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4 reviews
Watchmen

"Who watches the watchmen?"

Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I've seen its true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout "Save us!"... and I'll look down, and whisper "No." They had a choice, all of them. They could have followed in the footsteps of good men like my father or President Truman. Decent men, who believed in a day's work for a day's pay. Instead they followed the droppings of lechers and communists and didn't realize the trail led over a precipice until it was too late. Don't tell me they didn't have a choice. Now the whole world stands on the brink, staring down into bloody hell, all the smooth-talkers and intellects and liberals... and all of a sudden, no one can think of anything to say.
— Rorschach's Journal, October 12, 1985

It's Film Noir. It's Raygun Gothic. It's a Golden Age superhero story. It's a Silver Age superhero story. It's a Dark Age superhero story. It's Sci Fi. It's Cyber Punk. It's Alternate History. It's Political. It's a Deconstruction of superheroes. It's a lot of things. It's Watchmen, and it's one of the most influential graphic novels ever.

In 1983, DC Comics acquired the rights to the character lineup of the defunct Charlton Comics. In an effort to reintroduce them into the world in a big way, DC approached veteran Swamp Thing scribe Alan Moore and asked him to write a story around the characters they'd just bought, set in The DCU; upon reading his initial outline, however, they changed their minds and asked him either to create new characters and a new 'verse or write a different story, one that wouldn't render all of the characters completely unusable henceforward. Moore chose to create new characters, and in 1985 the classic Deconstruction of the superhero genre made its debut.

Watchmen, Alan Moore's magnum opus, was a 12-issue Mini Series about an alternate reality where incognito vigilantism — inspired by the classic comics — became a real fad, until the government was forced to outlaw it (the Keene Act), one superhero with real powers actually exists (and helped the US win the Vietnam war), and one "mask" turned American Black Ops technician has just been murdered. The mystery of who killed Edward "The Comedian" Blake, and why, drives the series from murder mystery to Super Hero Deconstruction to the revelation of a one-man Government Conspiracy.

See also Film/Watchmen.

There's also a prequel game, Watchmen: The End is Nigh.

Warning: There be spoilers here.
Tropes:
  • A God Am I: doubly subverted: Dr Manhattan appears to be all-powerful, but Jon himself feels trapped by his perception of time; he grows more and more detached from humanity as a result, eventually leaving to go experiment with creating life elsewhere and thus genuinely become a god.
  • Alas Poor Villain: Moloch, executed halfway through to get Rorschach out of the picture.
  • The Alcoholic: Mothman (aka Byron Lewis) was eventually committed to a sanitarium due to his alcoholism.
  • Alliterative Name: Daniel "Nite Owl" Dreiberg. Also the new presidential candidate, film star Robert Redford.
    • Silk Spectre(s) and Satin Silhouette for The Movie.
  • All Of The Other Reindeer : Some bullies show this to Rorshach and he goes berserk on them.
  • All There In The Manual: Lots of background information (supplied by Moore and Gibbons themselves) about the characters and their equipment can be found in the Watchmen Modules and Sourcebook for the now-defunct DC Heroes RPG.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: All of the primary characters.
  • Alternate History: Doctor Manhattan greatly changed the world, since he can synthesize normally rare elements and win wars single-handedly. Oh, and vigilante groups played their part (as mundane as their members may have been — The Comedian certainly made a mark or two on history).
  • Ambiguously Gay: Rorschach suspects as much of Veidt.
    • The movie shows him partying with the Village People. I think we just killed ambiguous with a crossbow
  • Ambiguously Jewish: Nite Owl II, Rorschach, and Dr. Manhattan.
  • Analogy Backfire: The lock company "Gordian Knot"; arguably choosing the name Ozymandias.
  • Animated Adaptation: Parodied with Harry Partridge's Saturday Morning Watchmen Less-intentionally parodied with the DVD "motion comic".
  • Antagonist In Mourning: Moloch
  • Anti Hero: Probably all of the main characters, to a greater or lesser degree. Some of them try, though.
  • Anti Villain: See the Dark Messiah entry.
  • Anyone Can Die: Outside the second-generation hero group, the only named characters to survive are Silk Spectre I, the editor and assistant at the New Frontierman office, and maybe Rorschach's landlady and her kids - depending on where they lived. Often, the deaths are right at their subjective moments of triumph, particularly at the newspaper stand at the end. And that doesn't even count the deaths of The Comedian, Rorschach, and arguably Dr. Manhattan (when he's vaporized).
  • Arc Words: And images, too. "Who Watches the Watchmen?" See also "Motifs".
  • Ascended Fan Boy: Deconstructed to some degree with Dan Dreiberg, who describes his crimefighting career as "Some schoolkid's fantasy that got out of hand"
  • Ascend To A Higher Plane Of Existence: Hard to decide whether it's literal or figurative. Dr. Manhattan leaves the galaxy to create life somewhere else, effectively fitting the definition of God.
  • Asian Babymama: Almost; The Comedian killed her.
  • Bad Ass: Rorschach, The Comedian, Nite Owl, and Ozymandias
  • Badass Normal: Played straight with all of the costumed heroes (with the exception of Doctor Manhattan), who have no real superpowers and instead rely on their (not superhuman) fighting skills. Averted in The Movie, in which every costumed hero can dish out and take huge amounts of punishment in their fight scenes.
  • Battle Couple: Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II.
  • Becoming The Mask: Rorschach, after his dark epiphany. He even calls his mask his true face.
    NO! MY FACE! GIVE ME BACK MY FACE!!
  • Berserk Button: The same as Batman's: don't ever harm a child. This was a one-way Berserk Button for ole Rorschach.
    • Also Rorschach's one limit. He won't punish his landlady for (falsely) telling the news he slept with her, because her kids are with her.
  • The Berserker: Hooded Justice.
  • Big Bad/Big Good: Ozymandias.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Subverted. They're thirty-five minutes too late to make any difference.
  • Big No: In the movie, Night Owl II after Rorschach is disintegrated by Dr. Manhattan.
  • Black Comedy: "Uh, well he pulled it on Rorschach and Rorschach dropped him down an elevator shaft."
  • The Blank - The idea behind Rorschach's costume.
  • Blessed With Suck / Cursed With Awesome: Manhattan's power. The accident erased him from existence, but he came back with godlike powers. Then again, he's gradually detaching from the rest of humanity...
  • Book Ends: Red-stained smiley.
  • Bullet Catch: Ozymandias. Like they'd really let her kill him after all that.
  • Bullying A Dragon: See the reindeer entry.
  • Burning Building Rescue: The highlight of Nite-Owl and Silk Spectre's first night out in costume in twenty years.
  • The Can Kicked Him: Rorschach uses a toilet to kill a goon. In depth: the goon came at Rorschach with a poorly-insulated arc welder. Rorschach smashes his prison toilet to flood the cell with water and fry the bastard. Which he immediately Lampshades:
    Rorshach: "Hrm. Never disposed of sewage with toilet before. Obvious, really."
  • The Cape: Captain Metropolis, a Golden Age hero apparently opposed to the civil rights movement — his secret homosexual relationship with Hooded Justice notwithstanding.
  • Captain Ersatz: The entire lead cast, since DC wouldn't let Moore use the Charlton Comics characters he originally wrote the story for. The full list: Nite Owl is Blue Beetle, Rorschach is The Question, Ozymandias is Thunderbolt, Silk Spectre is Nightshade, The Comedian is Peacemaker, and Doctor Manhattan is Captain Atom.
    • Dr. Manhattan is also a Captain Ersatz for Gold Key's Doctor Solar. Compare Manhattan's original costume in the novel to Solar's; also, both are passive research scientists working on a remote nuclear research base who end up as tools of the government. Note also that Solar spent his first few issues in a new frontier style suit, tie, and Raybans; very sartorial and possibly lampshaded in references to how Manhattan made the double breasted suit a major fashion look.
    • Some of Minutemen are also Captain Ersatzes for non-Charlton superheroes. Mothman, Comedian and Hooded Justice were MLJ/Archie Comics' the Fly, Black Hood and Hangman, respectively (a carryover from one of Moore's earlier ideas for a superhero murder mystery). And, as Moore admitted, the original Silk Spectre was based on the Fox Feature Syndicate version of the Phantom Lady.
  • Celibate Hero: Rorschach. He's messed up beyond all recognition about anything to do with sex, due to child abuse.
  • Character Development: Unless you saw the movie first, or you read major spoilers, your first impression on all major characters will be turned on their heads by the end. This is a fact.
  • Charles Atlas Super Power: All the heroes and ex-heroes, except Dr. Manhattan.
  • Chekhovs Gun: Rorschach's journal, which sets up the plot twist in the final frame.
    • There are a lot of them. Some others: Silk Spectre finding a gun on a dead New Yorker with which she later shoots Ozymandias Rorschach turns out to be that guy we've seen holding the "The End is Nigh" sign and buying New Frontiersman magazines.
      • The missing artists and writers, obliquely referred to throughout, are responsible for Veidt's squid monster.
      • And the 'Institute For Extra-Spacial Studies'. Jeez, too many.
      • The excerpts of the Black Freighter comic we've been reading only clearly becomes understood as a metaphor for Oxymandias and his plan when we reach the end of the comic. Really, people can probably go on nearly forever here.
  • The Chessmaster: Ozymandias
  • Civvie Spandex / Coat Hat Mask: Rorschach's "costume" consists of his mask, plus a hat, trenchcoat, a purple pinstriped suit, and leather gloves. Silk Spectre 1's costume is essentially just lingerie, and Silk Spectre 2 is a bathing suit with a chiffon cover, a belt, and heels.
  • The Combat Pragmatist: Rorschach
  • Conspiracy Theorist: Rorschach
  • Contemplative Boss: Ozymandias in his Antarctic palace.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Apparently averted. Adrian Veidt seems like a good guy with the unfortunate image of a rich corporate sellout... at first.
  • Cowboy Bebop At His Computer: It's often confused that the second-generation supergroup is called "The Watchmen". They're "Crimebusters".
    • In the movie they actually are "The Watchmen".
  • Critical Psychoanalysis Failure: Dr Malcolm Long when he analyzes Rorschach in prison.
  • Crowning Moment Of Awesome: See the page. Rorschach gets a lot of them.
  • Crowning Moment Of Funny: From the movie intro. Rioters threw a molotov cocktail into a store window. It explodes, killing them because they were too close
  • Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming: Usually Dr. Manhattan or Rorschach petting the dog in some way shape or form.
  • Cyanide Pill: Plays a part in the attempt on Adrian Veidt's life and his conspiracy.
  • Dangerously Genre Savvy: Ozymandias — although not as much as he may think. Despite his pretensions of transcending crude, "schoolboy heroics", his idea is dependent on an idea straight out of Flash Gordon.
    "Do it?" Dan, I'm not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I'd explain my master stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting the outcome? I did it thirty five minutes ago.
  • Dark Messiah: Ozymandias. To save the world, he kills half of Manhattan.
  • Death By Disfigurement - Rorschach throws burning oil into a fellow prisoner's face after he announces his intention to stab Rorschach.
  • Deconstruction Crossover: The original script, which used various Charlton Comics heroes instead of original characters.
  • Deconstructor Fleet: For basically the entire Super Hero genre.
  • Defied Trope: The Big Damn Heroes.
  • Demoted To Extra: Captain Metropolis (movie only).
  • Determinator: Rorschach who gets blown up for it, and to a point, Nite Owl.
  • Deus Exit Machina: Doctor Manhattan
  • Did You Actually Believe
  • Does Not Like Women: Rorschach, from his poor experiences with his mother.
  • Doing It For The Art: The endless subtle hints and foreshadowing, or minor connections within the Chekhovs Army that one can find during the second read through can not be a coincidence. There is also the very detailed instructions Moore gave to the artist.
  • Dogged Nice Guy: Daniel Dreiberg
  • Draco In Leather Pants: Rorschach has a large fanbase. Especially with /co/.
  • Dye Or Die: The Silk Spectre II and Night Owl II, at the end of the comic.
  • Dysfunction Junction: Nite Owl has retreated into study, Dr. Manhattan is amoral to the point of being inhuman, and many other ex-heroes are wracked with neuroses — being mentally unbalanced is apparently a prerequisite to being a superhero. Which would make some sense.
    • Rorschach, of all people, comments on how almost all the heroes he knows have severe mental issues, although he naturally doesn't realise the irony.
      Why are so few of us left active, healthy, and without personality disorders?
    • In Nite Owl 1's account of the Minutemen, they were, in his words, a bunch of screwed up people who ran about in costumes for kicks and possibly sexual deviance.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Given a distinctly 'meta' spin — this is a "fake" Eldritch Horror, and yet one with a pretty impressive body-count. Otherwise pretty true to what's supposed to happen when a Great Old One wakes.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Rorschach, much to the disgust of the author.
  • Expressive Mask: Rorschach's mask does change its pattern, and appears to do so in accordance with his expression/emotion (there's a "surprised" pattern, an "angry" pattern, etc). While he is usually The Stoic when he's not wearing his mask (aside from one undignified scuffle), he may be rather more expressive when he's safely behind "his true face".
    • Dave Gibbons has stated that he never intentionally made any "expression" in Rorschach's mask in the comic. Of course, considering the context, and the fact that his mask is a Rorschach inkblot one wonders if he was weaseling out of an outright admission by implying that any expressions the reader saw would be their own interpretation of the "random" patterns.
  • Eye Scream: Rorschach shoving a burning cigarette into some kid's eye in his backstory.
  • Fictional Document: "Tales of The Black Freighter", a pirate comic used as counterpoint to many scenes. Also, most issues of the original had a back-up piece consisting of excerpts from other fictional works, most notably Under The Hood, Hollis Mason's tell-all book about the original Minutemen, and Super Powers and the Superpowers, a criticism of US military policy during the age of Dr Manhattan.
  • Filler: One of the weirdest examples of filler in the history of the term. According to That Other Wiki Moore and Gibbons were contracted for a 12-issue run of the comic, but the plot that Moore had envisioned would take up, at most, six. He decided to get around by this by devoting several chapters to closely examining the characters and the world in which they live. However, as Moore began to write the series, he realized that "the plot itself is of no great consequence ... it just really isn't the most interesting thing about Watchmen."
  • Freak Lab Accident: Physicist Jon Osterman became Dr. Manhattan by getting trapped in a test chamber during a physics experiment and seemingly be disintegrated.
  • Fridge Brilliance: Patron saint of this trope - you can read it five times and still have something left to discover.
  • Friendly Enemy: The Comedian and Moloch.
  • Generic Graffiti: "Who Watches The Watchmen?" though this is never truly shown in full; we just have to assume it's always the same.
  • Genetic Engineering Is The New Nuke: They cloned several human psychics and engineered the squid for Mind Nuking half of New York City.
  • Genghis Gambit: Ozymandias's plan boils down to this.
  • Genius Bruiser: Ozymandias, who's strong enough to pick up a heavy standing lamp and use it as a staff, and effortlessly fends off his fellow costumed heroes without a scratch.
  • Get It Over With
  • Gory Discretion Shot: Savagely averted in the movie. Played straight in the comic more often than you might remember.
  • Grappling Hook Pistol: One of Rorschach's signature tools, until the police take it away after his arrest. It gets turned into an Improvised Weapon at one point.
  • Grave Clouds: At Edward Blake's funeral.
  • The Gump: The Comedian (all of them in the movie version.)
  • Hannibal Lecture: Rorschach's revelation of the origin of his odd philosophy ends up convincing his shrink to see the world his way (...or to relate a little, at least); later, Dr. Manhattan discusses the worth of humanity with similar disdain, and in the process causes Laurie to realize her true parentage.
  • Hard Gay: Hooded Justice, strongly implied in a book passage.
  • Have A Nice Day Smile
  • Heroic Sociopath: Rorschach and the Comedian, though the Comedian's case is arguable — both the Heroic and Sociopath parts, in fact.
  • Hero With Bad Publicity: Nearly everyone, at some point. For example, Manhattan's reputation is ruined by a concocted story accusing him of giving cancer to anyone near him.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: Rorschach; in fact, the trope page uses same quote this book does to describe Rorschach.
  • Hide Your Lesbians Gays: Hooded Justice, Capt. Metropolis, and Silhouette.
    • Also, Veidt (okay, not really). Possibly homosexual? Must remember to investigate further.
    • Then why would he surround himself with beautiful women and no hot men? I hardly think a badass like him would worry about gay-bashers.
      • Bashers? No. Him losing out on important business-deals due to cooperate ignorance? Yes. And the Gay Businessman and his Sassy Secretary is almost a trope by now (see for example Brian in Queer As Folk.)
      • This is the same man who gave the verbal slapdown to a gaggle of corporate heavyweights after they threatened to denounce him as a Red. If he's not bothered by a dire threat like that, it seems unlikely he'd be worried about merely losing out on deals.
      • No hot men? What about those three cute Vietnamese guys in his retreat? who he killed.
  • Historical In Joke: Most of the original superheroes die, retire, or go nuts after WWII, with a new generation popping up in the late fifties, mirroring the real life postwar decline of comics and the rise of the Silver Age.
    • A lot of other ones too. Nite Owl calls his Batman style gadget collection from the '60s "campy". In the real '70s, comics (arguably) entered the Bronze Age as Super Hero comics started to deal with political issues; in the Watchmenverse's Seventies, they are the issue.
      • Hell, if you look hard enough, just about everything in the whole book is a Historical In Joke in one form or another. How about: "This is still America! People don't want a cowboy actor for president!" (Of course, the cowboy actor running for president in this particular universe is Robert Redford; in the movie, it was changed to a direct Ronald Reagan reference.)
      • Continuing on the "cowboy for president" line, this movie was released soon after a "cowboy president" left office. Social commentary, anyone?
      • Nope! Just dumbing it down for the audience.
  • Hollywood Atheist: Rorschach
  • Hypocritical Humor:
    Rorschach: Why are so few of us left active, healthy, and without personality disorders?
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The title of every chapter is part of a quote that appears in full at the very end of the chapter, from sources such as Dylan, the Bible, Einstein and Nietzsche.
  • Ignores Aesoptinum
  • I Got Better: Jon Osterman/Dr Manhattan. When he bounces back, he really bounces back!
  • Impractically Fancy Outfit: Dollar Bill was hired by a bank, who thought having their very own masked man was a great gimmick. They designed his costume to be as attractive to the public as possible. This had tragic consequences when his cape got stuck in the bank's revolving door, and the bank robbers he was chasing shot him.
    • Nite Owl II once tried to use the bathroom. Taking off and putting on his costume took so long that the drug dealer he caught got away.
  • Improvised Weapon: Rorschach uses many of these when the police corner him, and once in prison. Watchmen being the deconstruction that it is, the results are gruesome and lethal — one could have died, the others are suffering fatal burns.
  • Inkstain Adaptation: Rorschach's antisocial, conspiracy theory indulging nature has found its way into modern characterizations of The Question, of whom he is an Expy. In a Take That scene, a Question comic written shortly after the book's release had him read Watchmen, attempt (unsuccessfully) to emulate Rorschach's methods, and ultimately conclude that Rorschach sucks.
  • In Spite Of A Nail: The timeline diverges way back in 1938, but Nixon is still elected president in the same year, the break-in at the Watergate Hotel still happens, and Woodward and Bernstein still investigate it, though the Comedian kills them and it's never exposed.
    • JFK still dies on November 22nd 1963 in Dallas, but it is implied in the book, and actually shown in the movie, that the Comedian kills him. In the book it is further implied that he did it in order to help Nixon's political career.
    • In Watchmen, superhero comics died off after the 'real thing' started emerging — instead, horror and drama comics are all the rage, D.C. and E.C. mainly publish stories about pirates, and Timely/Atlas Comics does not appear to have become Marvel Comics, as it did in our world. It is implied in one article that Frederick Wertham's anti-comics campaigns were ignored due to the propaganda value of American costumed heroes being promoted in print; ironically, this prevents the genericisation of the American comics industry that happened after Wertham in real life, and the superhero genre eventually dies a natural death.
    • World history is not altered that much until the appearance of Dr Manhattan. There is nothing to indicate that World War II is significantly changed, and some of the heroes fight in the war as normal soldiers.
  • It Always Rains At Funerals:...And it rains on the just and unjust alike... Except in California.
  • It Was His Sled: Ozy is the killer. Also, giant squid. This got particularly bad around the time of the movie.
  • Just Between You And Me: Justified. He did it 35 minutes ago.
  • Karma Houdini: Ozymandias.
  • The Killer Becomes The Killed: After he cracks, Rorschach becomes a vigilante who murders criminals; after the Keene Act, he becomes a fugitive vigilante who murders criminals. Technically this is continued when Manhattan eventually kills Rorschach, although it's not an example of the trope.
  • Knight Templar: Rorschach, and Ozymandias, in a more typical example of the trope.
  • Legacy Character: Dan Dreiberg succeeded Hollis Mason as the Nite Owl, while Sally Jupiter pushed her daughter Laurie into taking her role as the Silk Spectre.
  • Literary Allusion Title: Not only the series title (from Juvenal), but also a number all of the chapter titles.
  • Lonely At The Top: Ozymandias; it's foreshadowed that this is what will happen to him.
  • Luke I Am Your Father: The Comedian and Laurie
  • Luxury Prison Suite: The Big Figure, one of Rorschach's old enemies, who winds up running across him again in prison. He apparently has control over the guards, too.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Ozymandias, especially after The Reveal.
  • Meaningful Name: Ozymandias, which suggests the final fate of his "better, more loving world."
  • Mind Rape: The effect that the "monster" has on survivors, even halfway around the globe.
  • Misaimed Fandom: There are people out there who take Rorschach seriously.
  • Motifs: Everywhere. There are some motifs that appear throughout the story (like the bloodstained smiley or the doomsday clock counting towards midnight), and some that appear primarily in one chapter (like "two riders" in various forms during chapter 10).
    • the bloodstain on the smiley vs. the minute hand on the doomsday clock.
    • the butterfly / Rorschach blot / large bloodstain / Hiroshima shadow.
    • In every chapter that involves cross-cutting between two sets of events, the dialogue in every single panel refers back to the dialogue in the previous (cross-cut) panel, and the image usually refers back to the image on the previous page. For chapter 5, "Fearful Symmetry" they made the entire issue a palindrome.
    • "I WILL GIVE YOU BODIES BEYOND YOUR WILDEST IMAGININGS" Holy crap, that turned an apparently harmless advertisement into Nightmare Fuel.
    • The names of the events going on nearby — Pale Horse in concert with Krystallnacht, The Day The Earth Stood Still— also seem totally innocuous, until that scene.
    • mirrored images, especially in chapter 5 "Fearful Symmetry" (a line from Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright).
    • the two riders / Pale Horse in chapter 10, "Two Riders Were Approaching" (a line from All Along The Watchtower).
    • the nuclear symbol / ship with black sails (inspiration for the Black Freighter, according to Moore)
    • the Gordion Knot lock co; egyptian symbols, Pyramid Deliveries and the alien invasion in-jokes.
  • The Movie: Finally made in 2009 by Zack Snyder. Your Mileage May Vary.
  • Mythology Gag: Rorschach squirts a ketchup question mark into a napkin and folds it to get a Rorschach blot.
  • The Napoleon: The Big Figure.
  • Narm: Some of Rorschach's lines come off as incredibly overblown to the modern reader, in particular the one concerning retarded children in an abattoir.
    • Hollis Mason's autobiography actually contains an example of in-universe Narm. To clarify - he and his father worked for a mechanic who loved to wear silly things and play pranks. One day, said mechanic gets a letter from his wife one day, saying she's run off with his best friend. He breaks down in tears and breaks the news to the other workers, while he's wearing fake breasts and "Ride of the Valkyries" is pumping in the back. Everyone laughs. They apologize to him later, but he's still in shock, and kills himself later that night. Needless to say, Hollis felt kind of bad for laughing at a tragic incident.
  • Nietzsche Wannabe: Rorschach is very much a nihilist, as is The Comedian, who has resigned himself to the "joke" that is life, the universe and everything (so to speak).
    The Comedian: "Once you realize what a joke everything is, being The Comedian is the only thing that makes sense."
  • Nigh Invulnerability: Dr. Manhattan (although it's not just nigh invulnerability. Even completely destroying his body won't keep him down. Of course not - that's the first trick he learned, remaking his body from nothing. His total prescience can be compromised by an excess of tachyon traffic, but even so, nothing can endanger him.)
    • This may be an overstatement. We only see Manhattan's body destroyed twice, both times by the subtraction of his intrinsic field. Presumably, something which disrupted his "energy pattern akin to a consciousness" would destroy him.
  • Nineties Anti Hero: Rorschach and The Comedian are progenitors of this trope, albeit not strictly embodying it themselves. On record, Moore despises the fad for "Darker And Edgier" heroes whose ultraviolence is justified by some half-assed attempt at Watchmen-style deconstruction; the other big-noted superhero work of 1986, Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns is probably a more representative proto-example of "Nineties Anti-Hero" comics.
  • No Holds Barred Beatdown: Ozymandias manages to do this twice, first by beating down The Comedian then killing him and then handing Rorschach and Nite Owl their asses near the end.
    • Dan Dreiberg and Lauren Juspeczyk vs. a dozen thugs in an alley. In the movie, the violence is ramped up significantly.
  • No Pronunciation Guide: Juspeczyk is pronounced "yoo-spe-chik" in Polish; it is not clear how she would pronounce it in America, although Sally's choice of "Jupiter" as a stage name gives a hint.
  • Oh Kitty: Young Walter Kovacs walks in on his mother with one of her "clients", which leads to child abuse and just one of the many events that psychologically damaged him.
  • Ominous Walk: Rorshach uses this to great effect.
  • The Password Is Always Swordfish: It's suspiciously easy for Nite Owl and Rorschach to break into Ozymandias' computer, although this was probably deliberately arranged by Veidt to lure his colleagues to Antarctica and spare them from his scheme.
  • Peek A Boo: Averted with Doctor Manhattan's nudity.
    • Not always. There are a couple of pages in chapter three that look like something out of Austin Powers.
  • Perverse Sexual Lust: It's heavily implied that Dan Dreiberg <s>has</s> harbors this for both Silk Spectres.
  • Politically Correct History: Very much averted.
  • Posthumous Character: Several, but especially The Comedian, since his death starts the story.
  • Prescience Is Predictable
  • Psychic Powers: play an indirect but key role in the plot.
  • Psycho For Hire: The Comedian, suggested to merely be in it for cheap thrills — or at least because he just doesn't care about the consequences.
    • This may be Epilectic Trees, but after about three readthroughs, this troper believes he's figured out the Comedian's Joke. It deserves the capital. It goes like this: Crime and society have become so bad that laws are not effective in dealing with them. The solution to fighting crime was to become a criminal yourself, definitely an instance of "Who Watches The Watchmen." Various characters remark that The Comedian deliberately made himself as amoral as possible, to play along with the joke—no matter how bad he was or what atrocities he did, he was allowed free reign. Part of it was the enjoyment, but part of it was working the twisted joke of society's problems and their solutions as hard as he could. Ozymandias reflected that the Comedian's breakdown to Moloch may have been 'professional envy'—pure shock that anyone would go that far, despite the Comedian's own myriad sins.
  • Rape Is Love: Discussed in the case of Silk Spectre. It's suggested in the comic she loved Eddie despite his attempt to rape her — this is part of what reawakens Manhattan to the marvel of human unpredictability.
    • It's implied she conceived her daughter with the Comedian with her consent. It's all but outright stated in the movie. Sociopath is a turn-on, apparently.
  • Redemption Equals Death: The Comedian. Although the redemption was only partial.
  • Red Herring: Plenty. For example, Dan's prototype exo-skeleton, which comes across as a sure-fire Chekhovs Gun, never gets used, and is left behind when Dan evacuates his basement. That he leaves it, and only it, is actually the payoff: it's a joke on how utterly stupid and useless the exoskeleton was in reality.
    • This troper read most of the book convinced that Hollis was the killer, because he wears the exact same brown sweater as Adrian does in the opening sequence, and he's often drawn with only his arms showing. Moore and Gibbons are sadists.
  • Redundant Rescue: When Nite Owl and Silk Spectre go to free Rorschach from prison. When they find him, he had already broken out of his cell, killed some of the people in his way, and was on the way out.
  • Reed Richards Is Useless: Averted utterly, as the Vietnam war was won because of the influence of supers, and technology made by supers has changed the world's economy and outlook.
    • Also played straight with Doctor Manhattan. Despite his godlike power, he couldn't use his abilities to save mankind from eventual nuclear war, and thus had to keep his mouth shut when Veidt completed his plan.
      • But then...
        Doctor Manhattan: "I can change almost anything... but I can't change human nature."
      • ...in the movie, anyway.
  • Refuge In Audacity: The ending. The world is at the very cusp of nuclear war, with each side waiting for the other to goad them into mutually assured destruction. Then, a squid teleports into New York and blows up, leaving everyone on Earth asking what the hell just happened.
    • One of the major reasons why everyone was so pissed off at the change from a squid to a bomb - any form of explosion in New York would have been treated as an attack
      • Actually not. In the movie it is clear that (a) it is not an explosion, but some kind of weird Dr. Manhattan-related energy release (Nixon demands why they didn't get a missile launch detection, to which Kissinger replies, "It wasn't the Soviets... the energy signature belongs to Dr. Manhattan!" Presumably other nations have the technology to discriminate between the two as well) and (b) not just New York has been attacked, but many other world capitals and important cities (Beijing, Moscow, Hong Kong, to name but a few that can be seen or are mentioned in the movie). My personal opinion is that getting rid of the squid and transforming the devastation into a framing of Dr. Manhattan was a MAJOR improvement in the story.
      • Agreed. An alien vagina squid monster worked in the comics, but in a movie, it would just be ridiculous. Making Dr. Manhattan the bad guy worked just as well.
  • Reluctant Mad Scientist: Dr. Manhattan, increasingly disconnected, allows both the US Government and Ozymandias to use his technological powers "For Science". Oh, and Ozymandias surely qualifies, if the reader sympathizes with him...
  • The Reveal: Usually minor ones spaced throughout, but highly concentrated in chapter 11.
  • Rich Idiot With No Day Job: Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl II, with the twist that as Dan Dreiberg, he doesn't fake idiocy but instead pretends to be a harmless intellectual. After he retires, it's not so much an act...
    • Averted by Ozymandias, who gave away his inherited wealth as a teenager to prove that he could succeed alone.
  • Right Hand Cat: Ozymandias's genetically-engineered lynx, Bubastis.
  • Rule Thirty Four: Sally has an unlicenced porno comic of herself among her memorabilia, making this trope Older Than The Internet.
  • The Scrappy: Dan and Laurie. Your Mileage May Vary.
  • Serial Killer Killer: After Rorschach's Berserk Button is (irreversibly) pushed, he effectively operates as one; he's pushed further underground by the passing of the anti-superhero Keene Act.
  • Shoot The Shaggy Dog
    • Repeatedly. With a rocket launcher.
  • Shout Out: Includes explicit mention of an episode of the original Outer Limits with a similar basic plot.
    • Wylie's Gladiator is visible on Hollis Mason's bookshelf.
    • The entire "Tales of the Black Freighter" comic-within-a-comic is inspired by The Threepenny Opera.
  • The Shrink: Dr Long, who starts out convinced he can help Rorschach...
  • Soaperizing
  • Something Else Also Rises: ...that flamethrower...
  • Spanner In The Works: Appears to be the case, but, of course, is all part of Ozzie's plan.
  • Squick: Rorschach's backstory. Also, there's just something odd about giving a "Tijuana Bible" of yourself to your effective son-in-law.
  • Story Breaker Power: Doctor Manhattan. Because the above resulted in "God".
  • Stripperiffic: Both Silk Spectres. Justified in that Sally Jupiter became the first Silk Spectre to boost her modeling career. And deconstructed, as Laurie hates her costume for precisely this quality and is implied to eventually decides to dress in something more practical, akin to her father's costume.
  • Strawman Political: Watchmen generally takes a "realpolitik" approach in its narrative, with strawmen generally averted or qualified; Captain Metropolis, for example, is a deeply conservative opponent to civil rights, but the reader is left to their own conclusions about this. Although there are several characters with extreme philosophies (Manhattan's transhuman perspective, and The Comedian's violent nihilism, for example), they are generally shown to be mad as hatters, or at least not representative of commonly-held political beliefs. Rorschach's Objectivist trappings may be seen as a strawman of Ayn Rand and her followers, but then, Objectivism isn't built from much else... Vigilantism is an inherently individualistic (classical liberal) practice, so the costumed cast in general may resonate with people on those particular political axes.
    • If you read the supplementary material in Absolute Watchmen you'll find that Alan Moore tried to stay as far away from this as possible with Rorschach: he may be crazy but he was meant as more of a tribute to Ditko above all else.
  • Stylish Protection Gear: Nite Owl's fluffy cape.
  • Superheroes Wear Capes
  • Superpower Lottery: Doctor Manhattan. He could have been vaporized, stayed a ghost forever, or become a god.
  • Super Registration Act: The Keene Act, with all that followed. Only a few refused to sign it, but it appears there's not a lot of superheroes around anymore.
  • Tearjerker: Most of the final chapter.
  • This Is Reality: "I'm not a Republic serial villain."
  • Time Dissonance: Doctor Manhattan suffers from this, he constantly experiences bits of his past and feels helpless against his old, pre-god memories. Used to his advantage when he arrives at Ozymandias' complex.
  • Title Drop: Never spoken in the comic, although the quote from which it comes is repeatedly seen on old graffiti throughout New York.
  • The Three Faces Of Adam: Rorschach (Hunter), Nite Owl II (Lord), and both the Comedian and Ozymandias are Prophets.
  • The Tokyo Fireball: Only in New York, and it's more of a human-brain Logic Bomb.
  • The Unfettered: The Comedian, Dr. Manhattan and Rorshach.
  • They Should Have Sent A Poet: Pretty much every part of the Mars scene.
  • Tomboy And Girly Girl: The Silhouette and Silk Spectre I.
  • Tragic Hero: Rorschach fits the definition.
  • True Art Is Angsty: Self-explanatory.
  • True Neutral: Dr. Manhattan
  • Twin Threesome Fantasy: Subverted, as Laurie is disturbed by Manhattan cloning himself in the bedroom — and eventually enraged when she sees another duplicate still working in the lab.
  • Two For One Show: The pirate comic-within-a-comic tells a full story from beginning to end, and mirrors many turning points in the overall story.
  • Two Scenes One Dialogue: Background conversations, or banter coming from a nearby TV, which are also relevant to the main scene. The Black Freighter also sometimes mirrors some of the smaller events happening around the newsstand where it is being read. This is a trademark of Watchmen.
  • The Unfettered: Rorschach
  • Utopia Justifies The Means: Turns out to be the whole plot.
  • Vigilante Execution
  • Villain With Good Publicity: Guess what, it's Ozymandias again.
  • Visionary Villain: Ozymandias. Again.
  • Walking Wasteland: Dr. Manhattan's presence is said to give people cancer. Subverted, as it's actually Veidt deliberately inducing cancer in Manhattan's past acquaintances.
  • Walking Disaster Area: Rorschach
  • Walk On Water: Dr. Manhattan, in one of the last scenes in the book.
  • Weird Al Effect: With the possible exceptions of The Question, Captain Atom & Blue Beetle, hardly anybody remembers the old Charlton characters the cast of Watchmen were based on.
  • What The Hell Hero: Everybody, but most pronounced in the scene where The Comedian calls out Dr. Manhattan for not doing anything to save his (the Comedian's) Asian Baby Mama despite knowing exactly what would happen. Ironically, it cements Dr. Manhattan's view that they're essentially the same.
  • Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys: Nite Owl II — It's implied he's a Gadgeteer Genius and a Rich Idiot With No Day Job.
  • Who Shot JFK: Hinted to be The Comedian. He's also implicated to be behind Woodward and Bernstein's deaths (which didn't happen in our timeline), although this is much more speculative.
    • In the movie the assassination is shown outright.
  • Wouldn't Hit A Girl: Beats up, shoots and stabs this trope.
  • Written Sound Effect: Half averted: fight scenes are silent, but there is a wide and surprising variety of onomatopoeia for dialogue.
    • Such as The Comedian drinking: "nk nk nk".
    • Rorschach eating: "Ronch ronch ronch" (sugarcubes) or "Schlorp... chlorp... lep..." (raw baked beans).
    • Rorschach thinking: "Hurm..."
    • Rorschach yelling!: RRAAAARRL
      • Yes, without punctuation. It would be Narm if the entire action sequence wasn't that good.
  • Xanatos Gambit, Xanatos Roulette, Xanatos Sucker: the whole story is practically a Single Xanatos Pileup.
  • You Are Too Late: "I did it Thirty Five Minutes Ago." Formerly the Trope Namer.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Ozymandias poisons his assistants, and congratulates them for helping create a new utopia (as they are either dead or dying), then lets their bodies be hidden by snowcover.
  • Your Mileage May Vary: Nearly everyone loves the graphic novel, but the movie is unbelievably polarizing.
    • The Rotten Tomatoes aggregate score hits around average, but this troper speculates that seeing a frequency chart of the ratings would show absurd amounts of 1's and 10's with very little people on the fence.
  • Zeppelins From Another World: Airships are far more common, because Dr. Manhattan can synthesize enough helium to make them cost-effective (and safer than hydrogen-filled airships would have been).
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