Favorite "Watchmen" character?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Rorshach might be less villainous if you consider villainy in terms of the consequences of one's actions (then, so was the Comedian), but he has a far more abhorrent personality. He's basically a blithering, self-righteous, misanthropic, pseudo-moralistic psychopath who mindlessly kills people in the most gruesome and absurd ways following nothing but his own ridiculously narrow logic. He's basically what you get when you mix the most brainwashed fundie moron with the most senselessly brutal 90s antihero. God, how I hate Rorshach. And how I utterly despise his fans.

....

Dude, just saying, as a friend.  Chill.

Movies are serious business.

You think this is just a film!?

Nah, I know it was based on the comics, but I haven't read them. The film is good enough.

[muon2]

If you haven't, you should read Miracleman, also by Alan Moore, which isn't as well done but was sort the spiritual predecessor to Watchmen. It also has a pretty mind-blowing and awesome final act.

My favorite Alan Moore sequence was the American Gothic storyline for Swamp Thing which just preceded Watchmen.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I should also mention that thanks to Doc Manhattan and The Comedian helping us win 'Nam--Manhattan moreso--and the bodies of two reporters, Woodward and "some Jewish name" found in a garage, Nixon is triumphant and goes on to win third, fourth, and even fifth terms. Moore went with Nixon since he wanted someone besides the then-popular Reagan to rail against, and Nixon's the perfect guy for the job.

Not that Moore didn't get a little subtle Reagan bashing in on the side.  One of the incidents used to help establish the back story of this world is a newspaper headline "RR to run for President?"  Of course one of the minor characters doesn't think so. After all, even if an actor were to run for president, who would vote for Robert Redford!

Also, it seems to me unlikely that Ford would have been Vice-President in the Watchmen universe as was shown in the comics. He was picked because with Watergate already in motion it was already realized that he might become President.  With no Watergate problem, Ford would have likely remained House Minority Leader and possibly even become Speaker without Watergate to cause problems for the GOP.

Yes, who would vote for a cowboy actor for President?

And can we really expect a British comics writer to be as great an alternate historian as we here on the forum?

[tpfkaw]

Perhaps Ford was alt-Nixon's original running mate?  IIRC he was on the shortlist in '68.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Ford had more power and influence as House Minority Leader than he ever would have had as Vice President.  Barring the one-two punch of Agnew-Watergate I can't see him accepting the post.  Still, it's clear that Watchmen has Ford as veep so there could be the sight gag of Ford stumbling as he came off the plane and for no other reason.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Ford had more power and influence as House Minority Leader than he ever would have had as Vice President.  Barring the one-two punch of Agnew-Watergate I can't see him accepting the post.  Still, it's clear that Watchmen has Ford as veep so there could be the sight gag of Ford stumbling as he came off the plane and for no other reason.

Heh. I remember that now. I take it Moore just went "Well, Ford became his VP after Agnew, so let's just assume Nixon's gonna have the same guy on the ticket for the next three elections!" though the staircase-tripping theory is plausible.

[CatoMinor]

Rorschach is by far the most interesting.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Rorschach is by far the most interesting.

It's not so much that he's the most interesting one as he's the one with the most fully developed backstory.