To paraphrase the master Alfred Hitchcock – “Watchmen” is coming, “Watchmen” is coming.
And – lo – the hills are alive with the sound of fanboys’ heads exploding like Roman candles in their excitement.
Inspired by the Charlton Comics line purchased by D.C. Comics in the mid-1980s, “Watchmen” writer Alan Moore (“The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,” “V for Vendetta,” etc.) and artist Dave Gibbons concocted a mind-blowing, Hugo Award-winning, postmodern neo-noir set in an alternate universe, where the Cold War continued to rage, Richard Nixon was still in the White House and superheroes were either outlawed and being persecuted or worked for the government in an attempt to stave off seemingly inevitable nuclear Armageddon.
Moore’s stated intention was to create a superhero “Moby Dick” (“Call me Magneto”). What he did is arguably create a group of superheroes even more anti-social than the misfits of the “X-Men” series. He also has, in characteristic Moore fashion, already disowned the film version sight unseen.
Taking existing characters and reinventing them was nothing new. Irish author James Joyce did it in “Ulysses” in the 1920s. Later, Philip Jose Farmer riffed on “Moby Dick,” Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan. Farmer even come up with an elaborate genealogical tree, linking everyone from Sherlock Holmes and d’Artagnan to Fu Manchu and Doc Savage.
After years of talk and a last-minute lawsuit that threatened to derail the release, the long-awaited “Watchmen” movie opens Friday, directed by Zack Snyder, a follow-up to his eye-popping, R-rated, graphic-novel blockbuster “300” (2006).
Although the Watchmen characters are referred to as superheroes, they are like Batman insofar as they are ordinary humans with extraordinary fighting, technological and other crime-fighting skills. Only one of them has superpowers.
Here is a list of the major figures:
1. Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) – A misfit and vigilante with gymnastic, martial arts and street fighting skills, whose morphing mask obscures his face. His real name is Walter Joseph Kovacs.
2. Dr. Manhattan – (Billy Crudup) – Like a certain Bruce Banner, scientist Jon Osterman was transformed into a teleporting, blue-skinned superhero by a frightening, high-tech lab accident.
3. Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson) – Also known as Dan Dreiberg, an amateur ornithologist, engineer and inventor, he is actually the second Nite Owl and frequently partners with Rorschach.
4. Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman) – Real name Laurie Juspeczyk (changed to Jupiter in the film) is another crime-fighting vigilante turned government operative. On the rebound from Dr. Manhattan, she’s in a romantic clinch with Nite Owl.
5. Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) – Also known as Adrian Veidt, a superior human being thought to be the smartest man on Earth, often accompanied by his genetically engineered lynx, Bubastis.
6. The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) – Another vigilante, Edward Blake started ridding the world of criminals before turning sanctioned government operative after the so-called Keene Act outlawed most superheroes.
