History Comicbook / BeforeWatchmen

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Inverted; While Edgar had been depicted as plain-looking, his ''Before Watchmen'' comic shows him as a borderline {{Gonk}}.

* EngineeredHeroics:
** Spectre starts her career by thwarting staged shop robberies. The stores usually go along with it for the free publicity.
** After the fact variant. The Minutemen succeed in stopping a criminal act, but rather than being Italian fascist saboteurs smuggling bombs, they blow up a warehouse full of smuggled fireworks. Nelly even holds up one of his armored car's own shells as proof the criminals were arms smugglers.

* ForegoneConclusion: Anyone who's alive in ''Watchmen'' is obviously not going to die or get permanently injured, no matter what it might look like.
** Likewise, you know that some of the Minutemen won't make it all the way through in their own comic.

* AdaptationalHeroism: The Comedian.

* AlliterativeTitle
* DeliberatelyMonochrome

* {{Prequel}}: As the title would suggest.

* ILoveNuclearPower: Averted to tragic effect. In his efforts to prevent the Statue of Liberty from exploding and killing all of New York, Scout manages to prevent the bomb from going off at the cost of being blasted with a high dosage of uranium radiation unprotected. While he looks fine at first, by the time he dies his whole body is deformed beyond recognition.

* DeadHatShot: A non-drowning example in Issue #6 [[spoiler: we see a flashback of Ursula's death with her NiceHat turned upside down, and her bed in the back.]]

* DeadHandShot: [[spoiler: How we see Ursula's death, via bloody slashed hand. The Liquidator's death is shown this way as well, seeing only his hand from the bathtub.]]

* TerribleIntervieweesMontage:The auditions for the Minutemen. The hopefuls range from amusingly ineffectual (Liberty Lassy, a cheerful Statue of Liberty-themed triple threat who can cook a mean brisket) to strange (Iron Lid, a crimefighter in a welder's mask and metal armor who wants to burn crooks with fire, and The Slut, a perfectly ordinary-looking woman who likes to take her clothes off and do...stuff) to just sad (Hank, an overweight man in a dirty sweatshirt with a bucket on his head who's "just Hank").

* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler:Rorshach kills Taylor Stone with his siganture "The End Is Nigh" sign.]]

* GeniusBruiser

* RedHerring: The child killer's identity was implied to be the man from Ursula's past. [[spoiler: Hooded Justice was the prime suspect; he wore a hood and similar colors. Numerous hints were dropped that he at least had some connection to the case. The true culprit being Rolf Mueler (who was the man from her past), with Eddie pointing out the FridgeLogic of him not being Justice, given the age difference.]]

** In ''Watchmen'' Hooded Justice is suspected of being a German circus strongman named Rolf Müller, [[spoiler:but her it's confirmed that while a serial killer Müller had been a seperate person too old to be Hooded Justice. However Hooded Justice does speak in German at one point and it's implied he was a boy named Jacob who was abused by Müller. Since Müller had a picture of Jacob a likely explantion would be that Hooded Justice is Müller's son.]]

* {{RetCon}}:

* StartOfDarkness

* {{Retcon}: Two noticeable examples, though easily explained away by saying that Dan didn't feel like telling Laurie the true details and lied.

** Likewise, you know in ''Minutemen'' that some of these characters won't make it all the way through.

* RetCon: [[spoiler:Some implications Adrian made in the original comic such as Hooded Justice's fate and WhoKilledJFK turned out to be false.]]

* {{Retcon}}: [[spoiler:It's revealed that the excerpts from ''Under the Hood'' in ''Watchmen'' weren't completely honest.]]

* RoadTripPlot

* TheSixties

* [[spoiler:PosthumousNarration]]

** ''Minutemen #4'' is where the ball really drops: [[spoiler: Silhouette is killed, Silk Spectre quits, Mothman's severe alcoholic problems increase, and Hooded Justice is revealed to have some connection to the child murders.]]

* ImpracticallyFancyOutfit: Hooded Justice: The Noose looks cool, but it serves as an easy thing to grab onto in a fight. When Comedian left, he used it to flip Justice over and subdue him [[spoiler: and in issue #6 Hollis grabs onto it, breaking his neck.]] Lampshaded

* WhereItAllBegan

* SinisterMinister: Reverend Taylor Stone.

* BackstoryHorror

* [[spoiler: BuryYourGays: Ursula and Gretchen were killed by one of her foes, both for being an enemy [[HomophobicHateCrime and for her orientation]].]]

* [[spoiler:DownerEnding: Rorschach and Nite Owl don't work together anymore, and Dan doesn't get together with the Twilight Lady.]]

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: Ultimately [[spoiler:subverted by Nancy; she is approached by the Bard while she's waiting for Rorschach, who slashes her throat and carves words into her body, but she survives to identify him and comes out of the story alive, albeit traumatised]].

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: Again, Miranda St. John.

* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: In a conversation with Captain Metropolis, Adrian is asked if his name is pronounced Ozy''man''dius or Ozyman''di''us. He explains that while both are acceptable, he's always preferred Ozyman''di''us.
-->'''Ozymandias:''' It sounds more... ''elegant'' somehow.

* PhysicalGod: Manhattan is able to create and destroy {{Alternate Universe}}s simply by imagining into and out of existence. And after the events of ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', Manhattan geso on to create new lifeforms on another planet.

* {{GIFT}}: For every character who's not Rorschach, anonymity comes as a curse. When the blackout happens, [[WhatYouAreInTheDark everyone turns to crime]] and [[spoiler:Rawhead, when wearing Rorschach's mask, decides to play at crimefighting, only to be murdered himself.]]

* PhysicalGod: Manhattan is able to create {{Alternate Universe}}s just by imagining [[ForWantOfANail alternate scenarios]]. These all end in nuclear war though, so Manhattan destroys them all, once again by simply thinking about it. And after the events of Watchmen, Manhattan does go on to create new lifeforms on another planet.

* DatingCatwoman: Nite Owl has an affair with the Twilight Lady, as opposed to her simply having a crush on him, as he tells Laurie years later.

* BadassGay: Hooded Justice, Captain Metropolis, and the Silhouette. Gretchen has a moment in her flashback.