![]() Seen as one of the biggest final act twists in comics, it turns the idea of superheroes on their head by making the characters that readers had spent a year following complicit in what is tantamount to a genocide, a brutal killing of the relative few for the betterment of the many. The only one of the so-called heroes who doesn't play along is Rorschach, who's instantly killed by Doctor Manhattan for trying to leave in order to tell the world the truth. Perhaps even more surprising, however, was the fact that the other Watchmen choose to stay quiet about this plan after confronting Adrian about his machinations, seeing the devastation, and hearing his justification that the world is now at peace, united against the faux-alien threat. (In the movie, of course, the squid was dropped and Veidt's plan involved framing Doctor Manhattan as the threat that would unite the nations.) It was this bonkers plan that had driven the Comedian mad when he discovered it, leading to his murder at the hands of Veidt himself in order to keep it all secret. This fake invasion accomplishes Veidt’s ultimate goal: The United States and the Soviet Union, which had been on the brink of nuclear war throughout the story, unite in the face of this supposed greater, alien threat. In fact, Veidt had genetically engineered a giant, squid-like creature and teleported it into the middle of Manhattan, causing immense destruction and the deaths of millions of New Yorkers. With the heroes finally reunited it's revealed that the big bad all along was in fact one of their own, Adrian Veidt, who - along with some of the greatest minds in the world - concocted the machiavellian scheme to save the planet. It opens with a technicolor massacre, half of New York dead, and the world in shock at an apparent alien invasion. Play A Shocking TwistWhen the book was originally released, Watchmen’s biggest surprise came in the final issue. Check out IGN's History of Awesome video below, where we delve into the importance of the year 1986 in comic books. As Rorschach seeks out his old teammates, the history of the Watchmen is revealed in flashbacks even while their relationships unravel as the ragtag team tries to uncover who's really pulling the strings behind the death of their former friend. After the murder of the Comedian, his former teammate Rorschach dedicates himself to solving the crime, unitentionally uncovering a vast and terrifying conspiracy that reconnects the old team and will ultimately end up changing the face of the world as they know it forever. Though in this universe masked crime-fighters were once a part of everyday life with the heroic Minutemen living as both vigilantes and celebrities, they have been banned by the time the book begins, leaving the former heroes in disarray. ![]() The Watchmen’s StoryWatchmen is set in an alt-universe version of America where the country won the Vietnam War with the help of Doctor Manhattan, and Richard Nixon is still President after the repeal of the 22nd Amendment. ![]() And last but certainly not least is the super-smart Adrian Veidt, who worked under the historically ominous name Ozymandias. Next on the slate is inventor Daniel Dreiberg, who took on the legacy title of Nite Owl from one of the Minutemen (the previous generation of masked heroes). Laurie's romantic partner is the naked, blue, and omnipotent Doctor Manhattan, who began life as a nuclear physicist called Jonathan Osterman. The only woman on the team is Laurie Juspeczyk, also known as the Silk Spectre, who took on that costumed-adventurer mantle from her mother. Edward Blake is better known as the Comedian, a Vietnam vet, mass murderer, and rapist whose suspicious death sparks the story. Our "in" character is Walter Kovacs' Rorschach, a desperate and deranged vigilante who will stop at nothing to find the truth. Who Are the Watchmen?The titular team is made up of six costumed heroes (although they’re never really called Watchmen in the comic). So here's everything you need to know about the original Watchmen series, the men who made it, and the massive impact it's had on pop culture history. (The movie, of course, had a different ending than the comic.) Read our first impressions of the Watchmen pilot. Additionally, the HBO Watchmen TV series is a continuation of the book, not the movie, set some 34 years after that story. That seminal book was of course turned into a movie directed by Zack Snyder in 2009, though by its very nature the film had to drop or alter several elements from the comic.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |