Watchmen

Watchmen 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. 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. After the murder of the Comedian, his former teammate Rorschach dedicates himself to solving the crime, unintentionally 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. 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.

When the book was originally released, Watchmen�s biggest surprise came in the final issue. It opens with a technicolor massacre, half of New York dead, and the world in shock at an apparent alien invasion. 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.

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. 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. 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. (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.)

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. 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. 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.

Despite the heroes� attempt to cover up the plan, the series ends with an intern at the local newspaper picking up Rorshach�s journal, leaving open the potential to blow the lid off of Ozymandias� victory.

It�s not hyperbolic to say that Watchmen changed the way that comics were both made and read. Watchmen has, since its release in 1986, never left comic book � and, eventually, book store � shelves. It was included in Time�s 100 Best American Novels list, which introduced it to an entirely new audience and began the wider (and painfully late) reconsideration of comics as a true form of literature. The book has long influenced the way that comics were made for decades, with the gritty deconstruction of supers becoming the norm and their campy origins often forgotten, obliterated just like Rorshach was in the Antarctic.

There are 1 Pieces of Art In This Gallery.

There are 1 Pieces of Art In This Gallery.

Dave Gibbons

	Amir E Premium Gallery Owner
Joined:	March 2020
Last Login:	September 2025
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