History Comicbook / BeforeWatchmen

* BiTheWay: Adrian Veidt is shown entwined naked with a male friend in ''Ozymandias #1''. He also has a relationship with woman named Miranda.

* BiTheWay: Adrian Veidt is shown entwined naked with a male friend in ''Ozymandias #1''. Unfortunately also dovetailing into ButNotTooGay, for the time being, as his relationship with Miranda is much more explicit and elaborated upon.
* BuryYourGays: The book doesn't explicitly contain this, but it should be noted that Captain Metropolis, Hooded Justice and The Silhouette (who are all dead by the end of the original graphic novel) remain gay in the prequel, but Ozymandias (who lives to the end of the original graphic novel) is made bisexual. This could be seen as a retcon reinforcement of the trope as it makes it so that all of the gay characters in the original graphic novel wound up dead in the end.

* EngineeredHeroics: 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.

* PublicityStunt: Spectre starts her career by [[EngineeredHeroics thwarting staged shop robberies]]. The stores usually go along with it for the free publicity.

[[folder:Silk Spectre]]

* BodyGuardBabes: The Chairman calls them the Shake Sisters.

* WhoShotJFK: Despite what has been implied elsewhere, ''Comedian'' #1 reveals that Eddie did not shoot Kennedy. Later, he meets his contact, Gordy, and remarks on how they could be mistaken for one another, implying that Gordy was JFK's true killer.

[[folder:Dr. Manhattan]]

* CrimefightingWithCash

* DomesticAbuse: [[spoiler: ''Dan's'' dad is abusive, in a direct reversal of the fanon sensibility that Adrian's parents were abusive Nazis and Dan's were ineffectual but well-meaning.]]

* KidSidekick: Hollis is cautious at first about taking Dan on due to his age and vulnerability, even after he's proved himself as technically apt for the job.

* SceneryPorn
* ShoutOut: Kid Adrian has a poster of ''Film/TheThingFromOuterSpace'' on his bedroom wall.

* '''Silk Spectre''', four issues by Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner.

[[caption-width-right:350:Nite Owl I on the cover of ''Before Watchmen: Minutemen'' #1.]]

* '''Nite Owl''', four issues by J. Michael Straczynski and Andy and Joe Kubert.

[[folder:Nite Owl]]

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/oie_1218248SZjZ5z401_3122.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:A young Eddie Blake, on the cover of ''Before Watchmen: Minutemen'' #2.]]

* DependingOnTheArtist: Those art styles and ideas differ on some designs. Moloch looks like a regular person in ''Comedian'', but in his series he LooksLikeOrlock, and Silhouette has a redesign in ''Minutemen'' and ''Dollar Bill'', but her single-panel appearance in Moloch has her design from ''Watchmen''.

* LooksLikeOrlock: Moloch's appearance is exaggerated compared to his appearance in the original comic.

* MythologyGag: Rorschach briefly encounters a Film/Taxi Driver who is clearly intended to be Travis Bickle, from the film of the same name. Bickle was one of Moore's inspirations for Rorschach.

* GRatedDrug: Hashish is hardly G-rated, but it doesn't make you trip balls, either! A little easier to buy if you think Adrian's "friend" slipped him something extra, or Veidt's already losing it.
** MarijuanaIsLSD

* [[spoiler: BuryYourGays: Ursula and Gretchen were killed by one of her foes, both for being an enemy [[HomophobicHateCrime and for her orientation]]. The page still has them as its image.]]

* IncompatibleOrientation: Hollis has a crush on Ursula, who's gay. He finds out in issue #4 and looks crushed.

* [[spoiler: BuryYourGays: Ursula and Gretchen were killed by one of her foes, both for being an enemy and for her orientation. The page still has them as its image.]]

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal

* MarilynMonroe: [[spoiler:Eddie both slept with her and is responsible for her death.]]

* UsefulNotes/VietnamWar

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Rawhead and the Bard get what they deserve, but the only truly sympathetic character (Nancy) ends up traumatized for life and leaving the city, which has the side-effect of damning the last shot at humanity Rorscharch had. And in the end, when it's all said and done, it's clear that despite Rorscharch's quest to fight crime, the world remains as rotten as always and nothing will change.]]
* BondVillainStupidity: As a result of his inflated ego, Rawhead always decides to capture Rorscharch and have fun with him rather than just kill him.
* TheCameo: [[Film/TaxiDriver Travis Bickle]] comes to Rorscharch's aid in issue two.

* DeadpanSnarker: Rorscheard is in top form.

* TheDragon: "Lucky", Rawhead's main henchman who is more than able to match up Rorscharch in a fistfight.
* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: Rawhead after [[spoiler: putting Rorscharch's mask]].

* {{GIFT}}: For every character who's not Rorscharch, anonimity comes as a curse. When the blackout happens, [[WhatYouAreInTheDark everyone turns to crime]] and [[spoiler: Rawhead, when wearing Rorscharch's mask, decides to do crimefigthing, only to be executed himself.]]
* InterplayOfSexAndViolence: Rorscharch's torturing a man while a porn movie plays.
* LeftForDead: Happens to Rorscharch.

* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler: Rawhead is executed]].

* MadeOfIron: Rorscharch is pretty roughed up by Rawhead's men, but he pushes on.

* RightHandAttackDog: Rawhead has a tiger. [[spoiler: Ironically it is siced ''against'' him by Rorscharch]].

* TortureTechnician: Both Rorscharch and Lucky.

* {{Ubermensch}}: Rawhead comments tis is the gist of Rorscharch's mask. It makes one feel above society by removing their face.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: The central theme of the story. For example, when the city blacks out, the city becomes chaotic and violent, and Rorscharch takes this as a statement of the city's [[HumansAreBastards nature]].

''Before Watchmen'' is a 2012-13 comics miniseries set in the world of Creator/AlanMoore and Dave Gibbons' ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}''. The event was launched in celebration of Watchmen's 25th anniversary.

Each of the miniseries involves some of the best talents in the comics industry to date. This event's purpose is to explore the backstory, characters and setting of ''Watchmen'' (comics continuity only), as any previous history not shown in the original series is in hard to find RPG's and supplementary materials.

* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler: Rawhead is executed

* YellowPeril: Japanese are considered the enemies as the war rages, and as it ends. When Eddie goes Solo he's seen killing armed Japanese gangsters. Two new heroes, Bluecoat and Scout, inform the heroes of a plot by bitter Japanese after the war ended. They all plan to blow up the Statue of Liberty, so they team up with the remainder of the Minutemen to go in there, guns a-blazing, and slurs a-saying. Bluecoat and Scout are based on a fictional comic, where the titular heroes beat up the "evil Japanese." [[spoiler: Turns out that the two are actually Japanese themselves, a father and son who had lost their wife/mother in the internment camps, and the boy's grandfather is starting the whole scheme. The two did not want so many people to die, so they teamed with the Minutemen to stop them, dressing as the all-American heroes lest they be distrusted.]]

* AscendedExtra: Goes hand in hand with the above trope, Dollar Bill had no lines in the original series, and Silhouette is given a fairly prominent role despite only saying one sentence in the comic. All the Minutemen get their personalities expanded upon.

* AdaptationalVillainy: [[spoiler:Hooded Justice and Captain Metropolis]]. Especially [[spoiler:Hooded Justice]].

* AlternateHistory: [[InUniverse In-Universe]], when Jon sees many different realities from several decisions. Some include [[WhoShotJFK John F. Kennedy surviving his assassination attempt]], to the Comedian with the Vietnamese woman and her newborn child, whose lives he spared.

* AdaptationExpansion: Due to its nature exploring a period in the original merely glimpsed and not fully witnessed, many plot threads hinted at in ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' are brought out more fully for this series.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: [[spoiler: Rolf Mueler]] was kicked out of the Nazi party because he was too sick for them. Given what he did to Blanche, it's easy to see why.

* GoryDiscretionShot: [[spoiler:The abducted child's corpse at the end of Minutemen #2. We see Hollis reeling from the foul smell before they even enter the room, and then horrified reactions' on the three's faces. Byron is just standing there stock-still, [[TearsOfFear tears running down his face.]] At the same time the panels keep cutting away to HJ assaulting Captain Metropolis, showing little more than their faces and hands.]] Ultimately [[spoiler: Ursula's death was this]]. With the perpetrator breaking in advancing on [[spoiler: Gretchen and Ursula sleeping, and a final panel of her trying to defend Gretchen and holding out her hand in defense.]] A panel before only showed a limp bloody hand, [[spoiler: and the word "Lesbian whores" written in their blood.]] [[spoiler: The Liquidator also dies this way, with Sally hunting him down after he murdered Ursula.]] Ironically, his body was discovered with a limp bloody hand as well.

* [[spoiler:DownerEnding: Poor Edgar... He was DoomedByCanon.]]

* KidsAreCruel: During Edgar's childhood.
* LetThemDieHappy: [[spoiler:At the end, is told by Adrian everything he wished to accomplish with his plan and how he would do it. Edgar is happy to help the world in his own way, to participate in "the ultimate magic trick".]]

* DrunkOnTheDarkSide: Rawhead after [[spoiler: putting Rorscharc's mask]].

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: In issue #2, we meet a band that, for legal reasons, we'll call... uh... [[Music/TheBeatles The NotBeatles.]]
* OffModel: When Laurie kicks the hatchet wielding mook with the spades suit painted on his face, his hair turns from blue to heart's red, his spade's painting disappears, and so does his beard.

* CapeSnag: Well, it was inevitable.

* DueToTheDead: [[spoiler: Bill's funeral, where the remaining Minutemen attend, in costume, and Metropolis delivers the eulogy. The sequence of events established in Minutemen means that Sally got dressed up again after quitting to attend his funeral.]] Afterwards, they see a bunch of kids dressing up [[spoiler: as Bill]] and reenacting the faithful scene, but with a more superheroic ImmuneToBullets flair. Byron wonders if he'll be forgotten, Nelson laughs it off and shows him the kids, saying that he'll still be remembered.
* [[spoiler:TheHeroDies: Bill was DoomedByCanon.]]

* TookALevelInBadass: Despite being an actor, and afraid of getting shot, Bill follows Nite-Owl and Hooded Justice into one of the banks he supported to fight the robbers. After that, he compares his experiences to playing football in college, and how the adrenaline got him going.