Is Rorschach Watchmen's Batman (DC) - Similarities between Rorschach & Batman

So, Alan Moore refers to him as the real life Batman, or in other words how Batman would've been if he were present in our present world! Looking for similarities between Rorschach and Batman might not make a lot of sense initially though because Rorschach is a half crazy homeless dude posing as a superhero in Watchmen while Batman is the millionaire playboy working as the legendary Darknight next to Superman himself in the DC universe!

Let's look at the dissimilarities between Rorschach and Batman though, first, to put things in perspective -

1) Rorschach doesn't use any fancy gadgets while Batman is known for his gadgets (more so in the early Batman TV shows and Tim Burton movies) complete with stuff ranging from Bat-shark-repeller-sprays to Bat-plane (or Batwing as fanboys might call it)

2) Rorschach is a rather short and slightly built guy while Batman is towering at six feet with a superb muscular build.

3) Rorschach is a good hand-to-hand combatant with some very good boxing skills and well thats about it! Batman on the other hand is nothing short of a human killing machine! Bruce (Batman) has perfected his martial arts skills and physical conditioning to an Olympics athletic levels, he's pretty much at the maximum level that a human being can reach!

4) Rorschach (as Kovacs) is a homeless guy with no job who pretty much (seems to) collect garbage and hangs out in the neighborhood as any other borderline crazy idiot. Batman (as Bruce Wayne) on the other hand is one of the richest men in the whole wide world! Just like Rorschach (Kovacs), Bruce doesn't seem to have any day job either (pun intended) but well you can easily spot the differences ;)

5) Rorschach kills. Batman doesn't kill. This is pretty much the biggest difference of all in my opinion. Having suffered the loss of his parents, Batman values life, no matter if it's a criminal or not. Batman never kills (and I must add that that's part of his problems) but Rorschach's goal is to impart justice - punishing the criminal for his crimes and if the right punishment (according to Rorschach) is death then so be it!

So those were the similarities and now you must be wondering why indeed Alan Moore refers to Rorschach as being similar to Batman! Well, this is actually a bit more intricate I believe and it requires the reader to understand Batman and Rorschach at an even deeper level -

Basically, when we get to down to it, Batman is not really about his gadgets or wealth quite as much. Batman's martial arts abilities are one of my favorite characteristics of his character but even they are not *really* what *define* batman if you see what I mean! Bruce Wayne was Batman even before before learned the forbidden Kungfu techniques and certainly much before he got his fancy Bat-mobile! In other words, Gadgets don't define Batman! Kungfu is not what Batman is really all about! Wealth is important for Bruce Wayne but not Batman. These things help Batman to become more efficient for sure but they are not what Batman is all about.

Instead, Batman is about that primitive rage that drives Bruce Wayne. That borderline craziness seeking justice, that view of bringing justice to the (seemingly) rotting world, that outright madness that makes him put his own life on line every night are the things that define Batman! These are the things that turn Bruce Wayne into Batman. And as you would observe, these are the very things that Rorschach shares with Batman (or Kovacs shares with Bruce Wayne depending on your view). Rorschach is borderline crazy about doing justice, about revenge (not as direct as Batman's though) just like Bruce Wayne is and no wonder that the same factors that turn Bruce Wayne into Batman are also instrumental in converting a seemingly normal Kovacs into Rorschach!

Another thing I'd like to note here is that Rorschach is more of a "real world" Batman. The very idea of things like Batwing (Batman's plane) and the possibility of all the other gadgets require some severe suspension of disbelief. I know that the recent Batman movies (Batman Begins and Darknight) have tried to correct this considerably but still in my opinion, the fancy gadgets kinda betray Batman's character (Darknight here, if you may!) or at least act as distractions . Rorschach here comes as a welcome relief as he is simply driven by the rage and emotions, he *will* keep on going, wealth or no wealth. He's the realistic portrayal of a Batman who is not a millionaire (or doesn't have access to any fancy gizmos). This is what Bruce Wayne must've become if he was not, well, Bruce Wayne the CEO of Wayne industries! This is also the main point where IronMan (Tony Stark) differs from Batman (Bruce Wayne) by the way, but that's another discussion.

Another important, albeit not quite as important, personality element that Rorschach and Batman share is their desire to work alone and being somewhat (many times unwarranted) distrustful when dealing with other fellow superheroes. This is particularly evident throughout all serious Batman story lines (even more serious stuff like Darknight and Kingdom Come etc) in the way he doesn't really play with Justice League and all; and it's very clearly portrayed by Alan Moore in Watchmen in the way Rorschach interacts with Night Owl (who is his close ally). What is specially important is Rorschach is all nice and friendly initially, he collaborates with Night Owl in a fun way, attends their "superhero meetings" and does all the good stuff but as soon as he comes across the little girl's kidnapping case, it all changes. I'd like to note that the "little girl's kidnapping" case is what was instrumental in converting Kovacs into the real Rorschach. Once he is at that point, i.e. once he has "become" Rorschach, then on Rorschach is more like real Batman! From that point, he is not part of the superhero crowd that does it just for the kicks (in other words just because of the sense of adventure); rather Rorschach does it because he is "compelled" to do it (in Rorschach's describes himself to Dr. Malcolm Long in Watchmen)! From then on, Rorschach is no longer a costumed adventurer, but from then on Rorschach is a real (street) crime fighter (even if borderline psychotic) just as Batman is. This kinda sets both Rorschach and Batman apart!

Another thing that I feel I should elaborate more on, even if I've grazed through earlier, is Rorschach is a Batman without the wealth! To put it in perspective, I'd like you to think what Batman would have been if Bruce Wayne was not one of the wealthiest men in the world. In this case, the rage (or psychosis, what you may) that fuels Batman is still there but the means to get all the gadgets and stuff, that would help steamline things, are lacking; in this case Bruce Wayne would try whatever he can to *still* go fight crime in the best way he can. And if he's smart enough as well (got to be a bit smarter than average to just sustain the intensity) then he would try to use anything and everything as a *gadget* (gadget being things that help him do his job better), thus displaying MacGyverism and bingo, thats exactly what Rorschach does! Also, given the limited means (and some reality), Bruce Wayne would certainly not be able to master all those eastern-deadly-forbidden-secret-martial-arts skills either, rather he'd master what fighting lessons that he can easily get (boxing of example) very well and as you might have guessed, Rorschach learned boxing very well.

Also, at the risk of nitpicking, I think Alan Moore's decision to portray Rorschach as a shorter and thinner guy also helps make him closer to real life because we are trying to portray Rorschach as a noraml average individual who is doing the superhero / vigilante stuff because of that "compelling rage" and not because he is just stronger and can! Rorschach being shorter also emphasizes the intensity of his "compelling rage" as he is not naturally equipped to physically handle a big part of the tall and strong criminal fraternity! Yeah, Alan Moore knew what he was doing when he was creating his Watchmen characters!

So, well I'm sure that we see now how Rorschach is Batman (Darnight rather if I may) minus the suspension of disbelief!

To read more about Rorschach's psychology, click - Rorschach Psychology Analaysis

To read about how Rorschach shows himself to be a true superhero at the time of his death, click - Rorschach dies as a true superhero

To read something funny about Rorschach, click - Why does Rorschach stink so bad

Read about funkiness involving Dr. Manhattan's transformation - Osterman's funky transformation into Dr. Manhattan

Dr. Manhattan's (Jonathan Osterman's) memorable Quotes from Watchmen (book / graphic novel)

As I commented in my Dr. Manhattan's Origin article, Dr. Manhattan is known for his eccentric view of the world! His unique godlike powers have so removed him from normalcy that Dr. Manhattan can no longer relate to human beings anymore! This supra-human view of the world is reflected in the way he talks and I think Dr. Manhattan's Quotes pretty much distinguish him from everything else in Watchmen.

And by the way, Dr. Manhattan has commented on pretty much everything on the planet even after all the "I'm not human nemore" attitude that he has! Below I present the few most interesting ones -

Watchmen Chapter I:

Dr. Manhattan's observation on death -

"A live body and a dead body contain the same number of particles. Structurally there's no discernible difference."

"Life and Death are unquantifiable abstracts. Why should I be concerned?"

Dr. Manhattan's reply to an invitation to party - ""I'd join..,but I think I'm close to locating a gluino, which would completely validate supersymmetrical theory..."

Watchmen Chapter III:

Dr. Manhattan's excuse for not having sex - ""Laurie, try to understand...my work's at an important stage! It seemed unnecessary to..."

Dr. Manhattan's response to Silk Spectre breaking up with him - "If you think there's a problem with my attitude, I'm prepared to discuss it.

Watchmen Chapter IV:

Dr. Manhattan looking at some photo - "The photograph is in my hand...in twelve seconds time, I drop the photograph ...walking away. It's already lying there, twelve seconds into the future...I found it...twenty-seven hours ago. It's still there, twenty-seven hours into the past...I'm still there looking at it."

Dr. Manhattan decides to look at stars - ""I am going to look at the stars. They are so far away, and their light takes so long to reach us...All we ever see of stars are their old photographs."

Dr. Manhattan thinks of sunlight - ""I am two hundred and twenty-seven million kilometers from the sun. It's light is already ten minutes old..."

Dr. Manhattan predicts past and future - ""Two hours into my future, I observe meteorites from a glass balcony, thinking about my father. Twelve seconds into my past, I open my fingers..."

Dr. Manhattan predicts female orgasms and breakups - ""It's 1959. A pulse flutters in her belly, beneath my cheek. It's 1966...She's crying."

Dr. Manhattan's thanks for a gold ring from his girlfriend (Janey Slater) - ""I like it very much. Its atomic structure is a perfect grid, like a checker board."

Dr. Manhattan's comment on superheroes - ""...friend;y middle-aged men who like to dress up..."

Dr. Manhattan's view on causality - ""I can't prevent the future. To me, it's already happening."

Dr. Manhattan's view of Comedian (Edward Blake) - ""Blake is interesting. I have never met anyone so deliberately amoral."

Dr. Manhattan on sculpting - ""Things have their shape in time, not space alone. Some marble blocks have statues within them embedded in their future."

Dr. Manhattan forgets that he was once human - ""I am tired of this world, these people. I am tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives."

Dr. Manhattan on being late - ""But it's too late. Always has been, Always will be too late."

Watchmen Chapter IX:

Dr. Manhattan's masterpiece - ""We're all puppets Laurie. I'm just a puppet who can see the strings."

Dr. Manhattan's wonders why humans can't predict future - ""There is no future. There is no past...Time is simultaneous, an intricately structured jewel that humans insist on viewing one edge at a time, when the whole design is visible in every facet."

Dr. Manhattan's reply to Laurie's questions -

Laurie: "What's in the bottle?"

Dr. Manhattan: ""What do you want to be in the bottle?"
------

Laurie: "Humanity is about to be become extinct. Doesn't it bother you"

Dr. Manhattan: "All that pain and conflict done with? All that needless suffering over at last? No, that doesn't bother me."
------
Laurie: "Jon, what about the war? You've got to prevent it! Everyone will die."

Dr. Manhattan: "...And the universe will not even notice."

Dr. Manhattan's view of human life - "In my opinion, it's a highly overrated phenomenon. Mars gets along perfectly without so much as a micro-organism."

Dr. Manhattan's sarcasm about environment pollution - (talking of Mars) ""...Giant steps, ninety feet high...A constantly changing topographical map, flowing and shifting...Tell me...would it be greatly improved by an oil pipeline?"

Dr. Manhattan feels quantum mechanics is more important than human life - ""I read atoms, Laurie. I see the ancient spectacle that birthed the rubble. Beside this, human life is brief and mundane."

Dr. Manhattan finally feels that human life is a miracle - ""In each human coupling, a thousand million sperm vie for a single egg. Multiply those odds by countless generations, against the odds of your ancestors being alive, meeting, siring this precise son; that exact daughter...until your mother loves a man ...and of that union, of the thousand million children competing for fertilization, it was you, only you...(it's) like turning air to gold...thermodynamic miracle."

Dr. Manhattan soothes his girlfriend Silk Spectre - ""Come...dry your eyes, for you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg...dry your eyes..."

Watchmen Chapter XII:

Dr. Manhattan coming back from dead - ""Restructuring myself after the subtraction of my intrinsic field was the first trick I learned. It didn't kill Osterman...Did you think it would kill me?"

Dr. Manhattan ridiculing Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt) - ""...this world's smartest man means no more to me than does its smartest termite."

Dr. Manhattan's masterpiece - "Nothing ends...Nothing ever ends."

To read more fun stuff on Dr. Manhattan, click - Dr. Manhattan's personal life

To read about Dr. Manhattan's origin, click - Dr. Manhattan's Origin

To find out if Dr. Manhattan can beat Superman and Hulk, click -
Dr. Manhattan vs Superman and Hulk

Is Rorschach (Watchmen) Jigsaw (Saw) gone right?

The way Rorschach killed the kidnapper of the little girl is pretty much how the villain Jigsaw from SAW movies commits his crimes! For those of you who don't know who or what Jigsaw is - Jigsaw is the main villain of a series of movies called SAW who offers "puzzles" that his victims have to solve in order to survive. Please don't confuse Jigsaw with Batman's Riddler though as his puzzles are not the relatively harmless variety. Instead, Jigsaw's puzzles, regardless of the actual solution, have immediate and often horrific consequences for the victims. To explain - most of Jigsaw's puzzles involve some sort of intricate mechanism that the victim is trapped in and in order to survive, the victim has to get out of it. Inability to solve the "puzzle" results in immediate and painful death. So where does Rorschach fit in all this? And isn't Rorschach the good guy (even if an anti-hero)?

Yes, Rorschach is indeed the good guy and doesn't go offering murderous puzzles to anyone. This whole Rorschach as Jigsaw controversy resulted from an incident in Watchmen that is often referred to as "little girl's kidnapping" case. The details can be found here - Rorschach's Psychology in Watchmen

As horrific both the crime and Rorschach's punishement were, they do relate to how Jigsaw commits his own branded crimes. In fact, in one of the SAW movies, Jigsaw offers even the Rorschach's "handcuff-saw-puzzle" with the difference that Jigsaw's victim was not running against the clock to get free. Further, it seems that Rorschach whole point of killing the kidnapper that way is was to make him realize the value of life and the horror of pain. This is again similar to the reason Jigsaw offers - "To help them realize the value of their lives"

But to answer the controversial question - No, Rorschach is not like Jigsaw. Besides the obvious fact that he is a good guy (even if an anti-hero), the main reason is that Rorschach doesn't really care about teaching the criminals about value of their lives or whatever. His core objective is to punish them brutally and immediately instead of causing any reforms or having them atone for their crimes or whatever. This is in stark contrast to Jigsaw's goal of helping the victims realize the value of life. Rorschach's own words (Watchmen book / graphic novel by Alan Moore) "...Stood in street. Imagined limbless felt torso inside; breasts blackening; bellies smoldering;bursting into flame one by one..." indicate that his objective was to kill the kidnapper and not at all letting him live no matter what. Rorschach knew that the kidnapper will never be able to get out and so his offer of that saw was aimed at punishing the criminal psychologically too.

All that said, there is no doubt that Jigsaw (as a character) is actually inspired from Rorschach. Yeah, all the innovations seen in SAW movies are no doubt original (it seems) but the very idea of Jigsaw seems to originate from that part of Watchmen's plot! Heck, even the name Jigsaw has a "saw" in it (saw being the originating from that part of the story in Watchmen)!

To find why Alan Moore calls Rorschach Watchmen's Batman, click - Is Rorschach Watchmen's Batman? Rorschach vs Batman

To read about how Rorschach shows himself to be a true superhero at the time of his death, click - Rorschach dies as a true superhero

To read a funny article on Rorschach, click - Rorschach Watchmen Character

Rorschach Psychology Watchmen character

Rorschach is perhaps one of the biggest anti-heroes in Watchmen and other comic-verses. So what exactly is wrong with him? What made Rorschach psychology so screwed up? Is Rorschach really a hero or a villain? What is his personality like in reality? Is Rorschach just short of turning into a bad guy?

I guess we all agree that the main reason behind Rorschach's mental instability or messed up psychology is the way Rorschach handled the little girl's kidnapping case. It's only after his failure to save the girl from the kidnapper that we see Rorschach become the ruthless psychotic anti-hero that he comes across as. This is also evident in the way his psychologist Dr. Malcolm Long's is stunned after listening to the girl's kidnapping case details. Remember that Dr. Malcolm Long is more or so apathetic to Rorschach's personality having made the assumption that Rorschach's vigilante (rather as an anti-hero) efforts are just a misdirection of his subconscious rage originating from his bad upbringing and some crime he happened to notice. But after Roroschach explains the girl's kidnapping's details to him, its after that we see a significant shift in Dr. Malcolm Long's own psychology. Dr. Long is evidently affected by the horrid details of the girl's kidnapping case.

This actually brings an important question - Is everyone supposed to be similarly affected by the details of the girl's kidnapping case? I'm sure not! The reason, in my view, Dr. Malcolm Long was so substantially affected by that is because he, being a psychologist, is much more empathic. Yes, I do think that to be a truly distinguished psychologist one needs to have above average empathy. And Dr. Malcolm Long being distinguished enough to be treating someone like Rorschach (Kovacs) does have that trait. Further, he is consciously making an effort to understand Rorschach and that adds to the fact that he somehow internalizes the thing that hit Rorschach himself so hard. Anyhow, I'm digressing, back to Rorschach's psychology...

So what is this little girl's kidnapping case anyway? To summarize - While trying to solve a kidnapping case (a little girl's kidnapping), Rorschach found that the kidnapper had killed the girl in the *most* horrific and inhuman manner (the details of which have been intentionally kept out of this blog) and mentally unstable as Rorschach was to start with, broke down! His anger led Rorschach to try to punish the kidnapper in a rather grotesque way - Rorschach handcuffed the murderer to something in his house and set the house on fire! But the grotesque part of it was that Rorschach also left a hacksaw next to the handcuffed kidnapper as a way to get out of the burning house. Obviously, it was impossible to saw off the handcuffs themselves in time so the whole point was to see if he will saw off his own arm to get free! That's not all though, Rorschach waited for an hour or so outside the house listening to his victim's cries who apparently couldn't find the courage to saw off his own hand and died by the fire.

So, aside from the girl's kidnapping case I guess we all agree that a lot of it stems from Rorschach's childhood and upbringing and his early years with his mother, growing up as an unwanted child too. That said, I think there is a subtle and often unnoticed aspect of the upbringing part as well! Rorschach's personality also reflects the apparent polarity of the perceived (by him) personalities of his mother and father. His mother being a severely abusive and "low" person while his mental image of his father as a true patriot and a gentleman who he never met! Further, Rorschach's tendency to think of president Truman and his own father sharing similar ideals seem to be doing more damage to his (Rorschach's) perception of right and wrong.

The reason that I think that this apparent difference in Rorschach's perception of his parents is a rather huge reason behind his psychosis is evident from Roroschach's view of the world! Rorschach has a very black and white view of the world - Rorschach's sense of "bad" or "wrong" almost includes everything (as is evident from the third panel of the very first page of Watchmen book) but his sense of "good" or "right" lies at the other end of the spectrum (as is evident from his last decision to tell the truth to the world). Observing these facts, it makes sense that his sense of "wrong" comes from the way he learned to perceived the world in his early childhood (primarily his mother's behavior of course) and his sense of "right" comes from his perception of father's personality (and president Truman ofcourse). So, the reality to Rorschach is all rotten and doomed because that's what he has seen in his formative years but his mental image of "good" (that he is trying to do as a superhero) is all sunshine and rainbows! And consequently we notice Rorschach's inclination to view things in a strictly black & white manner. It's like Rorschach has a case of split personality and while dealing with reality his "bad" (mother's) side takes over and while thinking about doing some good his "good" (father's) side takes over. This basic personality characteristic is evident in the way he created his mask - remember that Rorschach's black & white mask existed even before the girl's kidnapping case! He always had this type of psychology and the girl's kidnapping case acted as the final straw that broke the camel's back (turned a more or less good hearted super hero / vigilante Rorschach into a murdered psychotic anti-hero)!

To find why Alan Moore calls Rorschach Watchmen's Batman, click - Is Rorschach Watchmen's Batman? Rorschach vs Batman

To read about how Rorschach shows himself to be a true superhero at the time of his death, click - Rorschach dies as a true superhero

To read a funny article on Rorschach, click - Rorschach Watchmen Character

To learn more about similarities between Jigsaw and Rorschach, click - Comparing Rorschach's psychology with Jigsaw's

Watchmen iPhone iPod Touch App

So finally Watchmen's iPhone and iPod Touch app is out! I just installed and ran it and it seems like a cool idea - As the app starts we see Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt) and his cat Bubastis looking at a bunch of tv screens. Some of these screens are on and clicking them shows some Watchmen movie or book (graphic novel) related item. The following are available right now -

1) Screen 1 shows the countdown timer to release date (and time it seems) of Watchmen movie. Similar to the countdown timer you see in my blog on the right panel.

2) Screen 2 shows the latest Watchmen trailer and I must say that it's freakingly awesome. A must watch! Focuses a bit more on Dr. Manhattan (Joanathan Osterman) and shows some key moments in the storyline.

3) Screen 3 (in the front of Bubastis) shows an animated clip of Watchmen graphic novel complete with images and nicely done voice overs. Right now its showing the first chapter of the book and I really liked the succint and well paced way in which it showed the events of Watchmen. The voice of Rorschach reading his journal doesn't reflect the psychotic personality as much as you would expect but given it's not the real thing I'm ok with it.

So, the Watchmen iPhone and iPod Touch app is a must download, find it in iTunes or check out the link to apple's website here - Apple Watchmen App

To Read something funny about Dr. Manhattan click - Dr. Manhattan Jonathan Osterman Watchmen Character's fetishes

Captain Metropolis Watchmen character

Captain Metropolis from Watchmen's minutemen team is another of the Watchmen's super psychotic heroes! As you can see in the pic on the left, his mild psychosis is bursting out from every pore on his body. Don't get me wrong though, he is not psycho enough to be put in a strait jacket (yet), its just that his definition of crime is a bit severely misguided! Here's how, according to him the following activities constitute "crime" that superheroes must fight against -

1) One night stands - Yeah, next time you think about hitting the club on a saturday night, watch out for Captain Metropolis! Cap calls the crime "promiscuity" though so watch out Nelly (Furtardo)!

2) African-American rights - the good Captain Metropolis is also very concerned about our african american brothers, oh don't get me wrong he is concerned just about them asking for their rights! Yeah, the damned Captain Metropolis is very big on racism and he labels this particular "crime" as Black unrest. Goddamit!

3) Anti War Demonstrations - This beats them all, Captain Metropolis firmly believes that any demostrations againt wars are criminal activities! Yeah, let there be a war America!

4) Drugs - Yes, children if you even think about pot, Darknight is gonna come and gonna teach you a lesson.

So, our good Captain once assembled all the superheroes and proposed to create a superhero team called "Crime Busters" showing a chart listing activities that he thought were "criminal" (above four and more). Ofcourse everyone was thoroughly disgusted by the stupid idea and left immediately. Comedian (Edward Blake), before leaving, went one step further and burned the silly chart with his lighter and Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt) realized that all these so called super heroes are a bunch of hobos and decided to save the world all by himself!

All that said, what is interesting though, is that Captain Metropolis didn't list homosexuality as a criminal activity (it being considered a taboo too back then). That's because he himself is in a romantic relationship with a fellow superhero called Hooded Justice. They can't just make it public though so Hooded Justice has a sham relationship with Silk Spectre 1 (Sally Jupiter).

Read more about - Hooded Justice's public life and Silk Spectre's 1 (Sally Jupiter) reasons for becoming a superhero

Dollar Bill Watchmen Minutemen character - The most idiotic superhero

So who is this Dollar Bill, why does he deserve a whole new blog entry and most importantly why is he standing in between a couple of hobos? Yeah, the guy on his right is Mothman who was always a hobo in the Watchmen book and on his left is Night Owl 1 aka Hollis Mason (one of my favorite characters and the predecessor of Night Owl 2 or Daniel Dreiberg). I'm ok with Mothman looking like a 16 year old girl because he is too stupid to look otherwise, but Night Owl in his panties with a seemingly engorged member is ridiculously disgusting. Only God knows what Dave Gibbons was smoking when he did this!

Anyhow, back to Dollar Bill. So what is so special about Dollar Bill? Many things really, and all are as silly as the pic on the left but they do make him stand out in the whole comicverse out there (yeah DC/Marvel/more)....here goes -

1) Dollar Bill is the ONLY paid/hired superhero ever in Watchmen and elsewhere - Yeah, Dollar Bill is a "super hero" who was "hired" by some bank! Whatever happened to the good old days when superheroes used to risk their lives altruistically for noble causes. What if Batman started charging money for every hour of his "service"?

2) Dollar Bill is the ONLY superhero ever who had a wardrobe malfunction - Yeah, Dollar Bill actually was killed because of his costume. His big fancy cape got stuck in a revolving door and some lowly bank robber shot him dead. This is ridiculous really! What are costumes for anyway? Going by Darknight's example, every element in a costume has some very important purpose to aid the nightly crime fighting. In other words, costumes are supposed to help save superhero's butt and not kick it! So while Darknight introduced a cape to his costume was when he really needed it to slow down his fall when jumping across buildings, but our good Dollar Bill introduced the cape just for a "good measure"! And look where it got him!

To read more about other funny Watchmen's Minutemen team members, click - Silhouette Watchmen's Minutemen superheroine who was kicked out because she was lesbian

and Silk Spectre 1 aka Sally Jupiter - the Watchmen's Minutemen superheroine who became a vigilante to help her hollywood career

Silk Spectre Sally Jupiter Watchmen Characters

Silk Spectre 1 happens to be our hottest-chick-in-watchmen's Mom! Thats right, she is Laurie Juspeczyk's (aka Silk Spectre 2) mother and I daresay a bit less conservative than the good daughter when it comes to her celebrity expose`! But what is absolutely amazing about her is the fact that Silk Spectre 1 (Sally Jupiter) is the ONLY superhero (heroine) in Watchmen (or DC/Marvel) who criminals totally want to be caught by! Yeah, right from the common street muggers to the super villains, everyone has just one dream - to get caught by Silk Spectre 2! Why so though? Because she is HOT, thats why! Villains just love the idea of the hot chick questioning him and handcuffing him and well....thats where it usually ends other then those few, who because of their some slightly differently places pleasure centers, prefer to be beaten up first! The very thought of being apprehended by a beautiful 18 year old beauty is too irresistible to the socially misguided! This is not just limited to super villains though, even super heroes find her irresistible - case in point, Comedian (Edward Blake), who once tried to get a bit too cozy with Silk Spectre and got beaten up by Hooded Justice! Oh don't get me wrong, Hooded Justice is not Silk Spectre's love interest, nothing going on between them whatsoever. What is interesting here though, is that Hooded Justice pretends to be Silk Spectre's boyfriend! Why is that? - Read here - Hooded Justice & Silk Spectre.

But well, for our Silk Spectre its all really cool with all that stuff because she can use some extra publicity to help her modelling career. Yeah, Silk Spectre must be the ONLY super heroine who decided to become the superheroine not to fight crime, but to give an extra push to her modelling & acting career! Silk Spectre 1, her daughter Laurie Juspeczyk's finds the idea absolutely disgusting though. I share her views to some extent. Can you believe it! It's like Wonder Woman fighting battles with those monsters from hell just so some director would give her some role in some movie! Oh well, whatever floats Sally's boat!

Comedian Edward Blake Watchmen Character (comic / movie / graphic novel)

When I was reading Watchmen, Comedian (Edward Blake) always reminded me of Joker(as in Batman's villain Joker). Comedian is pretty much a Joker gone right - Think of Darknight's Joker (Heath Ledger, if you are not familiar with the comics version) and think imagine him playing a hero and doing good things but with the same sarcasm and most importantly the same view of the world, yeah thats what Comedian is!

Just like Darknight's Joker, Watchmen's Comedian understands the reality of the world, he knows to what level the human society has degraded, he realizes that people can do unimaginable things to save their own skin and he feels that the world is pretty much going down the drain (nuclear war resulting from USA - USSR cold war) for what it's worth (or not). And he then plays the hero with that understanding! That means that he is overly sarcastic, takes it all as a game, lacks a sense of responsibility (and direction) and doesn't really follow any ethical and moral rules! I guess the closest real life representation would be the typical gluttonous Roman general - materialistic, rotting, given to his desires, lacking an sense of responsibility, observing the world with absolute disrespect and.....oh wait I don't really hate either Comedian or Roman generals hehe, thats just a view of comedian's psychology.

I think in the Watchmen itself the closest character to that of Comedian would be Rorschach. This is because Rorschach also has a very similar view of the world - rotting, diseased, selfish. But the main difference is that Rorschach does have that sense of responsibility that Comedian so sorely lacks. Basically they both know that the world is totally screwed, but Rorschach is able to limit his view to what he must do, playing superhero acts as a temporary vent for his psychological outbursts, guilt, anger and more, he feels compelled because of the state of the world to do what he does. Comedian though on the other hand hasn't internalized it all, the way Rorschach has done, he cheats his emotions by just taking a funny outlook towards it all; in other words, he simply laughs at it all and gets on with his life (while Rorschach is pained by it and vents it by fighting crime). Comedian obviously needs a bigger example to go through the phase that Rorschach went in the time of the little girl's kidnapping case and Comedian gets that example when he learns about Ozymandias' murderous plan to save the world. Perhaps that would have acted as a transition point for Comedian had he stayed alive long enough to come back to the real world (that is, out of alcohol induced forget-it-all phase). We will never know.....

If you don't happen to know who or what Rorschach is, this is your luck day - Click here for a brief overview of Rorschach in Watchmen

Rorschach Watchmen character (comics / graphic novel)

Rorschach is arguably one of the creepiest characters in Watchmen and rest of the DC Marvel universes! If you don't know about him then let me explain what he is like - Take Batman and strip away all his money, all of his gadgets (bat-mobile, bat-plane, bat-whatever) and make him about 10 inches shorter and multiply Batman's psychosis by ten; the result is Rorschach! Yeah, he's that fu-ked up!

Rorschach is probably the ONLY "superhero" in the whole DC+Marvel universes who stinks! Yeah, he stinks so bad that even the toughest supervillains can't stand it! No, don't get me wrong, the super-stench not like some superpower or anything; he's just a regular guy totally devoid of any crazy powers, its just that he just doesn't take bath and hates to do laundry! I personally empathize with the laundry issue though but I feel that the stench must be messing up his "stealth" too but probably he doesn't need stealth as the criminal fraternity would be totally terrorized to move when his stenchy self is around anyhow!

Another interesting thing about Rorschach is that he doesn't have a "day job" (or secret identity if you may!). You see, Superman works as a press reporter, Spiderman works as a photographer, Ironman works as Starks-Industries-whatever, even Batman kinda works as Wayne Industries CEO; but our Rorschach dude doesn't do anything at all! Yeah, his cover is that of a homeless guy and all he does is to hangout in the neighborhood with a signboard saying "The End is Nigh"!

Since Rorschach doesn't have any job you might be wondering how he arranges for food etc, here's how he takes care of that problem - Whenever he goes to any super villains to interrogate them or whatever, the first thing he does is to clean out their refrigerator and eat up all he can. Then he stuffs the poor super villain in the now empty refrigerator for a few minutes before starting the interrogation process! Its kinda fair too as that way he's getting paid for risking his life while fighting crime and stuff, no need to find a day job and stuff. The guy is doing what he loves and making a living out of it, I'd say we all agree on the importance of having a job that you love, right! Rorschach doesn't stop at the supervillains though, he snacks away even when he is visiting his fellow superheroes! All the better for him as they even ask him if he would like some cheese with the stolen bread!

Probably Rorschach is also the ONLY superhero who could be a possible SAW's Jigsaw suspect! Yeah, the dude once left a criminal handcuffed in a burning house with just a little saw to cut the handcuff (or his limbs) off to escape the fire! Yeah, the Rorschach guy is not your everyday super hero; Rorschach is like a super psycho super villain material gone right! To be fair though, he is actually pretty good at investigating and torturing criminals till they squeal out the truth.

Unfortunately for him, most notable members of the criminal fraternity are at least one foot taller than him, he turns out to be a bit less intimidating than how he really is! So poor guy has to wear elevator shoes to gain a few precious inches (talking about the height here). But don't underestimate him, Rorschach once killed almost all members of a gang while being locked up, yeah the dude is extremely resourceful. Another instance is when Rorschach beat up full SWAT team attacking him! Unfortunately, since he is ugly as fu-k he hides it all behind a mask and a trench coat. Yes children, if you wear a mask, a coat and high heel sandals, then all muggers will be instantly terrorized by you! Now you know how to dress up to stay safe in brooklyn nights (hey it works for him!)

To read about Rorschach origins and psychology, click - Rorschach's Psychology and Anti-heroism

To find why Alan Moore calls Rorschach Watchmen's Batman, click - Is Rorschach Watchmen's Batman? Rorschach vs
Batman

To read about how Rorschach shows himself to be a true superhero at the time of his death, click - Rorschach dies as a true superhero

To read a comparison between Rorschach and Jigsaw, click - Is Rorschach in Watchmen same as Jigsaw in SAW

Wiki On Rorschach