He’s still prowling the streets, attacking criminals and evading capture by the police. The only hero who refuses to retire is Rorschach, a brutal, murderous vigilante clad in a fedora and a white mask covered in ink blot patterns that are constantly shifting. Dan is kind of a sad Batman, while Laurie is sort of like Black Widow meets Black Canary (again, without any superpowers). Manhattan in a government facility as his lover / babysitter. Dan and Laurie’s identities remain secret, although Laurie lives with Dr.

Adrian retires publicly, revealing his identity to the world. The rest of the heroes – Dan Dreiberg AKA Nite Owl, Laurie Jupiter AKA Silk Spectre, and Adrian Veidt AKA Ozymandias – are forced to retire. Manhattan and The Comedian – a violent, Punisher-type militant – are allowed to continue to operate, because they agree to work exclusively as agents of the U.S. In the story’s timeline, superheroes become outlawed in the 1970s. So it’s no surprise he wanted to base his new story on the source material, rather than do a continuation of the film adaptation. In fact, a praise-heaping quote from Lindelof has been included on the back cover of every trade paperback edition of Watchmen since the mid-2000s, and he has said that it was a huge inspiration on Lost’s time-hopping narrative of interconnected flashbacks. Lindelof is a longtime fan of the graphic novel, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. That’s because the HBO show is a sequel to the graphic novel specifically (and not the 2009 film). However, if you’ve never read Watchmen, you’re going to be confused when you tune into the first episode this Sunday. Such is the burden of prestige television.

The new series, from Lost showrunner Damon Lindelof, looks in part like HBO’s attempt to fill the violent intrigue and nudity void left by Game of Thrones with violent intrigue and superhero capes (and probably also nudity). With the impending premier of HBO’s new Watchmen series looming over us like the Doomsday Clock, it’s probably a good time to revisit the original story so you know what the hell is going on.

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