By Matt Coutts, National Post
1. Vigilante superhero Rorschach wears a trench coat, fedora and a mask that is blank except for what appears to be an inkblog from a Rorschach test on the front. The mask is made from two viscous liquids (one black and one white) that continually shift in response to heat and pressure to form
symmetrical patterns.
2. The smiley face imagery found throughout the graphic novel comes from a badge worn by the Comedian. The character originally wore a belt buckle
adorned with the theatrical comedy mask some time after leaving the original superhero group, The Minutemen. The badge's origin is unknown, but had been part of his costume since the Vietnam War.
3. In 2005, Time Magazine included Watchmen on its list of 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present -- a list that also included Infinite Jest, The Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird -- describing the graphic novel as "a watershed in the evolution of a young medium."
4. Creator Alan Moore originally pitched the Watchmen story concept featuring an unused line of characters DC Comics had bought off of a failing
comic book company, Charlton Comics. The idea would have made the characters unusable in the future, so DC asked Moore to create new characters loosely based on the Charton castoffs, notably Nite Owl (Blue Beetle), Dr. Manhattan (Captain Atom) and Rorschach (The Question).
5. The Question, credited as being the motivation for Rorschach, is a TV newscaster who fights crime wearing a suit and a special mask that makes his face appear blank. In Question #17 (published in June 1988), the hero picks up a copy of Watchmen at an airport terminal and critiques Rorschach in this way: "a little bigoted and he sure as hell is angry, but he does have moves."
6. Watchmen is set in a universe where the actions of costumed superheroes have been deemed illegal vigilantism by the government. Before this, a team of costumed heroes existed, called The Minutemen. It was helmed by a once-sickly former marine acting under the name Captain Metropolis. In the graphic novel, it is implied that Captain Metropolis had a relationship with fellow gay teammate Hooded Justice.
7. Both Captain Metropolis and Hooded Justice are reportedly dead by the time the Watchmen story begins. But a number of Watchmen theorists believe an intriguing panel early in the comic, where two openly gay men are seen in a fancy restaurant, suggests the two are alive and happily living together.
8. Nite Owl II takes his name from an original member of the Minutemen and shares similar crime fighting styles, save for one. Dan Dreiberg, Nite Owl II, uses his large inheritance to develop fancy gadgets and crime fighting gear, including an owl-shaped flying vehicle called the Owlship and nicknamed "Archie." That nickname derives from Archimedes, the name of the mythical wizard Merlin's pet owl.
9. Bernard, an elderly newspaper vendor who appears throughout the graphic novel, was married to a woman named Rose before she passed away. On the television show Lost, Bernard and his wife Rose are two minor characters who crash on a mysterious deserted island after trying to find a cure for Rose's terminal illness. It is one of the few spoiler-free coincidences that link Watchmen and Lost.
10. Hollywood treatments of the graphic novel have been buzzing around Hollywood for decades. At one point, Arnold Schwarzenegger was approached to play the glowing blue, nuclear-powered superhero Dr. Manhattan, the only one who has any actual supernatural powers. The current Governor of California was asked if he would be willing to shave his head and paint himself blue for a film, which he was apparently willing to do if it made sense.
Source: network.nationalpost.com
