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A Full Breakdown of the Watchmen Story

So for those of you that don't know about or haven't read the WATCHMEN graphic novel, I can't stress to you how great of a read this is.

Modern day cinema screen plays owe their existence to this masterpiece.

So nce I know many of you don't have time to read the book (before seeing the upcoming movie) so I found this break-down of the book. (who-ever wrote this has no life

)

SPOILERS

The comic Watchmen takes place in New York City, back in 1985. During the 1980s the United States was caught in an arms race with the USSR. The Cold War history is important to know while reading this comic. Because of the ring tenons of these two world powers, many Americans feared that a nuclear war was about to start. The comic begins with the murder investigation of Edward Blake. Blake was attacked one night and was thrown through his penthouse appartment window, falling to his death. Once the detectives leave the scene, costumed vigilante, Rorschach brakes into the appartment to conduct his own interview. While searching the crime scene for clues, Rorschach discovers that the murder victim was his another costumed hero named The Comedian.

Fearing that the murderer is hunting down former costumed heroes, Rorschach goes off to warn some of his former allies. The first person he warns is his ex-partner Dan Dreiberg. Dan was once a super hero named Nite Owl, who was forced into retirement after the Keen Act was created which outlawed all froms of costumed adventures. Because of this bill, Rorschach is a wanted man. Rorschach informs Dan of The Comedian's murder, and warns him that he maybe next. Dan dismisses Rorschach warning, and believes that he is being paranoid. Rorschach leaves his former partner, Dan, in his former headquarters and goes off into the night to warn the next super hero on his list.

Rorschach's next stop is at the office of Adrian Veidt. Veidt was once the hero named Ozymandias. Upon retiring, Veidt just mply sold out. His name now appears on posters, toys, and even perfume. Veidt is now one of the wealthiest men on the planet. Rorschach informs Viedt about Blake's death, but Veidt seems to be unworried. Viedt believes that Blake was most likely killed by government agents. Rorschach calles Adrian a "prostitute" and then leaves to warn the last two super heroes on his list.

Rorschach makes his way to a masve military base to speak to the super hero couple, Laurie Spectre and Doctor Manhattan. Doc Manhattan is the only hero in the comic with any super powers and is a legal super hero who works for the United States government. Laurie was once the lk Spectre but was happy to be retired nce she always hated being a super hero because it was forced upon her by her mother, the original lk Spectre. Upon learning about Blake's death, Laurie seems joyous because her mother was rapped by the man years ago. Doc Manhattan cares little about Blake's murder and teleports Rorschach outde of the military camp. After Rorschach's departure, Laurie goes out to dinner with Dan, while her boyfriend, Doc Manhattan, remains at home to work on his scientific research.

In the second issue of the series, each of the main characters has a flash back about the Comedian while attending his funeral. Rather than attending the funeral, Laurie Spectre vits her mother in California. During this scene, Laurie's mother flashes back to when she was a super heroine. In this flashback, Laurie's mother reveals that when she was the lk Spectre, her and The Comedian were members of a super hero team called the Minutemen. One night while she was changing, The Comedian attacked the original lk Spectre. He attempted to rape her and in the process broke a few of her ribs. But luckily another costumed hero named The Hooded Justice bursted in and saved Laurie's mom. That day The Comedian was banished from the Minutemen.

While at the funeral, Doctor Manhattan is reminded of his service in the Vietnam War with The Comedian. In one instance, Doc Manhattan witnesses a heavily intoxicated Blake shoot a pregnant woman and killing her and the child. Dan remembers a time where he was partnered with The Comedian. During a bunch of anti-super hero riots, Nite Owl II (Dan) and The Comedian try to keep the rioting controlled. During this scene, The Comedian fires smoke grenades at the rioting civilians. Also at the funeral, Viedt is reminded of when he joined a team of superheroes called The Crimebusters. The Crimebusters consted of Rorschach, Nite Owl II, lk Spectre II, Ozymandias, Doc Manhattan, and Cpt Metropolis. The team fell apart during its first meeting after the Comedian points out the rediculousnes of the group.

Following the funeral, Rorschach pays a vit to former super villian Moloche, who was a former enemy of The Comedian. Moloche tells Rorschach that he saw the Comedian a day before he was murdered. Apparently Blake broke into Moloche's house and began babbling about some mysterious island he found while on a government asgnment. Moloche didnt understand what Blake was talking about. Rorschach becomes puzzeled and doesnt know how this mysterious island has to do with Blake's murder.

Rorschach returns to Moloche's home in hopes of gaining more information about Blake. But all he learns is that Moloche is dying from cancer. The story then switches over to Laurie and Doctor Manhattan. Laurie becomes angry with him, she tells him that thier relationship is done and walks out. Laurie calls her friend Dan and the two meet eachother at a small resaurant. Laurie begins to cry and Dan offers her to stay at his house. While walking to Dan's home, the two are attacked by a local gang. But Dan and Laurie quickley dispose of the muggers.

While all of this is going one, Doc Manhattan is being interviewed by the press during a televised event. During this public interview, one reporter accuses of Doc Manhattan to accidently emiting radiation off of his body. This radiation, the reporter claims, has caused all of Doc's loved ones to come down with cancer. Some of these victims include Moloche, one of Doc's best friends and his ex-girl friend. Completely horrified by the fact that this accusation could be true, Doc Manhattan teleports himself out of the studio. Manhattan appears once again at his military base home and informs a guard that he is leaving earth. Manhattan then disappears.

"This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphycal forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. Its us. Only us."

Now with the super-powered Doctor Manhattan misng, the United States falls into a panic. Before Manhattan's disappearence, the USSR feared to attack the US . Now with America's champion misng, a nuclear war is going to occur, now its just a matter of time. Rorschach pays another vit to his ex-partner Dan and informs him about Manhattan's disappearence. Rorshach believes that the man who killed Blake is also responble for Doctor Manhattan's self exile.

While Rorschach is conducting his investigation, Doctor Manhattan begins walking on the surface of the planet Mars. Here, Manhattan begins thinking about his past. Before becoming Doc Manhattan, he was once a nuclear scientist named John Osterman. In a freak accident, Osterman becomes trapped within a nuclear reactor. When the reactor is turned on, John is completely obliterated. Days pass, and John reassembles his body. The accident gave John almost unlimited, god like powers. John admits that he is capable of seeing the future, but has no power to alter it.

Rorschach, still determined to crack the Blake case, returns to vit Moloche. Upon arriving, Rorschach discovers that Moloche has been shot in the head. The second Rorschach sees the body, an army of police officers storm the house. Rorschach realizes that he had been framed and had stupidly taken the bait. Rorschach bravely fights off a slew of cops but sadely is apprehended and severely beaten.

Who is Rorschach?

In issue #6 of the Watchmen series, this question is answered. In my opinion, this is the best issue of the entire series. Rorschach, now arrested for the murder of Moloche and other past crimes he commited in the name of justice, is revealed to be a homeless man named Walter Kovac. Rorschach can be seen throughout the comic, not in his costume carrying a large gn reading "THE END IS NIGH." Walter was a son of a prostitute and the identity of his father is unknown. Kovac was heavily abused as a child, both mentally and phycally by his own mother. She treated him so poorly that after her horrific murder at the hands of her pimp, Walter said only one word, "good."

While in prison, Rorschach was asgned a shrink. During one of their sesons, Kovac reveals that he began fighting crime after the death of a woman named Kitty Genovese. Kitty Genovese was a real murder case that shocked and horrified Americans back in the 1960s. The young Genovese girl was rapped and murdered right outde her appartment. Nearly fourty of her neighbors heard her screams and refused to get involved. Some even watched the incident through thier windows. Kitty's murder gnified to young Walter that humanity is a disgrace and that it was up to him to avenge her death. The seson ended, leaving Rorschach's shrink puzzled.

During thier next seson, the shrink discovers what pushed Rorschach into the depths of insanity. Kovacs tells the shrink about a specific kidnapping case. A young couple asks for Rorschach's help after thier daughter had been kidnapped. Rorschach promises the couple that he would return with thier daughter. Rorschach tracks down the kidnapper, and breaks into his house while he is away at work. Rorschach begins searching the house for the kidnapped girl, but doesnt find her. But he does discover that the kidnapper has a large collection of machetes and meat cleavers. Then Rorschach finds the burnt remains of the girl's clothing. At that moment, Rorschach looks outde to find that the kidnapper has two masve dogs.

He looks closer to discover that the dogs are fighting over a human femar bone. Realizing that the kidnapper most likely rapped, tortured, murdered and fed the girl to his dogs, Rorschach's sanity snapps in half. In a blind rage, Rorschach picks up a meat cleaver and butchers the two dogs. He then waits patiently till the kidnapper/murderer returns home. Rorschach then throws the two dog corpses onto the man. After that, Rorschach then handcuffs the man to a pipe and pours gasoline on him. Rorschach hands the man a saw and tells him that "it would take too long to cut through the restraints." Which implies that the man must saw through his own leg. After saying that, Rorshach drops a match and watches the man burn to death.

Once hearing this, the psychiatrist is horrified. After this shocking story, Rorschach gives this grimmly beautiful speech on how man is solely responble for the evil that is in the world.

As Rorschach rots in prison, Dan and Laurie become exceptionally close to one another. Laurie begins questioning the reasons why Dan became the costumed hero, Nite Owl. Dan explains that he always craved adventure, and only did it for thrills. Dan gives Laurie a tour of his underground headquarters revealing all of his past experiements and other inventions. While watching the news, a special report is appears and announces the USSR's sudden invaon of Afghanistan. It is only a matter of days until America becomes involved in the conflict. Laurie asks Dan to hold her, then suddenly the two of them kiss.

Later that night as Laure sleeps, Dan walks into his former base. Laurie follows him and then asks him if he would like to go outde with her. Both Dan and Laurie put on their former costumes and head out into the night. Ung his unique flying aircraft, which Dan calles Archie, the two superheroes manage to save the lives of a few people who were trapped in a burning building. After the rescue, Laure and Dan make love.

As the two lie together inde the flying craft named Archie, Dan suddenly turns to Laurie and says "I think we should break Rorschach out of prison."

While walking through one of his factories, Adrian Veidt is attacked by an unknown gunman. The hitman misses Veidt, killing his secretary. Veidt reacts quickly and beats the attacker to a bloody pulp. But before Veidt could get any information from the shooter he swallows a cynide pill.

While Laurie and Dan carefully plan a way to rescue Rorschach, the prison explodes into a huge riot. During the riot a small gang of inmates show up at Rorschach's cell, intending to kill him. The gang of criminals break open the cell door but are quickly slaughtered by Rorschach. As Kovac deals with his would-be attackers, Dan and Laurie arrive at the prison. The three eventually meet and fly off to escape the police and the rioting criminals.

"This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphycal forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. Its us. Only us."

Spoilers!!!! The information that is listed below contains the shocking ending of the Watchmen series. If you do not want to know what happens, for the love of god, look away! If you still want to hear the ending highlight the area below this caption.

After Rorschach's prison break, the gang of heroes take shelter at Dan's home. But upon arriving, Doctor Manhattan is waiting for them. He takes Laurie's hand and the two teleport to an unknown location. Quickly Rorshach and Nite Owl leap into Archie and fly off in hopes of speaking to Veidt. Once hearing about Viedt's assasnation attempt, Rorschach is convinced that someone is trying to kill off superheroes.

The remaining two heroes arrive at Viedts office to find it abandoned. While at his office, Dan hacks into Viedt's files and discovers that Viedt is the one responsble for everything. He is the man who killed Blake, framed Rorschach, hired the hitman, and poisoned all of Doc Manhattan's friends. But with all of this new evidentce, the two still don't know the reason why. Before going off to find Veidt, Rorshach takes his diary, which contains evidence of Viedt's crimes, and mails it to an unknown location. The two heroes fly off to Antarctica, where they believe Viedt is hiding.

Several hours pass, then Rorschach and Nite Owl confront Veidt at his secret location. The two attack, but Viedt quickly defeats them with ease. Upon their defeat, Viedt reveals his plan. Okay, here it is. What you have been waiting for...oh the suspense is horrible ain't it.

Well, Veidt knows that a nuclear war is going to erupt between the US and the USSR eventually. If this war were to begin, it would destroy all life on the planet. Being a superhero, Viedt couldn't let that happen. So he retired, and sold his image to make a masve multimillion dollar corporation. With these royalties, Viedt managed to purchase a small island and populated it with hundreds of the world brightest scientists. This masve group of people were ordered to create a teleporter and a new living organism that would pass as an alien. While this plan was still in the works, the Comedian accidently stumbled onto this island. Viedt had to kill the Comedian to keep him from talking.

With the created teleporter and false alien creature, Viedt planned a perfect way to prevent a posble World War III. By teleporting the creature into the heart of New York city, the creature would be instantly killed. The very second the creature would die, it would flood the city with poisonous chemicals. These chemicals would kill over half the population of new york. With the millions of people dead, the USSR would call off the arms race and search for a way to make peace with the US. Dan, fearing that Viedt is telling the truth, asks him when was he going to teleport the biological weapon into New York. To this question Viedt replies, "I already did it, hours ago." Surpringly, on their trip to the Antarctic, Viedt had already slain half the people in New York City.

While on mars, Laurie convinces Doc Manhattan to aid thier quest to stopping whoever the mask killer is. Manhattan agrees and the two return to New York to find it in ruins. Millions of bloody corpses lie lifelessly in the streets. Manhattan then teleports with Laurie, to Viedt's base in the Antarctic. Doc Manhattan attacks Viedt but before he could kill him, Viedt turns on all of his televion monitors. The televions reveal that Viedt's plan has worked. The world now believes that America has been attacked by some unknown alien race. The USSR pulls out of Afghanistan and sends aid to the US. The war apparently is called off. All the heroes realize that if they tell the world that Viedt is responble for the attack, the world would return back to its brink of destruction. So Doc Manhattan, Laurie and Dan all agree to keep Viedt's plan a secret

Rorschach on the other hand disagrees. He turns to his former allies and friends and replies "No...never compromise." Rorschach leaves the base and rushes back to Dan's aircraft. But before he could get in the ship to reveal to the world that Viedt has murdered millions, Doctor Manhattan vaporizes Rorschach to keep the world at peace. After Rorschach's death, Doc Manhattan begins talking to Viedt. Manhattan reveals that he is going to leave the planet and never return. But before he goes, Viedt asks the god-like being Manhattan whether what he did was the right thing. Would this peace last? Manhattan replies "nothing ever ends" and then dissapears. Days pass, and the reader finds out that Laurie and Dan are married and continue thier lives as costumed adventures.

The comic ends within a news room. In the newsroom, two journalists are arguing on what to publish in thier next newspaper. One of the journalist begins searching through the incoming mail. While searching the mail, the journalist discovers Rorschach's journal.

The last panel leaves a ngle quote for the reader, "who watches the watchmen?"