Watchmen (collective work) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

show spoilers

Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

• Edward Morgan Blake/The Comedian: One of two government-sanctioned costumed heroes who remain active after the Keene Act of 1977 bans their activities. The Comedian is a brutal crime-fighter who doesn't believe in veiling the natural brutality of humankind. He is murdered in the beginning of the book, leading Rorschach to formulate his mask-killer theory.
• Dr. Jon Osterman/Doctor Manhattan: A super-powered being who is contracted by the United States government and is one of the two government-sanctioned heroes who remain active after the 1977 ban of superheroes. Was a physicist who was transformed into a blue-skinned super-powered being after he was caught and disintegrated in an "Intrinsic Field Subtractor". Has trouble relating to humans the older he gets
• Walter Joseph Kovacs/Rorschach: A vigilante who wears a white mask that contains a symmetrical but constantly shifting ink blot pattern, he continues to fight crime in defiance of the 1977 Keene Act. Mentally unstable and uncompromising, Rorschach works on his own agenda to purge the world of filth. He theorizes that there is a conspiracy to pick off former costumed heroes. Had a hard luck life as a child and could have just as easily become a villain
• Daniel Dreiberg/The Nite Owl II: The second Nite Owl (inherited the mantle from Hollis Mason). Currently retired with the passing of the Keene Act in 1977 outlawing vigilantes not endorsed by the government.
• Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias: Veidt was once the costumed hero Ozymandias, but has since retired to devote his attention to the running of his own enterprises: he is an extremely successful entrepreneur, selling self-help books, an action-hero franchise, cologne, and other products. Considered as having the highest IQ in the world. Draws inspiration from Egypt, Rameses II, and Alexander "the Great".
• Laurie Juspeczyk/The Silk Spectre II: The daughter of Sally Jupiter (Silk Spectre I). Her mother wanted her to follow in her footsteps, so she fought crime for ten years before the Keene Act banned vigilantes. Lives on a government research base with her lover, Dr. Manhattan.
• Moe Vernon: Owner of an auto repair shop in New York around 1928, where Hollis Mason's father worked. Committed suicide in 1933.
• Hollis Mason/The Nite Owl I: The original Nite Owl, now a retired auto-mechanic.
• Nelson Gardner/Captain Metropolis: One of the Minutemen, he was one of the gay characters who had a secret affair with H.J. He later tried to form a group called the Crimebusters.
• Bubastis: Adrian Viet's pet lynx.

Quotes edit see section history

show spoilers

• “I shall go and tell the indestructible man that someone plans to murder him.”

  Rorschach

• “The city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face.”

  Rorschach

• “Come...dry your eyes, for you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg; the clay in which the forces that shape all things leave their fingerprints most clearly.”

  Dr. Manhattan

• “In the end? Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends.”

  Dr. Manhattan

• “Who watches the watchmen?”

• “No. Not even in the face of Armageddon. Never compromise.”

  Rorschach

• “We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from another's vantage point, as if new, it may still take the breath away.”

  Dr. Manhattan

• “A world grows up around me. Am I shaping it, or do its predetermined contours guide my hand?”

  Dr. Manhattan

• “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes. Who watches the Watchmen?”

• “"None of you understand. I'm not locked up in here with you. You're locked up in here with me."~Alan Mooreair pump”

• “<Chapter 2, p.1> 'Aw, willya look at her? Pretty as a picture an' still keepin' her figure!' 'So, honey, what brings you to the city of the dead?'”

  Old Lady Jupiter

• “<Chapter 2, p.1> Jon's at some funeral I didn't feel like attending, so he transported me here, to California. I just got through throwing up in the ladies' room.”

  Laurie Jupiter

• “<Chapter 2, p.1> Jon had to go. Protocol. They made him put clothes on and everything.”

  Laurie Jupiter

• “<Chapter 2, p.1> I can still read. I saw in the paper he got murdered. I guess he finally reached the punchline, huh?”

  Old Lady Jupiter

• “<Chapter 2, p.1> Laurie, you're young, you don't know. Things change. What happened, happened forty years ago...It's history.”

  Old Lady Jupiter

• “<Chapter 2, p.3> He said he'd bury us. Y'see, that was Eddie, always talkin' like he was on top of it, like it was never going to happen to him...He was The Comedian. He always thought he'd get the last laugh.”

  Old Lady Jupiter

• “<Chapter 2, p.13> Listen...Once you figure out what a joke everything is, being the Comedian's the only thing makes sense.”

  The Comedian

• “Thermodynamic miracles . . . events with odds so astronomical they're effectively impossible, like oxygen spontaneously becoming gold. I long to observe such a thing. And yet, in each human coupling, a thousand million sperm vie for a single egg. Multiply those odds by countless generations, against the odds of your ancestors being alive; meeting; siring this precise son; that exact daughter. . . until your mother loves a man she has every reason to hate, and of that union, of the thousand million children competing for fertilization, it was you, only you, that emerged. To distill so specific a form from that chaos of improbability, like turning air to gold . . . that is the crowning unlikelihood. The thermodynamic miracle.”

  Jon/ Dr. Manhattan

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• New York
• America
• Manhattan
• Montana
• Mars
• Antarctica: At Adrian Viet's compound.
• New York State Prison

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Clock: Describe this theme.
• Good vs. Evil
• Nostalgia

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Alan Moore (Author)
2. Dave Gibbons (Illustrator) - Pen and Ink

Other Contributors:

1. John Higgins (Illustrator) - John Higgins the colorist was brought in by Dave Gibbons because he liked his "unusual" style. It helped that they lived very close as well, to share ideas.

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Hugo (1988: Other Forms)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PN6737.M6
• Dewey: 741.5941

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Comics & Graphic Novels › Graphic Novels › Superheroes
• Books › Comics & Graphic Novels › Publishers › DC Comics
• Books › Comics & Graphic Novels › Graphic Novels › Science Fiction

Movie Connections edit see section history

• Watchmen (IMDb): 2009 film directed by Zack Snyder and starring Jackie Earle Haley, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson and Malin Akerman.

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history