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Watchmen
center|250px Cover art for the 1987 U.S. (left) and UK (right) collected editions of Watchmen, published by DC Comics and Titan Books.
Publisher	DC Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Limited series
Publication date	September 1986–October 1987
Number of issues	Twelve
Main character(s)	Nite-Owl Dr. Manhattan Rorschach Silk Spectre Ozymandias Comedian
Creative team
Writer(s)	Alan Moore
Artist(s)	Dave Gibbons
Colorist(s)	John Higgins

Watchmen is a twelve-issue comic book limited series by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons. The series was published during 1986 and 1987 by DC Comics.

Contents 1 Story 1.1 Plot summary 2 Background 3 Characters 4 Influences 5 Themes 6 Release and reception 7 Composition 8 Marketing 8.1 Film 9 Notes 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Story

Watchmen is set in an alternate reality that closely mirrors the contemporary world of the 1980s. The main difference is the existence of superheroes. Their presence in this history has altered the outcomes of real-world events such as the Vietnam War and presidency of Richard Nixon.^[1] Although the cast of Watchmen are commonly called "superheroes," the only character in the principal cast who possesses superhuman powers is Dr. Manhattan.^[2]

In Watchmen, the United States and the Soviet Union have been edging toward a nuclear showdown since the 1959 nuclear accident that transformed scientist Jon Osterman into the super-powered Dr. Manhattan. Due to Dr. Manhattan's near-godlike powers and allegiance to the American government, the U.S. has enjoyed a distinct strategic advantage, allowing it to defeat the Soviet Union in a series of proxy wars, including victory in Vietnam. Richard Nixon used this success and, unmarred by the Watergate scandal which attracted little or no attention, encouraged a repeal of the 22nd Amendment, removing Presidential term limits. He remains President in 1985, on an unprecedented fifth term of office. This imbalance of power accelerated the nuclear arms race and dramatically increased global tension.

[edit] Plot summary

In October 1985, the costumed vigilante Rorschach investigates the murder of New Yorker Edward Blake and discovers that Blake was the Comedian, a veteran costumed adventurer and government agent. Forming a theory that Blake's murder is part of a greater plot to eliminate costumed adventurers, Rorschach warns others: Dr. Manhattan (Jon Osterman), Laurel Jane Juspeczyk (formerly the second Silk Spectre), Daniel Dreiberg (the second Nite Owl) and Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias). Veidt, Juspeczyk and Dreiberg are long retired from crime-fighting, the latter two because of the 1977 passage of the Keene Act, which had banned costumed vigilantes (a law that Rorschach ignores). Veidt retired voluntarily in 1975, disclosing his identity publicly and using his reputation and intelligence to build a successful commercial enterprise and a large personal fortune. Like Blake, Dr. Manhattan remains exempt from the Keene Act as an agent of the U.S. government. He no longer engages in crime fighting, having become an important element of the ongoing Cold War.

Veidt, observing Dr. Manhattan's increasing emotional detachment from humanity, forms a theory that military expenditures and environmental damage will lead to global catastrophe no later than the mid-1990s. As part of an elaborate plot to avert this, Veidt acts to accelerate Dr. Manhattan's isolation by secretly exposing more than two dozen of Dr. Manhattan's former associates to harmful radiation, inflicting a variety of cancers on them. Meanwhile, Veidt manipulates the press into speculating that Dr. Manhattan himself was the cause of these cancers.

Now hounded by media allegations and quarantined as a result, Dr. Manhattan teleports himself to the planet Mars to contemplate the events of his life. His break with the U.S. government prompts Soviet opportunism in the form of an invasion of Afghanistan (a delayed version of the real-life event), greatly aggravating the global crisis and prompting Nixon to consider nuclear options.

Investigating the calamities that have befallen other heroes, Dreiberg and Rorschach discover information incriminating Veidt; Rorschach, Juspeczyk, Dr. Manhattan and Nite Owl confront Veidt at his Antarctic retreat, but too late to prevent the final phase of his plan. Using a teleportation device, Veidt moves a massive, genetically-engineered, psionic creature into the heart of New York City, knowing that the teleportation process will kill it. In its death-throes, the creature releases a "psychic shockwave" containing imagery designed to be so violent and alien as to kill half the residents of the city and drive many survivors insane. With the world convinced that the creature is the first of a potential alien invasion force, the United States and Soviet Union withdraw from the brink of war and form an accord to face this apparent extraterrestrial threat.

The murderer of Blake is revealed to be Veidt himself, acting after Blake had accidentally discovered details of Veidt's plot. Veidt has also eliminated numerous employees and minions. At the end, the only people aware of the truth are Veidt, Dreiberg, Juspeczyk, Kovacs and Osterman. Most of those assembled agree to keep silent out of concern that revealing the plot could re-ignite U.S.-Soviet tensions, but Rorschach refuses to compromise and leaves to tell the world about Veidt's actions. Dr. Manhattan attempts to dissuade him, but when Rorschach makes it clear that the only way to silence him is through murder, Dr. Manhattan kills him.

The ending of Watchmen is deliberately ambiguous about the long-term success of Veidt's plan to lead the world to utopia. After killing Rorschach, Dr. Manhattan talks briefly to Veidt. Professing his guilt and doubt, Veidt asks the precognitive Dr. Manhattan for closure: "I did the right thing, didn't I? It all worked out in the end." Dr. Manhattan, standing within Veidt's mechanical model of the solar system, replies cryptically: "In the end? Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends." He then disappears, leaving Earth forever.

However, before confronting Veidt, Rorschach had mailed his journal detailing his suspicions to The New Frontiersman, a far right-wing magazine he frequently read. The final frame of the series shows a New Frontiersman editor contemplating which item from the "crank file" (to which Kovacs's journal had been consigned) to use as filler for the upcoming issue. The editor's superior, indifferent as to which piece from the crank file is selected, tells his subordinate: "I leave it entirely in your hands."

[edit] Background

"I suppose I was just thinking, 'That'd be a good way to start a comic book: have a famous super-hero found dead.' As the mystery unraveled, we would be lead deeper and deeper into the real heart of this super-hero's world, and show a reality that was very different to the general public image of the super-hero." —Alan Moore on the basis for Watchmen[3]

Moore and comic book illustrator Dave Gibbons sought to collaborate on a new project together after working together on several stories for the British science fiction-oriented comic 2000 AD. Moore and Gibbons initially considered a project based on the mini-series about the fictional group Challengers of the Unknown. Moore then sought to establish a new universe of superheroes for the project that would become Watchmen, and the writer explored the possibility of drawing upon discontinued comic book lines, such as Mighty Crusaders from MLJ Comics, to reinvent the universe. At the same time, comic book editor Dick Giordano acquired a line of characters from Charlton Comics. Moore planned to begin the story with the 1960s-1970s Charlton version of The Shield being found dead in the harbor, after which a murder mystery, introducing other characters such as Jack Kirby's separate Shield incarnation Private Strong. Moore and Gibbons submitted a proposal to Giordano about the murder mystery approach using Charlton characters, believing that the characters would provide nostalgia to the readers, creating emotional resonance and associations. In the proposal, Moore laid out the basic plot details, including as the murderer's identity and the motive. Moore explained that a specific comic book line, citing T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents as an equal possibility, was inconsequential, as he would have reinvented the line in the same way. Moore said about the story's superhero background, "It didn't matter which superheroes it was about, as long as the characters had some kind of emotional resonance, that people would recognize them, so it would have the shock and surprise value when you saw what the reality of these characters was."^[3]

Giordano was receptive to Moore and Gibbons's proposal, but the editor opposed the idea of permitting the Charlton characters to be used in a negative way. According to Moore, DC Comics would have been unable to use the characters later based on the imposing scale of Moore's suggested implementation.^[3] Moore wanted to create "a superhero Moby Dick; something that had that sort of weight, that sort of density".^[4] Moore had initially believed that making up the characters would not provide emotional resonance for the readers, but the writer later decided to create characters that substituted preexisting characters closely enough to be familiar to readers. Moore later considered the "most powerful elements" in the final result of Watchmen to truly be the storytelling and the elements that laid in between.^[3]

[edit] Characters

Alan Moore embarked to create four or five "radically opposing ways" to perceive the world and to give readers of Watchmen the privilege of determining which one was most morally comprehensible. Moore did not believe in the notion of "[cramming] regurgitated morals" down the readers' throats and instead sought to show heroes in an ambivalent light. Moore said, "What we wanted to do was show all of these people, warts and all. Show that even the worst of them had something going for them, and even the best of them had their flaws."^[4]

• Rorschach: A vigilante superhero who operates on his own terms. The character was portrayed as an extremely right wing character by Moore, who based Rorschach on Mr. A, another comic book character whom Moore believed personified the right-wing background of Mr. A's creator Steve Ditko. The comic book superhero The Question also served as another template for creating Rorschach.^[3] Moore did not foresee the death of Rorschach until the fourth issue when he realized that Rorschach's refusal to compromise would need to lead to the character's death.^[4]
• Dr. Manhattan: A superhero with genuine powers who is contracted by the United States government. Alan Moore originally proposed the preexisting character Captain Atom as a nuclear superhero who would be surrounded by the shadow of nuclear threat. Due to the inability to directly use Charlton characters like Captain Atom, Moore later substituted the nuclear superhero with a new character, the quantum superhero Dr. Manhattan.^[3] The writer had considered the origins of nuclear superheroes in comic book history before Dr. Manhattan's creation. In opposition to the past superheroes that lacked scientific exploration of their origins, Moore sought to delve into the nuclear physics and quantum physics in constructing the character of Dr. Manhattan. The writer believed that a character living in a quantum universe would not perceive time with a linear perspective, which would influence the character's perception of human affairs. Moore also wanted to avoid creating an emotionless character like Spock from Star Trek, so he sought for Dr. Manhattan to retain "human habits" and to grow away from them and humanity in general.^[4]
• Dan Dreiberg / Nite Owl II: A retired vigilante superhero. Nite Owl was based on the Blue Beetle Ted Kord, and Moore also incorporated an original version of the Nite Owl into Watchmen, similarly to how Ted Kord had a predecessor.^[3]
• Laurie Juspeczyk / Silk Spectre II: Silk Spectre was not based on a particular Charlton character; rather, Moore felt he needed a female hero in the cast and drew inspiration from heroines such as Black Canary and Phantom Lady.^[3]
• Ozymandias: A retired superhero who runs his own enterprise. Ozymandias was directly based on Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt, whom Moore had admired in using full brain capacity as well as possessing full and mental control.^[3]
• The Comedian:

[edit] Influences

Alan Moore was influenced by American novelist William S. Burroughs in writing Watchmen. Moore drew from Burroughs's ideas of repeated symbolism that became familiar with meaning, describing the method of repetition to be like a musical score, being played throughout the work.^[4]

Moore drew the recurring symbol of the smiley face from psychological tests of behaviorism, explaining that the tests had presented the face as "a symbol of complete innocence". With the addition of a blood splash over the eye, Moore altered the face's meaning to become simultaneously radical and simple enough for the Watchmen first issue's cover to avoid human detail.^[4]

[edit] Themes

[edit] Release and reception

Watchmen was published in single-issue form over the course of 1986 and 1987. The miniseries was a commercial success, and its sales helped DC Comics briefly overtake its competitor Marvel Comics in the comic book direct market.^[5] Watchmen has also received several awards spanning different categories and genres including: Kirby Awards for Best Finite Series, Best New Series, Best Writer, and Best Writer/Artist, Eisner Awards for Best Finite Series, Best Graphic Album, Best Writer, and Best Writer/Artist, and a Hugo Award for Other Forms.^[6]

Watchmen received praise from those working within the comic book industry, as well as external reviewers, for its avant-garde portrayal of the traditional superhero. Time magazine, which noted that the series was "by common assent the best of breed [sic]" of the new wave of comics published at the time, praised Watchmen as "a superlative feat of imagination, combining sci-fi, political satire, knowing evocations of comics past and bold reworkings of current graphic formats into a dysutopian mystery story."^[7]

For Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons received eight percent of the series' earnings.^[4]

In his review of the Absolute Edition of the collection, Dave Itzkoff of The New York Times wrote that the dark legacy of Watchmen, "one that Moore almost certainly never intended, whose DNA is encoded in the increasingly black inks and bleak storylines that have become the essential elements of the contemporary superhero comic book," is "a domain he has largely ceded to writers and artists who share his fascination with brutality but not his interest in its consequences, his eagerness to tear down old boundaries but not his drive to find new ones."^[8]

[edit] Composition

[edit] Marketing

[edit] Film

Main article: Watchmen (film)

Warner Bros. Studios confirmed in June 2006 that Zack Snyder would direct a film adaptation of Watchmen,^[9] which is set for release on March 9, 2009.^[10] The cast includes Patrick Wilson, Malin Ackerman, Jackie Earle Haley, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.^[11] Previously, directors including Terry Gilliam,^[12] Darren Arronofsky,^[13] and screenwriter David Hayter have been attached to the project over the years.^[14] While Moore believes that David Hayter's screenplay was "as close as I could imagine anyone getting to Watchmen," he asserted he did not intend to see the film if it were made.^[15] Moore "refuses to have his name attached to any...films."^[16] However, Gibbons feels Snyder can make a good film and is supporting him.^[17]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Wright, Bradford W. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Johns Hopkins, 2001. ISBN 0-8018-7450-5

[edit] External links