Thread: Watchmen

Originally Posted by Devilspawn

- According to a friend of mine, Rorschach's mask was done totally wrong and didn't morph to fit his moods
- Mars shots - awesome / Dr. Manhattan reminded me of Martian Manhunter, which I think was the inspiration when he was created in the comic.

Good review, just a couple points in response:

-Rorschah's mask changed constantly in the graphic novel. Not sure if it was meant to "morph" but it was different in each panel.

-Originally, Alan Moore wanted to use existing DC characters which is why they remind the viewer/reader of existing characters. Manhattan would have been Superman, Rorschach would have been Batman, and I forget the others.

god i thought it would never end...


story was ok.. just oo long.. the custume work was terrible... those costumes looked so cheezy

can't believe i missed this thread. i hated this POS movie.

Just finished reading the graphic novel. I was very impressed how close the costumes in the movie were to the comic book. And Master Shake, I would agree with you that the ending of the movie was a bit better then the comic book. I don't like the person they cast for Ozymandias but other than that I was impressed that all the key dialogue was there. I would have loved to see some of the things in the comic book depicted the same way in the movie (Rorschach's capture of the pedophile, the rooftop rescue, the assassination attempt on Ozymandias). They made up for this with the perfect casting for Nite Owl and Rorchach.

I would definitely go see this again in the theater. This is quite possibly the best comic book adaption to a movie, and I will probably be watching the direct to DVD release of the subplot that was completely missing from the movie.

Originally Posted by MasterShake

-Rorschah's mask changed constantly in the graphic novel. Not sure if it was meant to "morph" but it was different in each panel.

Having the novel fresh in my mind, the material Rochach's face was made of was created to constantly morph. I wish they would have included the origin of the face in the movie.

Last post for now regarding the characters each was based on, ripped from wikipedia:

The Comedian (Edward Morgan Blake)

The Comedian is Edward Morgan Blake, who began his vigilante career in the 1940s as a teenager. Over the years, he became a patriotic hero for the United States. The Comedian was based on the Charlton Comics character Peacemaker, with elements of the Marvel Comics spy character Nick Fury added. Moore and Gibbons saw The Comedian as "a kind of Gordon Liddy character, only a much bigger, tougher guy"

Doctor Manhattan was based upon Charlton's Captain Atom, who in Moore's original proposal was surrounded by the shadow of nuclear threat. However, the writer found he could do more with Manhattan as a "kind of a quantum super-hero" than he ever could have with Captain Atom.[2] Moore sought to delve into nuclear physics and quantum physics in constructing the character of Dr. Manhattan. The writer believed that a character living in a quantum universe would not perceive time with a linear perspective, which would influence the character's perception of human affairs. Moore also wanted to avoid creating an emotionless character like Spock from Star Trek, so he sought for Dr. Manhattan to retain "human habits" and to grow away from them and humanity in general.[1] Gibbons had created the blue character Rogue Trooper, and explained he reused the blue skin motif for Doctor Manhattan as it resembles skin tonally, but has a different hue. Moore incorporated the color into the story, and Gibbons noted the rest of the comic's color scheme made Manhattan unique.[5] Moore recalled that he was unsure if DC would allow the creators to depict the character as fully nude, which partially influenced how they portrayed the character.[6] Gibbons wanted to tastefully depict Manhattan's nudity, selecting carefully when full frontal shots would occur and giving him "understated" genitals — like a classical sculpture — so the reader would not initially notice it.

Nite Owl was based on the Ted Kord version of the Charlton superhero Blue Beetle. Just as Ted Kord had a predecessor, Moore also incorporated an earlier adventurer who used the name "Nite Owl", the retired crime fighter Hollis Mason, into Watchmen.[2] While Moore devised character notes for Gibbons to work from, the artist provided a name and a costume design for Hollis Mason he had created when he was twelve.[7] Richard Reynolds noted in Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology that despite the character's Charlton roots, Nite Owl's modus operandi has more in common with the DC Comics character Batman.[11] According to Geoff Klock, his civilian form "visually suggests an impotent, middle-aged Clark Kent."

Ozymandias was directly based on Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt, whom Moore had admired for using his full brain capacity as well as possessing full physical and mental control.

Moore based Rorschach on the Steve Ditko creation Mr. A. Moore said he was trying to "come up with this quintessential Steve Ditko character — someone who's got a funny name, whose surname begins with a 'K,' who's got an oddly designed mask".[16] As a result, Rorschach's real name is given as Walter Kovacs. Ditko's Charlton character The Question also served as a template for creating Rorschach.[2] Comics historian Bradford W. Wright described the character's world view as "a set of black-and-white values that take many shapes but never mix into shades of gray, similar to the ink blot tests of his namesake". Rorschach sees existence as random and, according to Wright, this viewpoint leaves the character "free to 'scrawl [his] own design' on a 'morally blank world'".[17] Moore said he did not foresee the death of Rorschach until the fourth issue when he realized that his refusal to compromise would result in him not surviving the story.

Silk Spectre is not based on any pre-existing character.