List of Watchmen characters

The cast of Watchmen. (Clockwise from top: Doctor Manhattan, the Comedian, Ozymandias, Nite Owl II, Rorschach, Captain Metropolis, the Silk Spectre II).

This is a character guide for the DC Comics 1985 12-issue comic book limited series Watchmen; for more information on the series and its content, please see the main article.

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The Minutemen era

The Minutemen were a group of superheroes that was formed before the events of Watchmen, between 1939 and disbanded ten years later in 1949.

Nite Owl I

Hollis Mason was a policeman who became a "masked adventurer" after being inspired by the New York Gazette's article on Hooded Justice. After years of serving on The Minutemen, he wrote a book called "Under the Hood", which exposed much about the Minutemen, most notably the attempted rape of Sally Jupiter (Silk Spectre I) by The Comedian. After the dissolution of The Minutemen and the rise of Doctor Manhattan, he elected to retire and work on old cars, passing his mantle on to a fan, Dan Dreiberg, who would become Nite Owl II. Later, on Halloween, 1985, during the riot that broke out after Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II freed Rorschach from prison, a group of right-wingers carried out their anger against Mason, mistaking him for the current Nite Owl, and beat him to death in one of the most gruesome scenes in the novel.

Silk Spectre I

Sally Juspeczyk was an ex-waitress and burlesque dancer before becoming a crimefighter on the advice of her agent, and future husband, Laurence Schexnayder. Silk Spectre I was indecently assaulted by The Comedian, but the attack was ended upon Hooded Justice's intervention. It is highly probably that the rape resulted in the birth of her daughter, Laurel, who would become Silk Spectre II. Silk Spectre I was involved in a tumultuous marriage with Schexnayder, which subsequently ended in divorce. Both her appearance in a Tijuana bible and her career as a burlesque dancer suggest she welcomes male attention. She later retires to a rest home in California.

Captain Metropolis

Nelson Gardner, an ex-Marine Lieutenant, was one of the more active proponents of The Minutemen group; he suggested that a collaboration of forces would be the most effective way to fight crime. "Social ills" motivate him to fight crime; however, what he defines as a "social ill", for example anti-war demonstration, belies the fact that his motivations for changing the world are selfish, rather than pro bono publico.

It is also suggested that he was involved in a homosexual relationship with Hooded Justice, thus necessitating a need for Sally Jupiter (Silk Spectre I) and Hooded Justice's sham relationship in order to keep the public from suspecting any relationship, which would subsequently damage the image of The Minutemen.

Hooded Justice

An extremely large, imposing figure, Hooded Justice, whose real identity is not revealed in Watchmen but who some claim is ex-circus strongman Rolf Muller, was the first of the costumed vigilantes. Strong rumours persist, implying that he was in fact a homosexual; Hooded Justice interferes with The Comedian’s attempt to rape Silk Spectre I, punching The Comedian. The Comedian’s response implies that Hooded Justice has a penchant for homosexual sadism, and that The Comedian will seek vengeance for his intervention. Sally Jupiter, or Silk Spectre I, posed as his girlfriend, but this was generally believed to be a sham relationship set-up to avoid anti-homosexual sentiments against The Minutemen.

Hooded Justice vanished when The Minutemen were questioned by the House Un-American Activities Committee, and was never seen again. There is speculation that he was killed by The Comedian, the results of the grudge that The Comedian held against him for interfering with his rape on Sally Jupiter.

Mothman

Something of a minor character, Byron Lewis was also investigated by HUAC, and had difficulty clearing his name. This is considered to be the starting point of the alcoholism that consigned him to a sanatorium. He is not a main focus of the storyline, but appears in flashbacks, at one point reduced to his older years of reduced sanity to unnerve the second Silk Spectre. He is regarded fondly by most of the Minutemen, and the first Nite Owl sends the second to visit him, uncostumed, on his behalf.

Dollar Bill

Dollar Bill was originally a star college athlete from Kansas who was actually employed as an in-house super-hero by one of the major, but unnamed, national banks. While attempting to stop a raid upon one of his employer's banks, his cloak became entangled in the bank's revolving door and he was shot dead at point blank range before he could free it. In "Under the Hood", Hollis Mason's tell-all book, he laments on the stupidity of capes because of this. Interestingly enough, Dollar Bill's clear commercial motivations (public identity, hired by a bank) are never commented on by his peers or the subsequent generation of vigilantes who all seem to regard him as a worthy hero - even Rorschach, who condemns Ozymandias for his commercialization, laments Dollar Bill's untimely death.

In the movie The Specials, the character of U.S. Bill was originally called Dollar Bill. However, DC would not allow the use of the name for a superhero character.

Silhouette

Ursula Zandt became a crimefighter in 1939, and subsequently joined The Minutemen. In 1946 she was expelled from the group when it was publicly revealed that she was a lesbian; two weeks later she and her lover were killed by an adversary seeking revenge. A Jew who left Austria due to the rise of Nazism, she caused Sally Jupiter annoyance due to the continual admonishment levelled at Sally Jupiter; Jupiter often denied her upbringing in Poland. Along with Mothman, she is one of The Minutemen about which little is known.

Post-Minutemen era

The following individuals form the primary cast of characters for the Watchmen series. They came together only briefly as "The Crimebusters", a failed attempt in 1966 by Captain Metropolis to form a successor group to "The Minutemen".

The Comedian

The Comedian is a cynic who exhibits nihilistic qualities and believes that most individuals are powerless to affect geo-political realities, The Comedian is often motivated by his own desires. He is inclined to be autonomous, only aligning himself with others if their motives are similar to his own. A possible sadist, The Comedian often engages in violent activities such as rape and becomes a government agent during the Vietnam War. Near the end of his service in Vietnam, he was attacked and injured by a Vietnamese woman who was pregnant with his unborn child; angered when the Comedian stated his intention to leave her behind when he returned to the United States, she slashed his face with a piece of a broken glass bottle. In retaliation, the Comedian murdered her (and thus his unborn child) with a single gunshot. The injury healed badly and left the Comedian with a large scar across his right cheek, from the corner of his mouth to the outer corner of his right eye.

Initially, his "morally correct" actions when fighting crime are contrasted against his abrupt and cruel personality, which portray him as a person lacking empathy for others. However, his actions upon his discovery of Ozymandias' "Alien Island" suggest that The Comedian is not merely a selfish egotist, but someone who is concerned for the well being of the many. His conduct could denote a belief in utilitarianism, suggesting that, in the case of the Vietnam War, his violent conduct was justifable (in his mind) as he was merely acting for his government, and America as a whole.

During Rorschach's independent investigation of an Edward Blake's death, he discovers that Blake was the secret identity of the Comedian.

Rorschach

An extreme example of moral absolutism, Rorschach (Walter Kovacs) is uncompromising in his answer to evil: it must be punished, whatever the cost. Ironically, however, he says that there is no meaning or moral absolutes imposted from beyond; that they are all created in the minds of the individual. His staunch opposition to crime is equalled by his total lack of empathy for criminals, whom he treats as non-human; his disdain for conventional law, government, and the police causes him to become a vigilante, as, in his belief, the law does not do enough to combat crime. He shows little reverence for "conventional morality", willing to take drastic measures to achieve his goals, such as the torture or even the execution of criminals. His "law and order" attitude, coupled with his readership of The New Frontiersman, make clear he values strongly-held and -expressed views of society; however, the punishment of crime is the only thing relevant to his personal crusade, and is thus the only thing he expresses. Rorschach is determined not to spend his life as a bystander, thus, like Batman, crime has driven him to become a crusader. Additionally, his expressed distaste for both homosexuality and the female form hint that he himself may have sexual issues driving him to channel his discomfort into an extreme morality.

In Rorschach's case, it was the murder of Kitty Genovese (and the inaction of her neighbors) that inspired him to fight crime. Kovacs fashioned a mask out of a section of Genovese's unbought dress, its unique shifting white and black pattern originating from a special material created by Dr. Manhattan. The clear division between black and white in the mask mirrors Rorschach's absolutist outlook: things are either right or wrong, black or white; there is no middle ground, no "grey area". However, he was just another masked adventurer, content to leave punishment to the legal system, until one of his investigations led him to discover the brutal murder of an innocent girl. The girl was butchered and fed to two German shepherds by her kidnapper. This heinous act sent Rorschach into an ire; no longer satisfied with merely stopping crimes, Rorschach decided that he would also discern the punishment, where once he was content to simply leave perpetrators of crimes bound and gagged for the police to find. This event is described as the point where Walter Kovacs died, and Rorschach was born. Laws no longer mattered to Rorschach, and he was the only masked adventurer to continue to operate without government sanction after the ratification of the Keene Act. His stance toward the Keene Act was epitomised in his killing of a rapist: he subsequently deposited the body in front of a police station, along with a note saying "NEVER!"

Ozymandias

Although an intellectual elitist who believes in utilitarianism and is willing to murder millions of innocents in the attempt to improve the lives of billions more, Ozymandias seems to be the most outwardly "good" member of the Watchmen cast. Like Rorschach he believes himself to be exempt from the limitations of conventional behavioral norms and puts himself beyond that of normal human experience. His behavior and self-belief suggest that he may be a megalomaniac, whilst his idolisation of Alexander the Great leaves him with something of a "chip on his shoulder." Not even his philanthopy, inventions, or huge, multi-million dollar business ventures can sate his desires for greatness. This viewpoint enables him to have an apparently callous disregard for the lives of "ordinary" people (though he later confides to Dr. Manhattan about his responsibility to shoulder the terrible guilt). If Dr. Manhattan is seen as God, then Ozymandias can easily be seen as the apollonian aspect of Nietzsche's philosophy.

Ozymandias retired from superheroism several years before the Keene Act to start building his "empire"; very successful businesses thanks to his intelligence, whose income would be used to fund his plans.

Doctor Manhattan

After an accident as a scientist, Jon Osterman was transformed into something non-human, and the only character in Watchmen with superhuman powers (except for possibly those characters whose psychic ability is alluded to). Throughout the series, he becomes increasingly detached from humanity as a whole. As the story progresses, he disavows any interest in human affairs and rejects the validity of any notion of morality. For example he gradually abandons clothes. His ability to see the world outside of time leads him to embrace determinism. Doctor Manhattan is identified as something of a God-figure as Watchmen progresses; after dying and resurrecting himself, he gains near omniscient knowledge and almost omnipotent powers, and in his final scene walks on water and leaves to create human life somewhere else. For all his god-like power, he is as flawed and human as the rest, having difficulties with relationships. He personifies intellect over emotion. Because of his aloofness and somewhat nihilist philosophy, he is vilified by several characters throughout Watchmen. He represents Nietzsche's übermensch in the sense that his actions are completely beyond good and evil, in contrast with Rorschach whose actions are completely driven by the concepts of good and evil.

Silk Spectre II

A reluctant hero, Laurel (Laurie) Juspeczyk was pushed toward the vocation by her mother, the first Silk Spectre, who had been a successful crime fighter prior to her daughter's birth. Somewhat reluctantly, she ends up in a relationship with Doctor Manhattan. During the story she becomes increasingly upset with Manhattan's detachment with humanity, and after their break-up, Dr. Manhattan leaves Earth. In the end, she plays a pivotal role in making Manhattan realize the value of human life. She also became romantically involved with Dan Dreiberg, the second Nite Owl.

Nite Owl II

Something of a recluse, Dan Dreiberg's strong interest in ornithology manifests itself in some of his inventions, which relate to owls in some way. Detached from his parents, he struggles to find purpose with his life, thus glamorizing the notion of being a costumed crimefighter. He admits to idolizing the exploits of the original Nite Owl and also being quite taken with childhood notions of nobility and adventure. However, he does not have a resolute purpose, such as that of Rorschach, and is quite contingent, often relying on others to tell him what to do rather than following his own desires. Dreiberg seems out of all the heroes to represent the everyman, the pragmatist driven by a waxing and waning standard of ethics that seeks ultimate good but is willing to compromise on specifics. Additionally, his crimefighting pursuits reflect most clearly the ineffectiveness of the costumed heroes of his world, as he spends immense amounts of funding to craft vehicles and specialized garments ready for missile warfare, sub-zero temperatures, radar invisibility, etc. to catch what he dismisses as "hookers" and "purse snatchers." But when he, Silk Spectre, and Rorschach (especially he and Rorschach) begin uncovering the mastermind behind recent events, all his inventions suddenly become integral to their pursuit. He also became romantically involved with Laurie Juspeczyk, the second Silk Spectre.