They themselves adopted the name "Minutemen". Rorschach senses a conspiracy, in which all former superheroes are to be eliminated one by one. Throughout the course of the 50s, Silk Spectre, Hooded Justice & Co. gradually dropped off the radar, thereby fading from public awareness. Following in the Minutemen's footsteps, just a few years later, a new, second generation of vigilantes was formed. They education consist of physicist Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), who after a freak lab-accident is the only one with actual superpowers, physically resembling a radioactive member of the Blue Man Group; Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), a masked retribution junkie and former private eye; the seductive Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman); self-declared genius Ozymandias (Matthew Goode); and, concluding the lineup, the second Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson), a shy, sensitive type with a penchant for technical gimmicks. As i see in panoratis.com the connecting link between the first and second generation of superheroes is the colorful character Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). This professional cynic, whose mysterious death sets the plot of "Watchmen" in motion, is found in his own apartment - murdered by an unknown assailant. As he already had in "V for Vendetta", Alan Moore created a dark political scenario for his "Watchmen" comic. This time though, he didn't look to the future, but rather the recent past. The actual story takes place in the year 1985. It's the era of the cold war. The United States, under President Nixon (!), serving his third (!!!) term, and the Soviet Union are maintaining their scenario of mutually assured destruction, keeping the world on the brink of nuclear armageddon. There is no room for superheroes in this bilateral world order - so they have been forced into retirement in the 70s. Only under orders of the president are they allowed to legally ply their "trade". This is the entertainment basis on which both film and comic book operate. In lavishly shot flashbacks, Zack Snyder shows us the lives of the once celebrated heroes, from their first meeting as fans of other superhero stories to the more or less "conventional" careers of the second generation. Just as each figure individually references their comic-book forebears - Nite Owl practically screams out Bruce Wayne/Batman - Snyder himself references other classics of cinema. Occasionally, that happens rather bluntly, such as with his "Apocalypse Now" reprise, but it's nonetheless rather charming, as it's done strictly with tongue placed firmly in cheek. Even movies newshis built-in "300" reference fails to truly offend. Last but not least, the movie shows off its satiric qualities in the scenes involving President Nixon, depicted with a particularly long nose (Pinocchio?), and his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger. While Frank Miller's attempt at transferring "The Spirit", another classic of sequential art, to the big screen, ended in glorious failure, Snyder manages to cleverly sidestep most of the inherent pitfalls. It must be said though that even he can't entirely pry himself loose from his obsession with pretty superficialities. The fact that posing is apparently second nature to him can easily be inferred as early as the intro, where stylish slow-motion effects alternate with isolated accelerations. Compared to "300" (also known as the first feature-length special effect) though, the optical wizardry is utilized far more subtly.