What You Need to Know About the Ending of the Watchmen Comics Before the HBO Show

Whether you're new to all of this or you read the series in the '80s and need a refresher—we have you covered.

Okay, so you want to watch HBO's new Watchmen show, but you're not sure where to begin. That's okay! It has been considered one of the greatest comic series of all time since it first published in 1986. It's beloved by fans and critics and has been debated by both for three decades. It has sequel comics, prequel comics, and a very bad Hollywood blockbuster remake from noted slo-mo enthusiast Zack Snyder.

Don't worry. You've come to the right place. Because I'm here to walk you through everything you need to know about Watchmen before checking out the new HBO show—whether you're new to the whole thing, you're a fan, or you read the comic in the '80s and need a refresher.

Do I Need to Read the Comic Before Watching the Show?

The easy answer is no. As Damon Lindelof explains, you don't have to read the comic, but you should read the comic. It's damn good! Read it on Sunday before watching the show. It's a quick read, given that it's mostly pictures. Go do that now.

If I Don't Have Time to Read the Comic or I Don't Remember What Happened, Can You Remind Me the Basic Premise?

Watchmen partly follows a sociopath with an inkblot mask named Rorschach, who is investigating the murder of a fellow vigilante in a time after masked heroes have been made illegal. This story takes place in an alternate history, where a god-like being named Doctor Manhattan (once a human named Jonathan Osterman, transformed in a lab accident) helped the United States win the Vietnam War and establish itself as the dominant global force. In the first pages, Rorschach is trying to figure out who murdered a man named Eddie Blake, known to the public as The Comedian, who was a member of a group of masked adventurers called The Minutemen.

WATCHMEN, Rorschach, as drawn by co-creator Dave Gibbons, 2009. ©Warner Bros./courtesy Everett Colle
Warner Bros./courtesy Everett Collection

Rorschach, the only active masked adventurer after a thing known as the Keane Act made vigilantism illegal, believes that someone is trying to kill off former heroes when there's an assassination attempt on Adrian Veidt, a former masked adventurer called Ozymandias, who revealed his own identity and turned himself into a titan of industry. Rorschach ends up enlisting retired superheroes Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl) and Laurie Juspeczyk (Silk Spectre) to help. Meanwhile, tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States are heating up, Doctor Manhattan leaves Earth to its own devices throwing the entire balance of global power off. With Doctor Manhattan gone, the Soviet Union makes the opportunity to advance into American territory, bringing Earth ever closer to nuclear war. In the end, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre, and Rorschach learn that Veidt put all of these things into motion in a plan to prevent nuclear war. Unfortunately, his plan involves teleporting a massive squid-like alien into the middle of New York City, where it will emit telepathic energy that will kill millions, and trick the U.S. and Soviet Union into thinking Earth is under attack by aliens. The two global forces, believing the threat of humanity is at stake, will join forces to fight a common enemy.

What Does This Have to Do With the 2009 Watchmen Movie?

Nothing! To be clear, only the original 12 comics are treated as canon in his new HBO series. That means the alternate ending of Zack Snyder's 2009 movie never happened—nor did the events of the Doomsday Clock comics, the ongoing DC series that began in 2017 and will conclude with a final issue in December.

So, What Happens in the End of Watchmen?

Well, Veidt succeeds! Millions die in New York City. His plan works, and our heroes know that exposing Veidt would only bring a nuclear disaster, that all those lives lost would be for nothing. But Rorschach believes the truth must be told. In order to stop him from ruining the global balance of power, Doctor Manhattan is forced to vaporize Rorschach. Veidt is left to wonder if he did the right thing. Doctor Manhattan leaves our galaxy for a less complicated one. Dreiberg and Juspeczyk develop new identities and start a life together. But, before he died, Rorschach sent his journal to a far right publication for them to expose the truth.

So, Where and When and What Is This New Watchmen Series?

In Lindelof's adaptation—which is not a strict sequel but more of an expansion of the Watchmen universe almost four decades later—Robert Redford has been president for about 20 years and the Supreme Court is stacked with Left-leaning judges. And yet, even in a liberal-controlled country, bigotry remains: A white-supremacist group known as the 7th Kalvary has co-opted the idea of Rorschach. Whereas nuclear war was the root of all evil in the comic, the HBO series positions racism as the greatest evil this show delves more into white supremacy and racism in America. The characters you know and love will appear on screen in some capacity, but this story follows Oscar-, Golden Globe-, and Emmy-winning actress Regina King as a masked vigilante, who—like Rorschach before her—is trying to solve a gruesome murder.

“We're married to certain things that the canon put out, like Vietnam is a state, or that Robert Redford was running for president against Nixon, or that Adrian Veidt dropped an enormous fake alien being in the middle of Manhattan that killed three million people. That is a 9/11-like event. What does 30 years after something like that happens, what does the world look like?” Lindelof told me of the connection to the original comics. “You can’t just do that in passing reference.”

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