Moloch

Overview

Key

Y A model served as a body double, with the actor's likeness superimposed onto the model.

L Actor lent only their likeness for their film character.

P Appearance through a photographic still.

A Appearance by an in-universe actor portraying the character.

Character was not in the film.

Crimebusters

The Crimebusters are a superhero group that succeeds the Minutemen and are the main characters of Watchmen. The group was short-lived when the Keene Act that forbade non-government sanctioned superheroes was passed. Among its notable members are:

The Comedian

The Comedian (Edward Morgan "Eddie" Blake) is a vigilante, initially based on the Shield and then on the Charlton Comics character Peacemaker, with elements of the Marvel Comics spy character Nick Fury added. Moore and Gibbons saw the Comedian as "a kind of Gordon Liddy character, only a much bigger, tougher guy". Gibbons went with a Groucho Marx-style appearance (mustache and cigar) for the Comedian in his design, deciding that the "clown" look had already been appropriated by the DC Comics supervillain the Joker. His costume itself was noted by Gibbons as being particularly problematic; he was initially designed with a more militaristic costume which was later dropped for a black leather outfit with a "rapist mask". He believes that humans are savage in nature, and that civilization can never be more than an idea. He, therefore, chooses to become a mockery of society, fighting and killing without reservation.

Blake's murder, which takes place shortly before the story begins in 1985, sets the plot of Watchmen in motion. The character appears throughout the story in flashbacks and aspects of his personality are revealed by other characters. Richard Reynolds described the Comedian as "ruthless, cynical, and nihilistic, and yet capable of deeper insights than the others into the role of the costumed hero". Nicholas Michael Grant said the Comedian is "the only character in the Watchmen universe who is almost totally unlikeable."

In the Watchmen film, he is portrayed by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. The film also places him as John F. Kennedy's assassin, as shown in the opening montage. In Watchmen: The End Is Nigh, the Comedian is voiced by Mark Silverman.

Due to his death in the graphic novel, he does not appear in the HBO sequel series Watchmen, but he is mentioned and his legacy lives on through his daughter Laurie. The Comedian is seen briefly in a flashback episode in which he is portrayed by an uncredited actor. According to a Peteypedia article, Lady Trieu's mother Bian My had encountered Blake during the Vietnam War in 1971, during which he and his battalion of Blazin' Commandos' burned down her village.

In Watchmen Chapter I, Comedian is voiced by Rick D. Wasserman.

Doctor Manhattan

Dr. Jonathan "Jon" Osterman is a vigilante and the only character with superpowers. His character was based on the Charlton Comics character Captain Atom. He was originally a physicist who was transformed into a blue, irradiated powerful being after he was disintegrated in an Intrinsic Field Subtractor in 1959. He had returned to the chamber to retrieve his girlfriend's watch (which he had repaired), and was accidentally locked inside when the Subtractor started automatically. Osterman was blown into atoms, with nothing left of his body. Within a few months, his disembodied consciousness managed to reconstruct a physical body for itself, after several hideous partial reconstructions. Following his reanimation, he is immediately pressed into service by the United States government, which gives him the name Doctor Manhattan, after the Manhattan Project. Though he dabbles briefly in crime-fighting, his greatest influence is to grant the U.S. a strategic advantage over the Soviet Union during the Cold War, with his most significant action taking place after he is personally asked by President Richard Nixon to intervene in the Vietnam War, leading to an unqualified victory for the U.S. with the defeat of North Vietnam and the Vietcong. This prevents the collapse of the Saigon government. Since he works for the U.S. government, he is exempt from the provisions of the Keene Act, but spends much of his time doing advanced technology research and development, and physics research. He is single-handedly responsible for the shift to electric-powered vehicles by synthesizing the needed elements and chemicals himself, causing a huge leap in many areas of science and technology. As a result, the technology of the alternative 1985 of the Watchmen universe is far more advanced. After the death of his father in 1969, he does not conceal his birth name and is referred to as "Jon" or "Dr. Osterman".

Perhaps due to his own transhumanist nature, Doctor Manhattan is not only able to perceive time as non-linear, with him often describing past, present and future events as though they were all happening within the time of his retelling of them, this also leads to him acting in accordance with a personal philosophy which most closely resembles determinism. While he can change reality to his will, he believes himself and all of his actions to be pre-determined. He therefore both does and does not possess free will and is, in a way, controlled by forces well within his control. He refuses to change the pre-ordained course of events.

In the Watchmen film, Doctor Manhattan is a CGI character whose body is modeled after fitness model Greg Plitt, with voice, motion capture, and facial performance provided by Billy Crudup (who also portrays Osterman prior to his transformation). In Watchmen: The End is Nigh, Doctor Manhattan is voiced by Crispin Freeman.

Nite Owl

Nite Owl II (Daniel "Dan" Dreiberg) is a superhero who uses owl-themed gadgets, in a manner which led Dave Gibbons to consider him "an obsessive hobbyist... a comics fan, a fanboy." Nite Owl was partly based on the Ted Kord version of the DC Comics superhero Blue Beetle. Just as Ted Kord had a predecessor, Moore also incorporated an earlier adventurer who used the name "Nite Owl" (the retired crime fighter Hollis Mason) into Watchmen. While Moore devised character notes for Gibbons to work from, the artist provided a name and a costume design for Hollis Mason he had created when he was twelve. Richard Reynolds noted in Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology that despite the character's Charlton roots, Nite Owl's modus operandi has more in common with the DC Comics character Batman. According to Geoff Klock, his civilian form "visually suggests an impotent, middle-aged Clark Kent." The second Nite Owl is another vigilante who has not revealed his identity in the post-Keene Act era throughout the novel.

"Before Watchmen: Nite Owl #1" establishes that Dan Dreiberg's mother was physically abused by his father. Dreiberg's obsession with the original Nite Owl led him to plant a remote microphone device on Hollis' vehicle in order to track him down. It also establishes the events of how he was taken in as his apprentice: His father dies of an apparent heart attack while beating Dan's mother (Dan and his mother hold off calling for an ambulance) At the funeral, Hollis, having since discovered Dan's abusive childhood via police reports, confronts Dan and agrees to take him on as his sidekick. However, after training him, Hollis announces his retirement and informs Dan that he is giving him the Nite Owl identity rather than creating a sidekick persona for him. It is also revealed that Rorschach met Nite Owl on Dan's very first patrol and offered his assistance as a partner to the young rookie hero.

In the Watchmen film, he is portrayed by Patrick Wilson, who put on 25 pounds (11 kg) in between the filming of his flashback scenes and the 1985 scenes, showing the physical decline of his character.

He is not present in the HBO Watchmen series, having been under federal custody since the events of the graphic novel.

In the animated film Watchmen Chapter I, Nite Owl is voiced by Matthew Rhys.

Rorschach

Rorschach (real name Walter Joseph Kovacs) is a noir private detective-themed vigilante who wears a white mask with constantly shifting ink blots. Rorschach continues to fight crime in spite of his outlaw status, eventually making the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. Born to an abusive prostitute and a man whose last name she never bothered to learn, he spent much of his childhood in a home for troubled youth, after which he began working in a garment factory. After reading about the murder of Kitty Genovese and the reported complete indifference of the witnesses of the crime, he modified a special fabric that she had ordered, according to him, to create a mask and became a vigilante, eventually forming a productive partnership with Nite Owl II. In 1975, after failing to rescue a young girl, he lost all faith in humanity.

Moore based Rorschach on the Steve Ditko creations the Question and Mr. A. Moore said he was trying to "come up with this quintessential Steve Ditko character—someone who's got a funny name, whose surname begins with a 'K,' who's got an oddly designed mask". As a result, Rorschach's real name is given as Walter Kovacs. Ditko's Charlton character the Question also served as a template for creating Rorschach. Comics historian Bradford W. Wright described the character's world view as "a set of black-and-white values that take many shapes but never mix into shades of gray, similar to the ink blot tests of his namesake". Rorschach sees existence as random and, according to Wright, this viewpoint leaves the character "free to 'scrawl [his] own design' on a 'morally blank world'". Moore said he did not foresee the death of Rorschach until the fourth issue when he realized that his refusal to compromise would result in him not surviving the story.

Rorschach is close friends with the second Nite Owl. He is the first hero Rorschach meets with when Comedian is killed and Nite Owl organizes a rescue mission to free Rorschach from jail when he is arrested. Before Watchmen: Nite Owl reveals that Rorschach was active as a hero before Nite Owl made his debut and on the latter's first night out as a hero, Rorschach sneaks into his owl ship and offers his services to Nite Owl as a partner.

In Doomsday Clock, Kovacs is succeeded by Reginald "Reggie" Long, son of Dr. Malcolm Long, the psychologist in Watchmen who was assigned to evaluate Rorschach after he is apprehended.

In the Watchmen film, he is portrayed by Jackie Earle Haley.

Silk Spectre

Laurel Jane "Laurie" Juspeczyk (Silk Spectre) is the daughter of Sally Jupiter, the first Silk Spectre. Laurie's mother apparently wanted her to follow in her footsteps and so she fought crime for ten years before the Keene Act banned vigilantes. Unlike the other protagonists, Silk Spectre was not based on a particular Charlton character, although her relationship with Dr. Manhattan is similar to that between Captain Atom and the heroine Nightshade. Moore felt he needed a female hero in the cast and drew inspiration from comic book heroines such as Black Canary and Phantom Lady.

Laurie is kept on retainer by the government because of her relationship with Doctor Manhattan and lives on a government base at the beginning of the comic. When Doctor Manhattan leaves Earth, the government has her removed from the base and suspends her expense account, forcing her to move in with Dan, with whom she starts a romantic relationship. At the end of the eighth issue, Doctor Manhattan appears and takes her to Mars because he knows she wants to convince him to save the world. On Mars, she realizes that the Comedian was her biological father. After the final encounter with Veidt at the end of the series, she assumes the identity of Sandra Hollis and continues her relationship with Dan. An offhand comment to Dan, in which she claims to want a better costume, with leather and a sidearm, implies that she is thinking of taking up her father's role as the Comedian.

In the Watchmen film, she is portrayed by Malin Åkerman. In a 2003 draft script by David Hayter, which was reviewed by IGN, Laurie uses the name Jupiter, and the alter ego name "Slingshot". The former detail seems to have been retained in the final version of the film (though the Nite Owl's goggles gave her last name as her mother's maiden name, Juspeczyk). Silk Spectre was ranked 24th in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.

In the television series, Laurie (portrayed by Jean Smart) has given up vigilantism and joined the FBI, becoming an agent in the Anti-Vigilante Task Force. On one mission, she and her co-workers posed as bank robbers at National Bank Inc. to draw out Mister Shadow. Though hinted to think of Dan where she owns a pet owl, it is heavily hinted she pines for Doctor Manhattan. She is sent to Tusla by Senator Joe Keene Jr., who apparently offered to have Dan released from prison, to investigate the death of Judd Crawford, but in reality she is meant to help the Seventh Kavalry locate Doctor Manhattan. She is present when Veidt manufactures another squid attack in an attempt to stop Lady Trieu from becoming a godlike entity, and ultimately arrests Veidt for his many crimes. While she does not have a crime-fighting alter ego anymore, this older, hardened version of Laurie nevertheless shows several parallels with her father the Comedian, having taken her father's last name, sharing his affinity for jokes as metaphors for her worldview, and having become an FBI agent after giving up vigilantism as the Comedian did before her.

Adrian Veidt

Adrian Veidt, known as Ozymandias prior to the events of the graphic novel, is a former superhero who draws inspiration from his hero Alexander the Great and the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II, for whom he takes his superhero alias. A child prodigy, he graduated from high school and college before he was 18 and learned the art of lying as he hid the full scope of his brilliance for most of his childhood after being accused of cheating. When he inherited his family's fortune upon his parents' death in a car accident, Adrian gave it away to see if he could be a success by himself. Veidt traced Alexander the Great's path across the globe and ultimately returned to the United States, where he became a successful businessman. However, when his business partner and would-be love interest overdosed on drugs (purchased with funds given to her by Adrian as a gift to allow her to have fun in New York City one night), Veidt decided to avenge her death as a superhero. His costume was conceived as a Halloween costume but he quickly developed a name for himself as a hero. Two years before the Keene Act passed, Veidt went public with his secret identity and began merchandising his alter ego as he became one of the most important businessmen in the USA. However, his fear of a nuclear war between the USSR and the US, plus a rivalry with the Comedian (who unknowingly planted the idea of stopping the inevitable nuclear holocaust into Veidt's head), led to him engaging in the vast conspiracy at the heart of the Watchmen series.

Ozymandias was directly based on Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt, whom Moore had admired for using his full brain capacity as well as possessing full physical and mental control. Veidt is believed to be the smartest man on the planet, even capable of outsmarting Dr Manhattan. His combination of intelligence and highly advanced fighting skills makes him perhaps the most feared and dangerous of the mortal vigilantes. He was even able to catch a bullet fired at him (Chapter XII, page 15). He is often accompanied by his genetically engineered lynx, Bubastis. Richard Reynolds noted that by taking initiative to "help the world", Veidt displays a trait normally attributed to villains in superhero stories, and in a sense he is the "villain" of the series; however, he purposely acts for an objective greater good, thus avoiding the traditional "villain" classification, which is typically self-serving, delusional or evil. Gibbons noted "One of the worst of his sins [is] kind of looking down on the rest of humanity, scorning the rest of humanity." In 2008, he was ranked number 10 on the Forbes Fictional 15. Wizard magazine also ranked Ozymandias as 25th-greatest villain of all time and IGN ranked him as 21st-greatest comic book villain of all time.

Minor characters

Moore stated in 1988 that, in Watchmen, "we spend a good deal of time with the people on the street. We wanted to spend as much time detailing these characters and making them believable as we did the main characters." Moore and Gibbons deliberately wanted all their characters "to have a place in this vast organic mechanism that we call the world." The fleshing-out of the world was, in Moore's words, to demonstrate that "all the way through the entire series human life is going on with all of its petty entanglements and minor difficulties and all the rest of it." Moore adds that it is possible to see the story as being as much about the supporting as the main characters:

What Nixon does and what Dr. Manhattan does and what Veidt does—it affects the people on the street corner but only peripherally, indirectly... And yet, in some ways, those people on the street corner, it's their story. They're the people we're concerned about.

Minutemen

The Minutemen are a superhero group that came before the Crimebusters. The group was founded in 1939 during the Golden Age. The group later disbanded in 1949 following some public controversies. Moore loosely based the Minutemen on the Mighty Crusaders. Among its notable members are:

Captain Metropolis (real name Nelson Forrest Gardner) is a former Marine Lieutenant. He was one of the more active members of the Minutemen, having organized its formation. Metropolis was involved in a sexual relationship with Hooded Justice. The relationship was reported to be abusive, with Hooded Justice abusing and cheating on Metropolis until H.J.'s mysterious disappearance in the early 1950s. In the 1960s, the Captain unsuccessfully attempted to recruit the second generation of superheroes into a new group called the Crimebusters. He was killed in a car accident in 1974 that left him decapitated.

He was portrayed in the film by Darryl Scheelar.

Two versions of the character appeared in the HBO series. One was portrayed by Chris Whitley as a fictionalized character in the series' show-within-the-show "American Hero Story: Minutemen", which details his relationship and affair with Hooded Justice. The real Captain Metropolis, seen in the episode "This Extraordinary Being", was portrayed by Jake McDorman. In this episode, Nelson Gardner finds the identity of Hooded Justice and recruits him to the Minutemen as well as developing a secret affair with him. However, their alliance is superficial as Nelson is more preoccupied with the Minutemen's publicity than earnest crimefighting. When Will Reeves / Hooded Justice discovers the location of the white supremacist group Cyclops, Nelson declines to rally the support of the Minutemen, telling Will "black unrest" is his issue to deal with. Gardner's last will and testament, published on the tie-in website Peteypedia, reveals that he died in regret and bequeathed his estate and property to Will, where he is still living in 2009.

Gardener appears in the animated film Watchmen Chapter I, voiced by Corey Burton.

Dollar Bill (real name William Benjamin "Bill" Brady) is a bank-sponsored member of the Minutemen who was created by National Bank Inc. for publicity purposes. While he is described as having no actual superpowers, Dollar Bill was known for having apparently supernatural luck, surviving many things that should have outright killed him. Socially conservative, he is portrayed in Before Watchmen as homophobic (barely tolerating his homosexual Minutemen colleagues) and good friends with the ultra-right-wing Comedian, voting to let him stay after the attempted rape of Sally Jupiter. He dies during a bank robbery at National Bank Inc. in 1947 when his cape is caught in the bank's revolving doors, allowing the robbers to shoot him at point-blank range.

Adversaries

The following are villains in Watchmen:

Big Figure (real name Tom Ryan) is jailed dwarfish crime lord and former adversary of Nite Owl and Rorschach. He tries to get revenge when Rorschach is imprisoned in the same prison as he is, only for him and his minions to be killed by Rorschach during a prison riot.

In the film, he is portrayed by an uncredited Danny Woodburn.

In the animated film he is voiced by Phil Fondacaro.

Captain Carnage showed up in New York City around 1976 and began attempting to entice costumed adventurers into beating him.

Carnage would pretend to be a supervillain in order to get beaten up, constantly yelling things like "Punish me!" Carnage once devised an elaborate fake theft ring that continued on for months, eventually ending when Silk Spectre II discovered the clues to his location he had planted at the scene of his crimes and crashed his "hideout" – a mirrored room in SoHo with soft music playing and flashing red lights on the walls. When she attacked Carnage, she noticed that he was turned on by the beating. He started following Nite Owl II, only to be ignored. He tried the same thing on Rorschach, who dropped Carnage down an elevator shaft, killing him.

Captain Carnage is only mentioned in passing when Laurie and Daniel are talking on the rooftop garden of Rafael's restaurant, reminiscing about the past. It is possible that the purpose of the character is to prefigure Laurie and Daniel's sexual frustration when in their normal roles, only being able to function when they are dressed and acting as superheroes.

Moloch the Mystic (real name Edgar William "Eddie" Jacobi, also known as Edgar William Vaughn, and William Edgar Bright) is a crime lord who fought the Minutemen and other superheroes for several decades. Moloch was jailed for a time during the 1970s, after which he retired from crime. In Watchmen, he is dying of cancer, which he received from Adrian Veidt. Moloch is later murdered by Adrian, who frames Rorschach.

Other characters

The Alien Monster (referred to by fans as the Squid) is a 100-foot, giant squid-like monster with one eye and an exposed brain. It was created by Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt) as part of his plan to avert a nuclear holocaust. Veidt had invited science fiction writers Max Shea and James Trafford March, surreal artist Hira Manish, and an assortment of other writers, artists, and scientists to his private island under the impression that they were taking part in a top secret movie production. Genetically engineering the monster took several months; its brain was the cloned brain of deceased psychic Robert Deschaines, augmented by a psychic resonance device. Once completed, Veidt had the ship that was transporting the artists home blown up to hide his involvement in the events. At midnight on November 2, 1985, Veidt teleports the Alien Monster to the heart of New York City, unleashing a massive psychic shockwave that kills millions of people.

In the film, the Alien Monster was replaced with exploding energy reactors that generate a radioactive decay signature similar to Doctor Manhattan as a way to frame him for the retaliated attack in light of the cancer allegations against him.

In the TV series, it is shown that "squidfalls", unexplained meteorological occurrences in which thousands of smaller alien monsters fall from the sky, occur around the world as late as 2019. These are revealed to be the continuing work of Adrian Veidt, believing them necessary to maintain fear of the "aliens" and thereby world peace.

Bernard is a newsdealer who appears periodically on the central New York street corner. Bernard is amongst the many characters who dies when Veidt's monster appears in New York, and he dies trying to protect his young namesake. Moore has stated that he "is in some ways every man, because he's a complete prat and doesn't know what's going on... [h]e is like a lot of people, he is a function of the news... [regurgitating news headlines] think[ing] that's an opinion."

In the animated film Watchmen Chapter I, Bernard is voiced by Max Koch.

Bubastis is a genetically altered red lynx with stripes that was created by Ozymandias to serve as his sole companion. When meeting with a toy company, Adrian Veidt asked for the toy company to make a toy of Bubastis as well. When Doctor Manhattan was lured into the intrinsic field subtractor, Veidt regretfully apologizes to Bubastis and turns on the machine which kills Bubastis and temporarily disassembles Doctor Manhattan.

Television series

The HBO television series is set after the events of the original limited series comic, taking place in 2019 in and around Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Sister Night

Sister Night (portrayed by Regina King as an adult, Faithe Herman as a child) is the masked identity of Angela Abar. Angela was born in Vietnam, shortly before it became the 51st state. Her parents were killed by a suicide bomber and her grandmother June came to bring her to the continental United States only to suffer a heart attack.

In 2009, she met Doctor Manhattan in Vietnam where he asked her on a date and informed her they would fall in love. Due to her hatred of Manhattan and skepticism of his identity, she initially refuses to believe him but nonetheless goes on the date with him to humor him; they quickly fall in love and he assumes the physical form of the deceased Calvin Jelani so that they can be together in public. When Angela grows frustrated with Manhattan's omniscient view of time, they agree to install a device into his forehead that suppresses his supernatural abilities, though this also temporarily removes his memories. Following the implementation of the device, Angela tells Manhattan that his name is Cal Abar and that he has suffered amnesia following an accident. Together, they move to Tulsa, where Angela joins the Tulsa Police Department.

On Christmas Eve 2015, Angela and Cal were attacked by members of the Seventh Kavalry, a white supremacist group who were upset at the police's enforcement of special reparations for victims of racial injustice stemming from the Tulsa race massacre in 1921. Angela survived the attack, but learned from her superior Chief Judd Crawford that the homes of 39 other officers were attacked, and of those that survived, only Angela and Judd were staying on the force.

To protect officers, a law was passed to require officers to disavow their profession and disguise themselves. Angela opted to take up the Sister Night costume, itself inspired by the fictional blaxploitation 70s film Sister Night: The Nun with the Motherf%&$ing Gun. Her outfit consists of black spraypaint going across her eye areas, a black nun's habit, a black balaclava going over her nose and mouth, a white shirt, black trousers, and long black boots with heels. In her day-to-day life, Angela is a baker who runs a bakery called "Milk and Hanoi" where the sign on it still says "Opening Soon". She and Cal also adopted three children whose parents were killed during White Night.

When Veidt manufactures another squid attack to upend Trieu's plans to harness Manhattan's powers, killing her in the process, Angela finds safety in a local theater, where Will Reeves has taken her kids. She shares a moment of clarity with Will and she finally accepts him as her grandfather, allowing him to stay with them as they take her children home. Her oldest son Topher learns at this time that she is Sister Night. When she arrives home, Angela realizes that Manhattan may have transferred his powers into an egg, which she proceeds to eat.

Judd Crawford

Judd Crawford (portrayed by Don Johnson) was the chief of the Tulsa Police Department. During his tenure, Judd was also the leader of a separate KKK-eqsue cell of the secret white supremacist, domestic terrorist organization Cyclops. Judd conspired with Senator Joe Keene to orchestrate the "White Night", an event that resulted in Tulsa police officers and their families being killed in their homes where the ones that were sleeping in bed took the brunt of the attacks. Judd had to make it look like that he was attacked. After the incident, Keene passed a new law which forced police officers to wear masks, partly to protect the identities of officers and appear "tough on crime", while secretly fomenting public mistrust of the police. Following one of the fights with the Seventh Kavalry, Judd was hypnotized by Will Reeves to hang himself.

Judd's death allowed Senator Keene to invite Laurie Blake to Tulsa to investigate, secretly luring her there for his own purposes. While Sister Night discovered Judd's connection with the KKK, Looking Glass learned from Keene Jr. that Judd led the police department on Joe's behalf while Joe led the Seventh Kavalry. It is revealed in the final episode that after the White Night event, Judd and his wife discerned that Cal was actually Doctor Manhattan and purposely got close to the Abar family so he could help the Kavalry in their plot to destroy Manhattan.

Looking Glass

Looking Glass (portrayed by Tim Blake Nelson as an adult, Phil Labes as a teenager) is the masked identity of Wade Tillman. Wade was a Jehovah's Witness from Tulsa, visiting Hoboken, New Jersey, on the night of November 2, 1985, to try to preach to the crowds there. A female member of the Knot Top Gang lured him into a hall of mirrors with the promise of sex, but instead ran off with his clothes except for his shoes and socks. Before he could give chase, psychic waves from the appearance of the alien monster in New York City shook the area, and Wade found himself one of the few survivors. This left Wade with a post-traumatic stress disorder, leaving him fearful of squids, building a bunker in his backyard, and pushing him towards isolation. Though he married Carolyn, they split after about seven years due to Wade's stress, though they remain on amicable terms.

Wade, normally a focus group analyst for an advertising agency, joined the Tulsa police as Looking Glass, wearing a fully reflective mask made of material purportedly able to protect him from psychic waves. As Looking Glass, he uses his "Pod", a small chamber with various screens on its walls, to interrogate subjects: he flashes various images on the screens to judge their responses.

Red Scare

Red Scare (portrayed by Andrew Howard) is a robust communist member of the Tulsa Police Department who wears a predominantly red outfit consisting of a red ski mask, a red jacket, and a red trainer pants. Not much is known about his past. Red Scare named his alias after the real "Red Scare", which saw the United States gripped in fear of Communism and communist sympathizers in the nation. Red Scare is often seen paired with Pirate Jenny.

Panda

Panda (portrayed by Jacob Ming-Trent) is a desk cop for the Tulsa Police Department who wears a giant panda mask that covers his face except for his jaw area where the panda mask's lower jaw should be.

Pirate Jenny

Pirate Jenny (portrayed by Jessica Camacho) is a member of the Tulsa Police Department who wears a pirate-themed outfit. She is often seen paired with Red Scare.

Dale Petey

Dale Petey (portrayed by Dustin Ingram) is an FBI Agent who accompanies Laurie Blake in her investigation in Judd Crawford's murder. Having a Doctorate in Superhero History, he has a profound knowledge of the history of the Minutemen and the Crimebusters, and his writings on the matter have filled in much of the show's backstory via the HBO subsite "Peteypedia".

Petey is all but directly confirmed to be Lube Man, a costumed vigilante that wears a skin-tight suit and able to cover himself in an oily substance to escape from Angela in "If You Don't Like My Story, Write Your Own", based on "Peteypedia" material related to Petey's dismissal from the FBI after the end of the events in the series.

According to showrunner Damon Lindelof, Lube Man was introduced as "just going to be a scene in episode 4 that's in the midst of other insane things happening" and did not expect the character or his identity to take off in popularity with fans of the show, pointing readers to Peteypedia "to reach the obvious conclusion" to his identity.

Mr. Phillips

Mr. Phillips (portrayed by Tom Mison) is a series of male clones that serve Adrian Veidt on Europa. They were cloned from the original Mr. Phillips that knew a younger Jon Osterman. When one clone dies, their bodies would be made use of by Veidt and a new clone will be grown in their place.

The Game Warden (portrayed by Tom Mison) is a powerful and masked clone of Mr. Phillips that was made to antagonize Adrian Veidt. His presence was first seen when fires a warning shot towards Veidt after he shot an American bison and later sent a letter of warning to him.

The Game Warden was fully seen when he busts Veidt for having left the area of Europa. He places him under arrest and quotes "May god have mercy on your soul." Adrian quotes that their god left them years ago.

The Game Warden had placed Adrian on trial where he was found guilty before a jury of his peers which happened to be pigs. He then subjected Adrian to public humiliation.

When Veidt gets out of his prison thanks to a horseshoe hidden in a cake by one of the servants, he makes his way towards Lady Trieu's rocket. The Game Warden tries to stop him only to be killed when Veidt stabs him with the horseshoe. Before dying, the Game Warden asks Veidt if he was a worthy opponent. Veidt just tells him "No. But you put on a hell of a show!"

Mrs. Crookshanks

Mrs. Crookshanks (portrayed by Sara Vickers) is a series of female clones that serve Adrian Veidt on Europa. They were cloned from the original Mrs. Crookshanks that knew a younger Jon Osterman. When one clone dies, their bodies would be made use of by Veidt and a new clone will be grown in their place.

Christopher Abar

Christopher "Topher" Abar (portrayed by Dylan Schombing) is the adopted son of Angela and Cal Abar. They took him in after his biological parents the Doyles were killed during the White Night.

Rosie Abar

Rosie Abar (portrayed by Lily Rose Smith) is the older adopted daughter of Angela and Cal Abar. They took her in after her biological parents the Doyles were killed during the White Night.

Emma Abar

Emma Abar (portrayed by Adelynn Spoon) is the younger adopted daughter of Angela and Cal Abar. They took her in after her biological parents the Doyles were killed during the White Night.

Lady Trieu

Lady Trieu (portrayed by Hong Chau) is a scientist and the owner of Trieu Industries which bought out Veidt Enterprises following news of Adrian Veidt's "death". Trieu is the daughter of Adrian Veidt after her mother Bian, in a show of defiance against Veidt, inseminated herself with one of Veidt's own sperm samples without his knowledge. Trieu is highly intelligent due to Veidt's genetics, and calls herself the "smartest woman on Earth."

Trieu came up with a means to capture Doctor Manhattan's powers in a quantum centrifuge, but was rebuffed by Veidt when she approached him for financial help in 2008. Instead, she established Trieu Enterprises, not only making it a trillion-dollar company, but using it as a front to construct her quantum centrifuge in Tulsa as the "Millennium Clock." During this time, she had expected to find Manhattan on Europa, but discovered a message from Veidt there and sent an automated craft to recover him and bring him to Earth by 2019 when her plan was to be completed. Lady Trieu has also created a clone of her mother Bian to assist her. Through Will Reeves, Lady Trieu learned of Manhattan's identity on Earth as Cal Abar, husband to Angela. She also learned the Seventh Kavalry had discovered this as well and planned to capture Manhattan themselves and Will asks for her help to wipe the Kavalry and Cyclops out.

As Trieu's quantum centrifuge activates following the Seventh Kavalry's capture of Manhattan, Trieu teleports the Kavalry, Manhattan, Angela, Laurie, and Wade to downtown Tulsa with Bian and Veidt in attendance as her men use their special shields to disarm the Seventh Kavalry of their weapons. When the ooze that used to be Joe Keene emerged from the machine, Lady Trieu stated that they didn't add a component to the machine to filter the atomic energies which can have that effect on anyone. After briefly reading a speech written to her by Will Reeves, she vaporized the Kavalry alongside the Cyclops leadership and triggers the centrifuge as Jane Crawford predicted. Manhattan teleports Veidt, Laurie, and Wade to Karnak, where they use Veidt's squid-rain-making device to send frozen squid projectiles in the immediate area. Though Trieu is able to destroy Manhattan before this, the squids destroy the centrifuge and kill Trieu before the transfer of power can be complete.

Bian My (portrayed by Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) is the "daughter" of Lady Trieu. In reality when she speaks with a recuperating Angela, Lady Trieu states that Bian is actually a younger clone of her mother, and has received some of the memories of Trieu's mother through Trieu's technology.

Seventh Kavalry

The Seventh Kavalry is a white supremacist group with connections to the Cyclops organization. Each of its members wear Rorschach masks.

On Christmas Eve of 2015, the Seventh Kavalry committed the "White Night" event orchestrated by Senator Joe Keene where they attacked the houses of 40 known police officers and their families. The ones who were asleep at the time took the brunt of the attack. Angela Abar and Judd Crawford were the only confirmed survivors of this attack.

It was later revealed during the "White Night" event that the Seventh Kavalry learned that Doctor Manhattan was Cal Abar when he used his powers on some of the attackers where one of them was teleported to the Grand Canyon. Their plan is to capture and destroy Doctor Manhattan so that they can harness his powers. Some members of the Seventh Kavalry were able to do that at the cost of some of its members who were beheaded by Doctor Manhattan. The laser that aided them transported him to a synthetic lithium cage that was created from melting down a lot of watch batteries. With Laurie as their prisoner and Looking Glass hiding amongst its ranks, the Seventh Kavalry sent out invites to the Cyclops leadership to meet with them at an abandoned building where all was revealed to them by Joe Keene. Despite the warning from Angela that Lady Trieu is coming for them, Joe began his plot by using a machine to gain Doctor Manhattan's abilities. Upon its activation, Lady Trieu teleported everyone to her location where her men used their special shields to disarm the Seventh Kavalry of their weapons. Lady Trieu opened the machine to find that Joe was dissolved by the machine because it didn't have the component to filter the atomic energy. As Lady Trieu reads from a speech written out by Will Reeves of what Cyclops and the Seventh Kavalry did to all non-whites, Jane Crawford anticipated that Lady Trieu was going to kill them. Lady Trieu does that by vaporizing the Seventh Kavalry and the Cyclops leadership.

John Joseph "Joe" Keene Jr. (portrayed by James Wolk) is a Republican Senator and leader of the Seventh Kavalry who aims to become president. His father is responsible for a 1977 law banning masked vigilantism.

Looking Glass was the first to learn of Joe Keene's involvement with the Seventh Kavalry while having one of its members fake an attempt on his life. In addition, he also showed Looking Glass the footage that Ozymandias pre-taped for Robert Redford in the event that he became President of the United States.

Minor television series characters

The following are the minor characters that appear in the television series:

Andy (portrayed by Jim Beaver) is the paternal grandfather of the Doyle children who visits them and the Abars.

Mr. Shadow (portrayed by Lee Tergesen) is a vigilante who was targeted by the Anti-Vigilante Task Force. They drew him out by pretending to rob National Bank Inc. where Laurie Blake subdued him with her bullets.

Max Faragut (portrayed by David Andrews) is the deputy director of the FBI that Laurie and Petey answer to.