacs' mind snapped and assumed the mental identity of Rorschach as a separate personality. He killed the dogs with a meat cleaver and waited for the kidnapper. Kovacs later mentioned, "shock of impact ran along my arm. It was Kovacs who said 'mother' then, muffled under Latex. It was Kovacs who closed his eyes. It was Rorschach who opened them again." When the man returned, he wordlessly chained him to a pipe, ignoring his claims of innocence (the man telling Rorschach: "Y-you can't prove anything. I mean, wh-where's the evidence", suggesting that he fed the girl to the dogs to get rid of the 'evidence'), then placed a hacksaw near him and set the house on fire. Finally speaking, he told the terrified man that he would not have time to cut through his restraints before the fire killed him (implying that he would have to sever his own arm to escape). Kovacs calmly watched the structure burn from across the street; the suspected kidnapper did not emerge. In an interview ten years later with psychologist Malcolm Long, Kovacs explicitly mentioned the incident as the point after which he became "Rorschach, who sometimes pretends to be Kovacs"; before that, he claims, he was only "Kovacs pretending to be Rorschach." He no longer refers to his "mask"; now he only calls the mask his "face".
After the 1977 Keene Act outlawed costumed vigilantes, demanding his retirement, he grew even more violent, murdering notorious multiple rapist Harvey Charles Furniss and leaving his corpse in front of a police station; a note pinned to his chest read, "Never!" True to his word, Rorschach remained an active "adventurer" in open defiance of the law.
Rorschach lives in a slum run by a landlady who has had multiple children by multiple fathers; he pointedly comments on his belief that she cheats on welfare. It is never mentioned whether he continued to work in the garment trade or found some other source of income. During the day, he walks around New York as a vagrant with a sign reading "The end is nigh."
During a mid-1980s murder investigation of a man named Eddie Blake, Rorschach discovered that the victim was the alter ego of the Comedian an amoral government-sponsored "costumed adventurer" and former colleague whom he seemed to admire. Suspecting a plot to eliminate superheroes, he pursued the investigation accordingly, interviewing and warning several former members of the hero community. Although no one took his theory seriously, the sudden public denunciations and subsequent self-exile of Doctor Manhattan and the attempted murder of Adrian Veidt (the former Ozymandias) bolstered his confidence that he was on the right track. Before long, however, he was framed for the murder of Moloch, an ailing former adversary, and was captured by the police. During the take down, Rorschach fought the heavily armed officers with improvised methods using ordinary household materials, with surprising effectiveness, but he was knocked unconscious as he fought to escape.
In prison, Kovacs was examined by a clinical psychologist, and subject to numerous death threats and attacks by vengeful prisoners. When taunted by inmates about being trapped inside with them, his only reply was to say that they had it backwards; they were, in fact, trapped with him. He prevented an attempt on his life in the prison cafeteria by calmly and wordlessly grabbing a pot full of boiling cooking grease and hurling it into the assailant's face. The psychiatrist later described the resultant burns on the attacker as "horrific." A former organized crime head called The Big Figure orchestrated a prisoner riot as a distraction while his flunkies attacked Kovacs. He easily, almost leisurely, dispatched the would-be assassins before he escaped his cell to pursue and drown The Big Figure (a diminutive old man) in a prison restroom. During this battle, the current Nite Owl and Silk Spectre were attempting to break him out of prison, and used the chaos of the prison riot to do so. They sought his help in their own investigation into the murders of the former superheroes.
Investigating jointly, Nite Owl and Rorschach learned that the mastermind behind the plot was Adrian Veidt, who had been hailed as the smartest person in the world. Rorschach and Nite Owl traveled to his home in Antarctica to confront him; however, they were unable to prevent him from accomplishing his ultimate goal. Before the duo arrived, Veidt teleported an enormous Lovecraftian "alien" that he had manufactured into the heart of New York City, killing millions and psychically traumatizing millions more. Exactly as Veidt had predicted, the hoax forced the nations of the world to halt their mounting hostilities towards one another and unite against the perceived alien threat, thereby preventing the inevitable nuclear showdown.
Shortly after Veidt confessed his plot to Nite Owl and Rorschach, they were joined by Doctor Manhattan and the Silk Spectre, having just returned from Mars. After a brief struggle, the adventurers realized that by exposing Veidt's act they would only manage to return the world to the brink of nuclear catastrophe. The other heroes agreed that they must keep the hoax a secret, but Rorschach flatly refused to comply (" Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon. That's the difference between us, Daniel."). Manhattan told Rorschach that he "cannot allow" him to reveal the truth to the world, but Rorschach maintained his defiance. Enraged and in tears, Walter Kovacs removed his mask and demanded that Manhattan kill him if that is what it took to protect Veidt's utopia. Although reluctant and showing emotions again, Manhattan silently complied with Kovacs' request.
However, Rorschach's legacy may have had greater consequences; prior to departing for Antarctica, he wrote a lengthy journal detailing his investigation and sent it to a reactionary right-wing newspaper The New Frontiersman. While Veidt was confident Kovacs would not be believed by the public, since his mental illness was well known, the question of whether the journal's contents would be printed and his evidence seriously examined was left unknown.
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
Acrobatics: Training himself to become a gifted athlete, Rorschach has been able to jump roof top to roof top, scale tall buildings and land on his feet without ever making a sound.
Espionage: Rorschach was proven quite skillful in the act of espionage, spying on his enemies and allies alike just to keep tabs as well as confirm his suspicions.
Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced): Rorschach was a brilliant street fighter and has since honed this skill during his years of crime fighting and his stint in prison.
Interrogation: Rorschach has his own special brand of asking questions, mostly involving breaking body parts and otherwise scarring or maiming victims (or suspects) to get answers.
Intimidation: Rorschach's mental instability is well known, even without his costume or any of his friends about he is an intimidating man and has made many people flee in his presence.
Investigation: Rorschach is an accomplished detective, figuring out the "mask killer theory" and eventually Ozymandias' plan with little to no help. His zeal for crime solving has been mentioned multiple times.
Journalism: Rorschach kept a journal of his adventures when it was most necessary, he's proven to be a deep thinker and since witnesses the underbelly of the city has cataloged it's nightmares.
Indomitable Will: After the events which made him take on the personality of Rorschach, in every aspect of his life, he developed a desire to make sure that all crime is punished. Even after masked adventurers became detested and banned he continued his vigilante activities. He's also defied odds against a large number of armed Police Officers that surrounded his home.
Genius Level Intellect: Rorschach has been described as Nite Owl as 'tactically brilliant', and excelled in religious education, political science and literature in his schooling days. He is also able to string weapons out of anything, like a cooking fat spray can and a match.
Laurie Juspeczyk/Silk Spectre
Laurie Juspeczyk was born in 1950. Sally Jupiter pushed her daughter into the "family business" of crime fighting. Laurie never held much interest in becoming her mother's successor, but went along with Sally's wishes anyway; growing up, the brunette Laurie knew "Laurence Schexnayder" was not her real father, and always believed, incorrectly, that her real father was Hooded Justice.
Crimebusters
Driven by the memories of her own experience, Sally tried to keep Laurie from knowing some of the harsher realities of life; despite this, Sally acted like an agent for her daughter, picking out her revealing costume, bringing her to the meeting of the ill-fated "Crimebusters" in a limousine and waiting outside for her to finish. After the meeting broke up, Laurie met the Comedian outside, who commented and complimented her for being the spitting image of her mother, but their conversation was broken up quickly by an angry Sally. Laurie noted that the Comedian looked sad as he watched them drive away, and she felt sorry for him.
The following car ride home was when Sally told her daughter of her history with the Comedian (but did not tell her that the Comedian was her father). Disgusted and deeply saddened for her mother's pain, Laurie never forgave the Comedian for his actions, though it seems that as time passed, and in a complicated way, Sally was able to come to terms with it, even to the point that she was willing to defend the Comedian from Laurie's derogatory remarks after he was murdered.
Shortly after the meeting of the Crimebusters, Laurie met and became involved with Dr. Manhattan, something her mother did not approve of, likening Laurie's relationship with Manhattan to being the equivalent of sleeping with an H-bomb. Drawn to him from the moment she first saw him, Laurie worked with Manhattan in some of his various domestic assignments, including the suppression of riots during the police strike of 1977. Never exactly happy being a vigilante and not happy with the government taking advantage with her relationship with the superhuman Manhattan, Laurie was more than pleased to quit being a superhero when the Keene Act of 1977 forced all but government-sponsored superheroes to retire.
Retirement
After retiring, Laurie lived with Dr. Manhattan for a number of years, but their relationship became strained, owing to Manhattan's growing disconnection with humanity. Rorschach came to see the two one evening, warning them of a potential masked hero killer and asking for their help in stopping him. Both turn him down, with Manhattan teleporting him out of the facility.
Laurie eventually left Manhattan and began living with Dan Dreiberg and the two soon became romantically involved. One night, Dreiberg and Laurie decided to don their old costumes and take Dreiberg's airship "Archie" out. During their flight, they found a building on fire and rescued the inhabitants. Excited by returning to being heroes, the two make love, afterwards deciding that Rorschach may have been right about his masked killer theory and break him out of prison.
Watchmen
Soon after, Laurie was brought to Mars by Manhattan, where she attempted to convince him to save humanity from impending nuclear war. During their conversation, Laurie finally came to the realization that, to her horror, her father was really the Comedian. Moved by the sheer unlikelihood of two people as different as Sally Jupiter and the Comedian producing a child, and the child being Laurie, Dr. Manhattan realized the miracle and value of human life and agreed to save the planet. The pair returned to Earth, only to find half of New York City destroyed by Ozymandias' creature. They teleported to Ozymandias' lair in Antarctica, where Laurie attempted to shoot Ozymandias, only to be thwarted by his ability to catch bullets. After realizing that Ozymandias' plan had worked, and that, despite the loss of several million lives, nuclear war had been averted while also uniting the nations of the world, the heroes (with the exception of Rorschach) decided that Ozymandias' plan should be kept secret to serve the greater good. Veidt offers Dan and herself hospitality, to which they accept.
After Watchmen
Shortly after these events, Laurie and Dan Dreiberg adopted new appearances and identities, now calling themselves Sam and Sandra Hollis, and sporting blonde hair. They visited Sally Jupiter - now living in a retirement home - and Laurie told her mother that she had realized the truth about her father. Coming to terms with the knowledge, Sam and Sandra left soon afterwards, indicating that they would continue to adventure, although Laurie expressed the wish for a better superhero identity, a more protective leather outfit, a mask, and a firearm.
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
Gymnastics
Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced): She is one of the most skilled martial artists on the planet. She has also been trained by her mother the original Silk Spectre and other teachers.
Daniel Dreiberg/Nite-Owl
Born in 1945, Daniel Dreiberg was an admire of birds, gadgets, and of superheroes. Dreiberg's father was a banker who left him a large inheritance, which he used to design and build his crime-fighting gear. Hollis Mason, the original Nite Owl, was his hero and when he retired, Dan wrote to Mason, asking if he could carry on his name. Upon looking at his gear, Mason was too impressed to refuse, and gave Dan the greenlight to start fighting crime in the 1960s. From then, the two men became friends, and met every Saturday at Hollis' house.
In 1965, Dreiberg (as Nite Owl) successfully debuted and teamed up with fellow costumed adventurer Rorschach to take on organized crime. He supported the idea of costumed vigilantes forming a group to fight crime strategically, but Rorschach and the Comedian rejected the idea. Having already come to understand that his expensive activities were too limited in scope to make any real difference, Dreiberg retired after the passing of the Keene Act on August 3, 1977, although in 1985 he seems to regret his decision to give up crime fighting. Rorschach would later say regarding his retirement, "No staying power." When not fighting crime, Dreiberg mastered in aeronautics and zoology at Harvard University, contributing scholarly articles to ornithological journals after his retirement in 1977.
Dreiberg becomes romantically entangled with the second Silk Spectre, Laurie Juspeczyk, after she leaves Doctor Manhattan. He returns to vigilantism along with her, beginning with a heartening night out in costume in which they successfully save the occupants of a burning building. The excitement of aiding the residents awakens Dreiberg's sexual feelings for Laurie and the two make passionate love following the rescue. Dan later came to realize of Rorschach's conspiracy after Doctor Manhattan's self-exile, Adrian Veidt's attempted assassination, and Rorschach's arrest. He later convinces Laurie into helping break Rorschach out of prison in an attempt to stop Ozymandias scheme to "save the world from itself." Unfortunately, the freeing of Rorschach indirectly results in the brutal murder of Hollis Mason, which Dan learns of only when he and Rorschach go to interrogate suspects. Upon learning of Mason's death, Dreiberg becomes violent, attacking the informer and loudly swearing vengeance against Mason's killers with such ferocity that Rorschach has to restrain him.
Dan and Rorschach travel to Ozymandias' Antarctic fortress. They battle with and are swiftly defeated by Ozymandias, who reveals his plan to unleash a telepathic monstrosity on New York City that will release massive psychic waves that will kill half the city. Nite Owl expresses the desire to stop him and is told that the events have already occurred. Millions are dead, and the world's nations agree to work together to combat this new "extraterrestrial threat". Reluctantly, Dan and the recently arrived Dr. Manhattan and Laurie Juspeczyk agree to keep this secret for the sake of world peace.
The morally absolute Rorschach leaves, attempting to take Dan's vehicle back to civilization to tell the world. Unseen by the others, Doctor Manhattan kills Rorschach to stop him. Dan and Laurie are offered hospitality by Ozymandias, which they accept. Before leaving for another galaxy, Manhattan seems satisfied and happy at the sight of Laurie now in a relationship with Dan.
Almost to the end of the 80's, Dan and Laurie took their new identities of Sam and Sandra Hollis (in homage to the late Mason). They travel to California and make a brief visit to the former Silk Spectre; in which Laurie reconciles with her mother over the discovery that the Comedian was her father. Promising to visit again soon, they leave with the intent of continuing their adventures in crime-fighting.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
This individual does not possess any superhuman capabilities.
Abilities
Genius Level Intellect
Gifted Inventor: Dan was the creator of many inventions and crime-fighting technologies, like his "Owlship" ship, and Night Owl weapons.
Skilled Acrobat: Dan was an accomplished acrobat, who more often than not, utilized this greatly into his hand-to-hand fighting style.
Martial Arts: Had studied with several martial arts masters, and can out-fight just about any group of thugs or criminals with his fighting skills alone.
Strength level
Dan originally had the strength of a man his height and weight who engaged in regular intensive physical exercise. Now after years of retirement his skills have greatly decreased. Despite his decrease, he is still able to hold his own in a fight and can take on multiple opponents with ease.
William Brady/Dollar Bill
An excellent college athlete from Kansas University, Dollar Bill was employed as a masked vigilante for one of the major banks in New York City, an in-house superhero. His name and costume was designed specially to represent the bank.
Minutemen
During the 1940s, Dollar Bill was one of masked vigilantes asked to join The Minutemen. He had a variety of adventurers with the team until the time of his death.
Death
In 1947, while he was trying to stop a bank robbery, his cape was caught in one of the bank's revolving doors; caught and helpless he was then shot in the head at close range ending his 11 year masked career and life.
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic): Although never formally trained he gained the ability to fight hard through years of experience.
Wrestling: Bill was an accomplished wrestler, one of his many athletic achievements.
Nelson Gardner/Captain Metropolis
As a child, Nelson Gardner was sickly and asthmatic, but years of training allowed him to get past his condition and eventually played football in college before joining the U.S. Marines. He later adopted the Captain Metropolis persona, and, using the skills he acquired in the military, attempted to eradicate organized crime in urban areas.
Minutemen
In the fall of 1940, he founded a superhero team called the Minutemen which was composed of Silk Spectre, Hooded Justice, the Silhouette, Nite Owl, the Comedian, Mothman and Dollar Bill.
It is implied that he had a relationship with fellow gay teammate Hooded Justice, yet this information was unknown to the public. This revelation may explain his mysterious departure from the Marines. Judging by a letter written by Silk Spectre's agent, Larry Schexnayder, it appeared that Metropolis was the submissive partner in the relationship while Hooded Justice was the more dominant partner, with Metropolis often calling Larry and complaining about the arguments he was having with Hooded Justice.
In 1946, a newspaper expose revealed that Silhouette's personal doctor was also, in fact, her lover. Fearing further scrutiny, Metropolis and Hooded Justice were goaded by Schexnayder into voting for her expulsion from the team. Dollar Bill and Silk Spectre voted along with them, though Nite-Owl and Mothman, who had both known about the affair for years, voted against. Much to the team's horror, Silhouette and her lover were killed six weeks later by an enemy who called himself the Liquidator. The ensuing search was poorly executed; the Liquidator had hidden himself somewhere in theTenderloin, Manhattan's notorious red-light district, and Metropolis and Hooded Justice opted to use the occasion to burnish their credentials as upstanding citizens by pulling vice busts. Eventually, Silk Spectre found the Liquidator and killed him, but was so disgusted by Metropolis' lack of initiative that she left him and Hooded Justice to clean up the mess. Shortly afterwards, she quit the team.
Unhappy with the way the team was more concerned about social appearances than actual crime fighting, the Minutemen were eventually disbanded by Captain Metropolis himself in 1949. Sometime later, the team
After Minutemen
By the 1960s, he and Hooded Justice had broken up, and he was now seeing a man named Nobert Veldon. When they learned that Hollis Mason's impending autobiography was going to reveal details of Gardner's relationship with Hood Justice, an angry Veldon showed up at Mason's shop and threatened to sue him, claiming that Gardner had become suicidal.
Crimebusters
In 1966, Captain Metropolis attempted to form another team, the Crimebusters, to which he invited Rorschach, Nite Owl II, Silk Spectre II, Dr. Manhattan, Ozymandias and the Comedian, but his plans were old-fashioned, prefaced in a large part upon the notion that ethnic minorities, particularly blacks and Hispanics, were inherently lawless.
When he spoke at the meeting of tackling the "social ills" of America, the Comedian mocked him for wanting to "dress up" and play "cowboys and Indians", and further accused the older hero of trying to form the Crimebusters as a means of seeking personal glory, which Metropolis insisted wasn't true; as the would be members filed out, Metropolis begged them not to leave, telling them that someone had to "save the world." The crime display that he worked so hard on was burned and destroyed by the Comedian. Also, about this time, he was making various racist statements about Hispanics and African-Americans, which contributed to the public's already growing distaste for superheroes. By 1974, Nelson tragically died in an automobile accident in which he was decapitated.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
This individual does not possess any superhuman capabilities.
Abilities
Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic)
Hooded Justice/?
Hooded Justice was the first masked vigilante. His true identity was unknown to his fellow Minutemen, but Hollis Mason suspected it to be circus artist Rolf Müller.
Minutemen
Hooded Justice was homosexual and in love with Captain Metropolis. But to hide it, he feigned love for Silk Spectre and even saved her from the Comedian's attacks.
Hooded Justice was a brutal vigilante who would beat criminals to a bloody pulp, this was suggested by the Comedian to be a part of his sexual fetishes. His controversial talent for brutal treatment made him infamous in local newspapers.
Retirement
In 1955, he mysteriously disappeared. Mason reasoned that when the "House of Un-American Activities Committee" began to demand the unmasking of all costumed adventurers Hooded Justice did not wish to and resigned from this duty. Mason noted the similarities of Hooded Justice's history with that of a circus entertainer "Rolf Müller", suspecting that they were in fact the same person.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
This individual does not possess any superhuman capabilities.
Abilities
Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic)
Byron Lewis/Mothman
Byron Lewis had a privileged upbringing and sought adventure around the world. When he returned home from a trip to Africa he saw that his country had been taken storm by the crime fighters. Seeking to help the less fortunate and fight oppression and corruption he decided his thirst for adventure and heroism could be sated by becoming the Mothman.
Due to his family's money and inventive nature he created special wings that allowed him to glide through the air. However, years of dangerous adventure and crime fighting was taking it's toll on the man and he became addicted to liniment and alcohol to cope with the pain.
Minutemen
Despite the pain and suffering and faulty equipment, he joined the Minutemen to do good on a higher level and had many adventures with them over the years. He was the second member to leave the group before it became officially defunct; he left due to his increasing mental instability.
Retirement
At the height of the McCarthy era in the 1950s, Lewis came under pressure of the House of Un-American Committee trials due to previously befriending to left-wing friends during his student days. Because of the investigations, Lewis was committed into a mental asylum in Maine in 1962. He was briefly released for the Minutemen's reunion, but was still in a mentally fragile wreck.
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
Genius Level Intellect
Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias
Adrian Veidt was born in 1939, the son of rich immigrant parents, he was found to be incredibly intelligent. After his parents and his teachers became suspicious of his grades, he successfully hid his intelligence by deliberately achieving average grades. After his parents' deaths, he inherited their substantial fortune at age 17, but chose to give it all to charity. Veidt then embarked on a vision quest, following the route of Alexander the Great - a childhood idol - throughout the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and former ancient Persia.
It was during this journey that he consumed a ball of hashish and decided to become a superhero. Returning to America, he named himself "Ozymandias" and became a costumed vigilante, focusing particularly on organized crime and earning a reputation as "the smartest man on the planet." However, his own cases robbed him of the idealistic belief that battling crime would truly lessen evil and suffering in the world. This was brought to a head when an abortive attempt to organize a new superhero team was disrupted by the Comedian, who noted in his brutally apt way exactly how petty the doings of the costumed heroes were in a world where the threat of nuclear war hung overhead, and how powerless they were to stop it. Veidt was inspired to do just that.
In 1975, two years before vigilante crime fighters (superheroes) are banned by the "Keene Act," Veidt retires from super heroism, marketing his image for money. This helps bankroll his scheme of creating a catastrophic event and deceive the world into uniting against a common enemy, in Veidt's case, a horrific alien invasion. To that end, he employed geneticists to clone the stolen brain of a murdered psychic and use it to create such a creature with a group of artists and creative personnel to help create the illusion. He also invents a limited form of teleportation based in part on the studies of (and studies by) Dr. Manhattan. Upon completion, he arranged the murder of all of his accomplices to maintain the illusion.
To prevent Dr. Manhattan from interfering, he hired old associates of the superhero and secretly exposed them to radiation to induce terminal cancer in them, then engineered a rumor that Manhattan was responsible, causing Dr. Manhattan to exile himself to Mars.
When the Comedian inadvertently learned of Veidt's plans, Veidt personally murdered him as well. The story of Watchmen begins several hours after the killing, with police detectives investigating the crime.
The death of the Comedian caught the attention of Rorschach, who investigated the crime and mistakenly theorized that there existed a conspiracy to murder masked adventurers. Although Veidt arranged an assassination attempt on himself to throw off suspicion, he framed Rorschach on a murder charge to get him out of the way. In addition, Veidt started the accusations against Dr. Manhattan to drive him off the planet and set off a chain of events that threaten to start a global war.
Unknown to him, the current Nite Owl and Silk Spectre grew to believe that Rorschach's investigation had merit and sprung him from prison to investigate the matter. In addition, Dr. Manhattan took Silk Spectre to Mars where she convinced him to return to Earth.
However, the superheroes were unable to stop the fulfillment of Veidt's scheme, which led to the deaths of over three million people in New York City. The world governments fell for this ruse, and agreed to a union to oppose this new alien menace. Seeing as how Veidt's plot had the desired effect of uniting the nations of the world and averting a possible nuclear war, Doctor Manhattan, Nite-Owl and Silk Spectre agree to keep silent about what they know, as it would only plunge the world back to the brink of disaster. Rorschach alone refuses to keep silent, telling Dr. Manhattan that he will never compromise, not even in the face of Armageddon, Dr. Manhattan must kill Rorschach before he can tell anybody what he knows, and does so. When Veidt asks the precognitive Dr. Manhattan for verification that he did "the right thing" and that his plans "worked out in the end," Dr. Manhattan can only reply that nothing ever ends, leaving Veidt once again in doubt as to whether or not his plan was successful.
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
Genius Level Intellect: Veidt is referred to as the smartest man alive. His mental performance allows his mind to operate in the most efficient and rapid manner possible. One manifestation of this is his tactical genius; the ability to quickly process multiple information streams and rapidly respond to changing tactical situations. He is capable of creating numerous technologies to counter Dr. Manhattan. Veidt is able to view a wall filled floor to ceiling with television screens, each showing a different image he is able to pay attention to each one simultaneously.
Eidetic Memory: Veidt also possesses an eidetic memory, meaning that he never forgets anything and has perfect recall.
Historiography
Mechanical Engineering
Multilingualism: Veidt is fluent in English, Turkish, German, Russian and various other languages not shown.
Physics
Tactical Analysis: He had been widely considered one of, if not the greatest, tacticians on the planet. He is able to create a vast billion dollar International corporation with links to legitimate and criminal organization, all with the single purpose to bring world peace via the threat of a fake alien invasion to unite the nations to bring about world peace.
Martial Arts: Veidt is an expert in hand-to-hand combat being very skilled in multiple martial arts. Fighting skills sufficient to hold off both Nite-Owl and Rorschach at the same time.
Acrobatics: His years of training and experience even at age 40 have made him an expert acrobat.
These are the Watchmen guys
A superhero team that is different and unique...
Thanks for reading...
George...
