#ABAR THE BLACK SUPERMAN (1977) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tenaflyviper · 2 years

Text

Black Horror Movies

(If this post looks familiar, it's because I had to remake it, but it now has many more entries and links!)

I had been wanting for a while now to make a post covering horror films made by black filmmakers, or that furthered the careers of black actors and actresses–what better time than Black History Month? Especially given the unfortunate stereotypes and overall treatment of black people in horror films, I wanted to spotlight those films that avoid such pitfalls, and helped paved the way for black filmmakers and performers to embrace and establish themselves in the genre.

I couldn’t have compiled such a great list without the help of “Blacula” at BlackHorrorMovies.com. His site is absolutely invaluable for those with any interest in black horror cinema, and I highly recommend paying a visit!

I will be including Blacula’s “Racial Representation” rating for each film, when available (ratings are out of five stars). I will also be including a separate list of films that are more flawed in their presentation, but are still noteworthy. If you feel a film was omitted from the list, it is likely that it didn’t meet the criteria of positive representation or social/historical significance.

SUPER IMPORTANT: While I will try to add warnings when applicable, I’m afraid I have not seen every single film on this list, so there may be upsetting content that I’m not aware of. If you are unsure about a film’s content, and whether or not it will be right for you, please consider looking up the IMDB or Wikipedia listings (or the entry on BlackHorrorMovies.com) beforehand. Any potentially triggering words in titles will be censored for this list.

Lastly, permanent link availability is NOT GUARANTEED. I wish I could have had more links to offer, but I’ve tried to rely only on free streaming sites and Youtube, so as to avoid sending anyone to any sites that might be untrustworthy. Tubi TV requires signing up (on PC, anyway), but it is still 100% free (and it’s also available as an app on Android, IOS, Xbox Live, and Playstation, as are Frightpix and Popcornflix). I will do my best to update links when there are changes.

There are a few films here that veer more toward being thrillers, action, sci-fi, or dark fantasy, but I still felt they deserved to be included.

Son of Ingagi (1940) ★ ★ ★ ★

The Vampire’s Ghost (1945) ★ ★ ★ ½

Night of the Living Dead (1968) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Night Gallery (1969) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

Blacula (1972) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

The Thing with Two Heads (1972) ★ ★ ★ ½

Alabama’s Ghost (1973) ★ ★ ½

Ganja & Hess (1973) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Scream, Blacula, Scream (1973) ★ ★ ★ ★

Don’t Look in the Basement (1973) ★ ★ ★

Abby (1974) ★ ★ ★ ★

Sisters (1973) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

The Beast Must Die! (1974) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

The House on Skull Mountain (1974) ★ ★ ★

Sugar Hill (1974)

Old Dracula (aka Vampira) (1974) ★ ★ ★ ½

The Zebra Killer (1974) ★ ★ ★ ½

Lord Shango (1975) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

Welcome Home, Brother Charles (1975) ★ ★ ★

Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976) ★ ★ ★ ★

Devil’s Express (1976) ★ ★ ½

J.D.’s Revenge (1976) ★ ★ ★ ½

Abar: The First Black Superman (1977) ★ ★ ★ ★

Dawn of the Dead (1978) ★ ★ ★

Nurse Sherri (1978) ★ ★ ★ ★

Midnight (1982) ★ ★ ★ ½

House of Dies Drear (1984) ★ ★ ★ ★

Day of the Dead (1985) (added by request) ★ ★ ½

The Midnight Hour (1985) ★ ★ ★ ½

Predator (1987) ★ ★ ★

Stagefright (1987) ★ ★ ★ ★

Lady in White (1988) ★ ★ ★

The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) ★ ★ ½

Death Spa (1989) ★ ★ ★ ½

Night of the Living Dead (1990) ★ ★ ★

Predator 2 (1990) ★ ★ ★

The People Under the Stairs (1991) ★ ★ ★ ★

Candyman (1992) ★ ★ ★ ½

Dust Devil (1992) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

Back From Hell (1993) ★ ★ ★

Full Eclipse (1993) ★ ★ ★

Cut Up (1994) ★ ★ ★ ★

Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995)

Ozone (aka Street Zombies) (1995)

Tales from the Hood (1995) ★ ★ ★ ★

Se7en (1995)

Event Horizon (1997) ★ ★ ★ ★

Beloved (1998)

Blade (1998)

Fallen (1998)

Candyman: Day of the Dead (1999)

Urban Menace (1999) ★ ★

House on Haunted Hill (1999) ★ ★ ★ ★

Ragdoll (1999) ★ ★ ½

Killjoy (2000) ★ ★ ½

Queen of the Damned (2002)

28 Days Later (2002) ★ ★ ★ ★

Cryptz (2002) ★ ★ ★

Bubba Ho-Tep (2003)

Cutthroat Alley (2003) ★ ★ ★

Gothika (2003) ★ ★ ★ ½

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Dark Town (2004) ★ ★ ★ ½

Frankenfish (2004) ★ ★ ★ ★

Vampz (2004) ★ ★ ½

White Skin (2004) ★ ★ ★ ½

Boy Eats Girl (2005) ★ ★ ★ ★

The Cavern (2005) ★ ★ ★ ★

Day X (2005) ★ ★ ★ ★

The Final Patient (2005) ★ ★ ★ ★

Isolation (2005) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

Land of the Dead (2005) ★ ★ ★ ½

The Skeleton Key (2005) ★ ★ ★ ½

Devil’s Den (2006)

Gangs of the Dead (aka Last Rites) (2006) ★ ★

Minotaur (2006) ★ ★ ★

Recon 2020: The Caprini Massacre (2006) ★ ★ ★

Slip (2006) ★ ★ ½

Shadow: Dead Riot (2006) ★ ★ ½

Dead Heist (2007) ★ ★ ½

Death Row (2007) ★ ★

The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007) ★ ★ ½

I Am Legend (2007)

Ice Spiders (2007) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

Nailed (2007) ★ ★ ½

Snoop Dogg’s Hood of Horror (2007) ★ ★

Primeval (2007) ★ ★ ★

Promise Keeper (2007) ★ ★ ★ ★

Saw IV (2007) ★ ★ ★

Sublime (2007) ★ ★ ★ ½

Hanah’s Gift (2008) ★ ★ ★ ½

Mutant Vampire Zombies from the Hood! (2008) ★ ★

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (2008) ★ ★ ★

The Crypt (2009) ★ ★ ★ ★

Fury (2009)

Chain Letter (2010) ★ ★ ★

Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill! (2010) ★ ★ ★ ½

Attack the Block (2011) ★ ★ ★ ★

The Dead (2011) ★ ★ ★ ½

The Inheritance (2011) ★ ★ ★ ½

Machete Joe (2012) ★ ★ ★ ½

The Mortician (2012) ★ ★ ★ ½

Scary or Die (2012) ★ ★ ★ ½

Blood Tokoloshe (aka Ghetto Goblin) (2013) ★ ★ ★ ½

The Ghost of Saint Aubin (2013) ★ ★ ★

Repentance (2013)

Disciples (2014)

The Purge: Anarchy (2014) ★ ★ ★ ★

American Backwoods: Slew Hampshire (2015) ★ ★ ★ ½

Badass Monster Killer (2015)

Bloodsucka Jones (2015)

Death’s Door (2015)

The Sickle (2015) ★ ★ ★ ★

Unsullied (2015) ★ ★ ★ ★ (R*PE WARNING)

Wasteland (2015) ★ ★ ★ ½

Writer’s Retreat (2015) ★ ★ ★ ½

The Alchemist’s Cookbook (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★

The Devil Lives Here (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★

Dying to Kill (2016) ★ ★ ★ ½

Home (2016) ★ ★ ★ ½

A House is Not a Home (2016) ★ ★ ★ ½

Initiation (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★

The Invitation (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

Not Another Zombie Movie (2016) ★ ★ ★ ½

The Purge: Election Year (2016) ★ ★ ★ ★

Zoombies (2016) ★ ★ ★ ½

Bloodrunners (2017) ★ ★ ½

Inhumanity (2017) ★ ★ ½

It Comes at Night (2017) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

Paranormal Evil (2017)

Parasites (2017) ★ ★ ★ ½

The Transfiguration (2017) ★ ★ ★ ★

Bird Box (2018) ★ ★ ★ ★

But Deliver Us From Evil (2018) ★ ★ ★ ½

Captured (2018)

The Evil Inside Her (2018)

The First Purge (2018) ★ ★ ★ ★

Fixation (2018) ★ ★

Good Manners (2018) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

Head Count (2018)

Overlord (2018) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

Pooka! (2018) ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

Slice (2018) ★ ★ ★ ½

Soft Matter (2018) ★ ★ ★ ★

They Remain (2018) ★ ★ ★

A Brilliant Monster (2019)

Head Count (2019) ★ ★ ★ ★

47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019) ★ ★ ★

The Intruder (2019) ★ ★ ★ ½

Jacob’s Ladder (2019) ★ ★ ½

Little Monsters (2019) ★ ★ ★ ★

Ma (2019) ★ ★ ★ ★

(2019) ★ ★ ★ ½

Thriller (2019) ★ ★

Color Out of Space (2020) ★ ★ ★

Crawlers (2020) ★ ★ ★ ½

Nicole (2020)

Pooka Lives! (2020) ★ ★ ★

Spiral (2020)

Tokoloshe: The Calling (2020)

Vampires vs. The Bronx (2020) ★ ★ ★ ★

Blackstock Boneyard (2021)

Films by Black Filmmakers:

Black Devil Doll from Hell (1984) – Written, produced, and directed by Chester Novell Turner ★ ★ ½

Witchdoctor of the Living Dead (1985) - Written and directed by Charles Abi Enonchong

Tales from the Quadead Zone (1987) – Written, produced, and directed by Chester Novell Turner ★ ★ ½

Def By Temptation (1990) – Written, produced, and directed by James Bond III ★ ★ ★ ★

Ax ‘Em (1993) – Written, produced, and directed by Michael Mfume ★ ★ ½

Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995) – Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson ★ ★ ★ ★

Tales from the Hood (1995) – Written and directed by Rusty Cundieff ★ ★ ★ ★

Spirit Lost (1996) – Directed by Neema Barnette, written by Shirley Pierce, and produced by The Black Entertainment Network (BET) ★ ★ ★ ½

Bugged! (1997) – Written, produced, and directed by Ronald K. Armstrong ★ ★ ★ ★

Three Sickxty (1998) – Written, produced, and directed by Natural Drye ★ ★ ★

End of the Wicked (1999) - Written, directed, and produced by Teco Benson

Cursed Part 3 (2000) – Written, produced, and directed by Rae Dawn Chong ★ ★ ½

Now Eat (2000) – Written and directed by Kerry Alan Williams ★

Scary Movie (2000) Written and produced by Marlon and Shawn Wayans, and directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans

Urban Evil (2000) - Co-directed by James Black

Bones (2001) - Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson ★ ★ ½

Creepin’ (2001) - Written, produced, and directed by Tim Greene ★ ★ ½

Tara (aka Hood Rat) (2001) - Produced and directed by Leslie Small ★ ½

Scary Movie 2 (2001) - Written and produced by Marlon and Shawn Wayans, and produced and directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans

Crazy as Hell (2002) - Produced and directed by Eriq La Salle ★ ★ ★ ★

Holla If I Kill You (2003) - Written and produced by Jeff Carroll ★ ★ ★

Scary Movie 3 (2003) - Written by Marlon and Shawn Wayans

Street Tales of Terror (2004) - Written and directed by J.D. Hawkins ★ ½

The Evil One (2005) - Written and directed by Parris Reaves ★ ★ ★

Damon (2006) - Written, produced, and directed by Eric Richardson-Hagans ★ ★ ½

Gold Digger Killer (2006) - Written and produced by Jeff Carroll ★ ★

Fright Club (2006) - Directed by Attika Torrence

Holla (2006) - Written and directed by H.M. Coakley ★ ★ ★ ½

Holla If You Hear Me (2006) - Written, produced, and directed by Mark Harris ★ ★

Office Outbreak (2006) - Written, produced, and directed by Shawn Woodard ★ ★ ★

Scary Movie 4 (2006) - Written by Marlon and Shawn Wayans

April Fools (2007) - Written, produced, and directed by Nancy Norman ★ ★ ½

Bleeding Rose (2007) - Written, produced, and directed by Kareem Bland ★ ★

Insane in the Brain (2007) - Written, produced, and directed by Chad Hendricks

Somebody Help Me (2007) - Written, produced, and directed by Chris Stokes ★ ★ ★ ½

Soulful (2007) - Written and directed by Sarah Poindexter ★ ½

Hospitality (2008) - Written and directed by Tony Ducret ★ ★ ★

Blunted House (2009) - Directed by Norman Miller

Somebody Help Me 2 (2010) - Directed by Chris Stokes

Bad to the Jones (2011) - Directed by Marlon Ladd

Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes (2012) - Produced and directed by Cory Grant ★ ★ ★

Into the Woods (2012) – Directed by Hadrian Hooks

Haitian Nights (2013) - Directed by Kenya Moore

A Haunted House (2013) - Written and produced by Marlon Wayans ★ ½

Holla II (2013) ★ ½ - Written and directed by H.M. Coakley

In the Closet (2013) - Directed by Lamont A. Coleman

Scary Movie 5 (2013) - Written by Marlon and Shawn Wayans, and directed by Malcolm D. Lee

The Night Seekers (2014) - Written, produced, and directed by Menetie T. Ejeye ★ ★

Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (2015) - Written, produced, and directed by Spike Lee (A remake of Ganja & Hess)

Jimmy Did You Get One? (2015) – Directed by Jerry D. May

Ojuju (2015) - Written, produced, and directed by C.J. “Fiery” Obasi ★ ★ ★ ½

Prom Ride (2015) - Written, produced, and directed by Kazeem Molake ★ ★ ★

Filth (2016) - Directed by Douglas Enogieru

Meet the Blacks (2016) - Directed by Deon Taylor

Rhyme Slaya (2016) - Produced and directed by Maurice Thomas

Beast of the Water (2017) - Directed by Rashaad Santiago

Get Out (2017) - Written, produced, and directed by Jordan Peele (Academy Award winner for Best Original Screenplay) ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Paranormal Evil (2017) - Directed by Akil Pugh

As Evil Does (2018) - Directed by Yolanda Buggs

Moma’s Spirit (2018) - Written, produced, and directed by Robert L. Parker III

Out of Gas (2018) - Written, produced, and directed by Michael Lemelle, and co-directed by April Marcell

Tales From the Hood 2 (2018) - Written, produced, and directed by Rusty Cundieff and Darin Scott ★ ★ ★ ½

The Tokoloshe (2018) – Directed by Jerome Pikwane

Traffik (2018) - Written, produced, and directed by Deon Taylor ★ ★ ½

Disciples (2014)

Horror Noire (2019) – Directed by Xavier Neal-Burgin

Killer Bae (2019) – Directed by Juhahn Jones

Mollywood (2019) - Directed by Morocco Vaughn

7th and Westlake: Nino's Revenge (2019) - Directed by Michael H. Royal

Us (2019) – Written, directed, and produced by Jordan Peele ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Antebellum (2020) - Written and directed by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz ★ ★

Bad Hair (2020) - Directed by Justin Simien ★ ★ ★

Black Box (2020) - Directed by Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr. ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

Candyman (2020) - Written and produced by Jordan Peele; directed by Nia DaCosta

Frequent Visitors (2020) - Directed by Moe McCoy

My Biggest Fan (2021) - Directed by Johnnard Harper

His House (2020) - Remi Weekes ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

The Killing Secret (2020) - Directed by Sheena Herod and Wardell Richardson

Tales from the Hood 3 (2020) - Written and directed by Rusty Cundieff ★ ★ ★

Call Time: The Finale (2021) – Directed by Derrick Hammond

Purgatory (2021) - Directed by Trevor Ford

Urban Horror Series (2021) - Directed by Andre Dixon, Jonathan Rowan, and Felicia Howell

Since tumblr decided to add a 100-link limit, you'll find many more movies in:

Black Horror Movies Part 2

#Black History Month #black horror movies #long post #links #list

38 notes · View notes

schlock-luster-video · 2 years

Text

On April 1, 1977 Abar, the First Black Superman premiered in Miami, Florida.

Here's some new J. Walter Smith art to celebrate!

3 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 4 years

Text

Watchmen Timeline Explained

https://ift.tt/2M1reVY

We've made a complete and chronological timeline of the events of Watchmen, from the original book to the HBO show. It...wasn't easy.

facebook

twitter

tumblr

This article contains nothing but spoilers for Watchmen, both the book and the HBO series.

HBO’s Watchmen is non-linear and occasionally confusing (or “infuriating” as Dr. Manhattan puts it) in its use of time. The book from which it draws inspiration is similarly non-linear and occasionally confusing in its use of time. To make matters even trickier, the show expands upon and even retcons events that take place or are alluded to in the book.

So what’s a fan to do? Why, make a complete and chronological Watchmen timeline, of course! That’s a perfectly sane and normal activity for any well-adjusted adult, and it certainly didn’t give me any severe migraines or make me question my own perception of time at any point. Nope. None at all.

read more - Watchmen: Unanswered Questions We Have From the Finale

To compile this complete Watchmen timeline, I only used stated dates from the book by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, dates and events from the show itself, dates noted in HBO’s official supplemental materials, Peteypedia, and the occasional date from actual real life (for example, the birth of lawman Bass Reeves). I don’t consider DC’s Before Watchmen prequels canon (and apparently neither does this show) but I DID cheat and use dates from some long out-of-print Watchmen roleplaying game supplements that Alan Moore consulted on to date a couple of events from the book.

Now, let's get to work...

July 1838 - Bass Reeves born.

1908 - Nelson Gardner (Captain Metropolis) born.

1915 - Will Reeves born.

1918 - Obie Williams, Will Reeves’ father and the great-grandfather of Angela Abar, serves during World War I. It’s here he picks up (and keeps) a German propaganda flier indicating that there’s more racial equality in Germany than there is in the United States. He carries it with him until passing it on to Will.

May 25, 1921 - Trust in the Law, a silent movie about Bass Reeves, premieres.

May 31 - June 1, 1921 - The Tulsa Race Massacre takes place. Will Reeves and June Abar escape Tulsa.

1936 - Hans Osterman takes his son Jon from Germany to England to escape the rise of the Nazis. There they stay with other refugees in an English manor home, sheltered by a kind young couple, who later inspire Dr. Manhattan to create life in their image.

Nelson Gardner honorably discharged from the Marines.

1938 - Will Reeves (Hooded Justice) and Hollis Mason (Nite Owl I) graduate from the New York Police Academy.

Spring 1938 - Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman is published. Will Reeves and others take notice. The arrival of superheroes as a publishing phenomenon inspires a number of people to put on costumes and fight crime. Ironically, the presence of real world superheroes ends up killing them as a viable genre in comic books, where other genres such as pirate stories instead become dominant in the form and pop culture.

Oct. 1938 - After intervening in a mugging after he had been the victim of a racist attack by his police office colleagues, Will Reeves makes his costumed debut as Hooded Justice.

1939 - Hollis Mason debuts as Nite Owl. The Silhouette, The Comedian, Silk Spectre I, Captain Metropolis, Dollar Bill, and Mothman, all inspired by the exploits of Hooded Justice and Nite Owl, make their crimefighting debut shortly after.

July 2, 1939 - Adrian Veidt born.

Mid 1939 - The Minutemen form.

March 21, 1940 - Walter Joseph Kovacs (Rorschach) born.

Oct. 2, 1940 - Edward Blake sexually assaults Sally Jupiter (Silk Spectre I) after a meeting of the Minutemen. Hooded Justice intervenes and severely beats Blake. Blake is expelled from the Minutemen shortly after.

1942 - Nelson Gardner (Captain Metropolis) puts crime fighting career on hold to serve in the Marines during World War II. The Comedian joins the war effort, beginning a long career as a government agent and super soldier.

Sept. 18, 1942 - Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl II) born.

Aug. 7, 1945 - Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Jon Osterman’s life path changes from being a watchmaker to a nuclear physicist.

1946 - Minutemen member The Silhouette is outed as a lesbian in the press, kicked off the team, and subsequently murdered by an old enemy.

1947 - Sally Jupiter quits Silk Spectre career.

1948 - Sally Jupiter and Edward Blake conceive Laurie Juspeczyk (FBI Agent Laurie Blake on the show) in a secret, consensual sexual encounter.

Autumn, 1948 - Jon Osterman accepted to Princeton.

1949 - Laurie Juspeczyk (FBI Agent Laurie Blake) born, the Minutemen disband.

Dec. 1, 1949 - Judd Crawford born.

1952 - Will Reeves (Hooded Justice) uncovers the Cyclops mass hypnosis plot and executes several of their members.

1954 - The remaining members of the Minutemen are called before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee and asked to reveal their identities in testimony. Hooded Justice disappears after refusing to reveal his identity to HUAC.

1955 - Circus strongman Rolf Muüller found dead. While this fact was never made public, Muller was murdered by Edward Blake, who believed him to be Hooded Justice, in an act of revenge for the beating he received at HJ’s hands in 1940.

J. David Keene gifts Judd Crawford’s father with a replica of George Catlin’s painting, “Martial Feats of Comanche Horsemanship.”

1956 - Sally Jupiter divorces Laurence Schexnayder. Adrian Veidt begins traveling the world and preparing for his crime fighting career.

1958 - Adrian Veidt makes costumed debut as Ozymandias.

Spring 1958 - Jon Osterman graduates Princeton with a PhD in Atomic Physics.

May 12, 1959 - Jon Osterman begins work at Gila Flats, site of the intrinsic field generator, and meets Janey Slater.

August 1959 - Jon Osterman trapped in Intrinsic Field Generator and torn to atoms.

November 1959 - Jon Osterman “returns” as Dr. Manhattan after reassembling his physical form on the atomic level.

March 2, 1960 - Dr. Manhattan’s existence revealed to the world.

May 1960 - DC Comics begins publishing Tales of the Black Freighter, a pirate comic by Max Shea and Joe Orlando.

June 17, 1960 - Dr. Manhattan meets Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias) for the first time.

May 16, 1962 - Nite Owl I (Hollis Mason) retires.

1963 - Under the Hood, Hollis Mason’s memoir about the Minutemen and his time as Nite Owl is published. Among other things, this popularizes the (incorrect) theory that Rolf Müller was actually Hooded Justice.

March 20, 1964 - Walter Joseph Kovacs begins crimefighting as Rorschach

1965 - Rorschach partners with Nite Owl II

April 14, 1966 - Nelson Gardner (Captain Metropolis) tries and fails to put together a new superhero team, the Crimebusters. Dr. Manhattan first meets Laurie Juspeczyk. Laurie first meets Edward Blake.

May 1966 - Dr. Manhattan begins romantic relationship with Laurie Juspeczyk (Silk Spectre II).

Aug. 26, 1966 - Janey Slater leaves Dr. Manhattan after learning of his affair with Laurie Juspeczyk.

1967 - Adrian Veidt exposes “a plot by rogue right wing extremists in the US military to test biological weapons on the citizens of Nairobi and the surrounding areas.”

1968 - Adrian Veidt begins formulating his master plan to bring about world peace.

March 1971 - Dr. Manhattan intervenes in Vietnam and meets Edward Blake.

June 1971 - The United States declares victory in Vietnam, marking the first VVN night. Edward Blake murders a vietnamese woman carrying his child while Dr. Manhattan stands by and does nothing.

1972 - Fogdancing by Max Shea, an important and influential work of literature in the Watchmen universe, is published.

Aug. 9, 1974 - Nelson Gardner killed in automobile accident in New York City.

1975 - Constitutional amendment abolishing Presidential term limits passed, allowing Richard Nixon to seek re-election. Ozymandias retires and reveals his identity to the public. Rorchach’s activities become more brutal in the wake of a kidnapping case he solved.

March 3, 1975 - Will Reeves is presented with the contents of Nelson Gardner’s will in New York City. Will Reeves is working at a movie theater in Harlem at the time.

1976 - Judd Crawford marries Jane Lestley. Angela Abar born.

Nov. 22, 1976 - Calvin Jelani born.

June 1977 - A superhero exploitation movie called Sister Night is released in Vietnam. It would later go on to influence young Angela Abar.

Aug. 3, 1977 - Nationwide police strike and civil unrest leads to the passage of the Keene Act, outlawing masked vigilante activity. While Silk Spectre and Nite Owl II retire in light of the new law, Rorschach refuses.

1979 - The Comedian frees American and Canadian hostages from Iranian “anti-Manhattanite extremists.”

1980 - Judd Crawford joins the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Department

Early October 1985 - Edward Blake (The Comedian) drunkenly confesses to Edgar William Jacobi (Moloch) the details he has learned of Adrian Veidt’s plan.

Oct. 12, 1985 - Edward Blake (The Comedian) is murdered by Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias). Rorschach begins an investigation and notifies Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl II) of Blake’s death.

Oct. 13, 1985 - Rorchach notifies Adrian Veidt, Laurie Juspeczyk, and Dr. Manhattan of Blake’s death.

Oct. 16, 1985 - Edward Blake’s funeral.

Oct. 19, 1985 - Dr. Manhattan leaves Earth for Mars, a result of continued public pressure after information planted by Adrian Veidt leads the world to believe that Dr. Manhattan’s presence causes cancer.

Oct. 20, 1985 - Russia invades Afghanistan, bringing the world to the brink of World War III.

Oct. 21, 1985 - Rorschach arrested for violating the Keene Act, framed for the murder of Edgar William Jacobi (Moloch).

Oct. 28, 1985 - Nite Owl and Silk Spectre II return to active duty as costumed adventurers to rescue people from a burning building in lower Manhattan.

Oct. 31, 1985 - Nite Owl and Silk Spectre II break Rorschach out of jail. Hollis Mason (Nite Owl I) is murdered by a gang of Knot-Tops who believe that he’s the same Nite Owl responsible for breaking Rorschach out of prison.

Nov. 1, 1985 - Nite Owl and Rorschach head to Karnak, the Antarctic retreat of Ozymandias, to confront Adrian Veidt about his plans.

On Mars, Laurie Juspeczyk convinces Dr. Manhattan to intervene on behalf of humanity, and learns the truth about her parentage.

Lady Trieu conceived when her mother artificially inseminates herself with Veidt’s genetic material.

Fogancing author Max Shea, and anyone who can connect Adrian Veidt to 11/2 is killed. Rorschach’s journal is delivered to the New Frontiersman offices.

Nov. 2, 1985 - 3 million killed in New York City after Veidt teleports a giant, telepathic, genetically engineered squid into midtown Manhattan. The ensuing chaos averts World War III and ushers in a new era of global cooperation. Intermittent squid rains begin shortly after.

Across the Hudson River in Hoboken, NJ, young Wade Tillman survives the psychic shockwave unleashed by the squid, and is severely traumatized, putting him on a path that leads to him becoming Detective Looking Glass back home in Tulsa, OK.

Rorschach killed by Dr. Manhattan.

Dr. Manhattan leaves Earth for Europa, begins terraforming the planet and creating life.

December 1985 - Dan Dreiberg and Laurie Juspeczyk assume new identities as Sam and Sandra Hollis. At some point in the next few years, Dan founds Merlincorp and begins providing Nite Owl technology to police departments.

July 1986 - Lady Trieu born.

Mar. 21, 1986 - New Frontiersman begins printing excerpts from Rorschach’s Journal. They’re widely dismissed as the ravings of a crank, and the general public doesn’t believe Adrian Veidt had anything to do with the events of 11/2/85.

c.1988 - Richard Nixon dies in office. Gerald Ford takes over as President.

1992 - Robert Redford defeats Gerald Ford to become the new President of the United States.

Jan. 21, 1993 - Robert Redford sworn in as President, and learns the truth about Adrian Veidt’s involvement in 11/2 via a videotaped confession.

1993 - The Tech Recall and Reintroduction Act is passed, “reintroducing technologies once deemed unsafe or illegal back into the public space” after the paranoia brought on by the events of 11/2.

c. 1994 - Steven Spielberg releases Pale Horse, a movie about the events of 11/2/1985.

April 19, 1995 - Dan Dreiberg and Laurie Juspeczyk arrested for violations of the Keene Act, in the process of stopping Timothy McVeigh from carrying out the Oklahoma City bombing.

April 28, 1995 - Merlincorp, the technology company owned and operated by Dan Dreiberg and that provides police with crimefighting tech (and Laurie with that crazy Dr. Manhattan dildo), is raided by the FBI.

1999 - Veidt Enterprises licenses cloning technology. Eventually Lady Trieu uses this technology to clone her mother, Bian.

2004 - Judd Crawford becomes a detective in the Tulsa PD.

2007 - Adrian Veidt’s final public appearance, accepting Kenya’s highest civilian honor, the Chief of the Order of the Golden Heart. Trieu Pharmaceuticals launches Nostalgia.

2008 - The Victims of Racial Violence Act, known by some as “Redfordations” passed.

Lady Trieu first confronts Adrian Veidt in Karnak about her identity and her plans to surpass his accomplishments and make the world a better place.

June 2009 - Dr. Manhattan meets Angela Abar in Mr. Eddy’s bar on VVN Night. Several weeks later, he takes the form of the deceased Calvin Jelani.

Dec. 13, 2009 - Dr. Manhattan, in the form of Calvin Jelani, visits Adrian Veidt in Karnak. Veidt gives Dr. Manhattan a device that will neutralize his powers and his memories so he can live a normal life with Angela Abar.

Dr. Manhattan sends Adrian Veidt to Europa, the moon of Jupiter where he has been creating life.

Dr. Manhattan meets with Will Reeves.

With the onset of his Veidt-assisted amnesia, Dr. Manhattan “officially” assumes the identity of Calvin Jelani, after taking his form for several months prior.

2010 - Trieu Industries begins launching space probes.

Dec. 13, 2010 - Adrian Veidt celebrates his first anniversary on Europa.

Dec. 13, 2011 - Adrian Veidt celebrates second anniversary on Europa. To celebrate, he puts on a play dramatizing how Jon Osterman became Dr. Manhattan.

2012 - Adrian Veidt declared missing on Earth.

Dec. 13, 2012 - Adrian Veidt “celebrates” his third anniversary on Europa and begins formulating his plan to escape. He runs afoul of the mysterious Game Warden.

2013 - Adrian Veidt uses the bodies of his servants to spell out the words “Save me daughter” on the surface of Europa, just in time for one of Trieu Industries’ space probes to fly by and see it. Shortly after, Veidt is put on trial by the inhabitants of Europa for attempting to escape.

read more: Watchmen Finale Explained

2015 - The trial of Adrian Veidt concludes, and he is sent to prison.

Dec. 24, 2016 - The White Night. “Mike” a member of the 7th Kavalary is mysteriously teleported to Gila Flats during his attack on the Abar residence, raising suspicions that Dr. Manhattan is alive and well and living in Tulsa.

2017 - Trieu Industries acquires Veidt Enterprises. Angela Abar adopts the identity of Sister Night in order to continue her police work. A Trieu Industries spacecraft lands on Europa to collect Adrian Veidt and bring him back to Earth.

2018 - Judd Crawford becomes chief of police in Tulsa. Lady Trieu breaks ground on the Millennium Clock.

Sept. 9, 2019 - Adrian Veidt officially declared presumed dead. John Grisham retires from the Supreme Court.

Sept. 16, 2019 - Judd Crawford dies. This is where the events that take place in the present day on the show begin, and they take place over the span of three weeks.

Mike Cecchini is the Editor in Chief of Den of Geek. You can read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @wayoutstuff.

Read and download the Den of Geek Lost in Space Special Edition Magazine right here!

facebook

twitter

tumblr

Feature

Books

Mike Cecchini

Dec 15, 2019

Watchmen

HBO

from Books https://ift.tt/2rSMyWy

#aion-rsa #Books

1 note · View note

yasbxxgie · 6 years

Photo

One of Cinema’s First Black Superheroes Is Not Who You Think It Is

An ahistorical claim has been making the rounds as of late, falling from the mouths and keyboards of people earnestly, yet clumsily, trying to explain why Black Panther has become a cultural juggernaut unlike anything we’ve ever seen. It goes something like, “This is the first ever big-budget comic book film starring a black superhero.” That’s a lot of qualifiers. And it’s not entirely accurate—sure, the movie’s budget is twice as big as Catwoman’s, but that feline-centered campfest was still made for $100 million in 2004, hardly a small, or even medium, budget at the time. Even ignoring those qualifiers, however, there’s a danger in inadvertently isolating Black Panther by ignoring its predecessors. Thankfully, a few have used the occasion to remind us that there have been movies about black superheroes long before Ryan Coogler and Disney brought us King T’Challa: Spawn, Meteor Man, and the Blade trilogy, to name just a few.

And yet before all of those exceptional characters made their way to the big screen, there was Abar, a character I only just recently learned about thanks to a great film series on black superheroes currently playing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Abar, the First Black Superman, in fact, as the movie’s title handily spells out. A long-forgotten, low-budget blaxploitation flick from 1977, Abar is about the dissipation of race relations, consolation, segregation, dispensation, and more. It’s defiant, didactic, and occasionally delirious. The cast of amateurs seems to be competing for whoever can give the stiffest, most incoherent line reading of the fantastically terrible script. And you should definitely grab a friend or two, some intoxicants, and check it out.

youtube

Here’s the scoop: Dr. Kinkade (J. Walter Smith, also credited for the story) moves in to a posh, all-white Los Angeles suburb with his wife and two kids. At first, two nosey Gladys Kravitz types from next door, assuming that they are “the help,” greet the family pleasantly and inform them they are planning a luncheon for their new neighbors. But when Mrs. Kinkade reveals that they are, in fact, the new neighbors, the welcoming committee turns indignant. “I won’t let them!” an enraged Mabel retorts to her friend. “I won’t let them move into our neighborhood!” As she spews more hatred about burning the house down herself, Mr. Kinkade attempts to calm Mabel down by slowly reaching for her shoulder, but she tumbles dramatically to the ground and yells, “Get your black hands off of me!” Awkwardly abrupt dissolve into a loud group of white people picketing outside their homes, marching in circles and carrying signs.

As the demonstrators hold court and the community board plots to push the Kinkade family out of their home, in steps John Abar (Tobar Mayo), leader of the Black Front of Unity, a grassroots band of fly-looking motorcyclists who work to “help the brothers and sisters down in the ghetto” and preach nonviolent self-defense. (So basically, a fictionalized version of the real-life Black Panthers.) After hearing about the Kinkades’ troubles on the news, he and his team arrive at their home offering protection from the white people outside. But there’s a catch: Abar wants the family to consider moving back to the ghetto, so they can uplift their own people. Dr. Kinkade isn’t interested, and Abar and his men leave disappointed. Nonetheless, Abar returns sometime later, just in time to fend off a couple of white guys who are attacking the doctor on his doorstep. (He throws them in a garbage truck to the tune of that familiar wa-chicka-wa-chicka musical queue found in pretty much every blaxploitation movie.) From then on, the two develop a complicated relationship in which Abar agrees to protect the Kinkades’ home and participate in some tests the doctor is running for a prevention for heart disease (a leading cause of death for black Americans, especially). They constantly debate what is best for the black community and how things might be fixed as if they were in the middle of an after-school special.

Much like The Room, a good chunk of Abar is pretty slow going—though never not bizarre, thanks to an unforeshadowed death, a dream sequence in which the son imagines Abar as an Old West cowboy (“My friends call me Deadwood Dick, but my enemies call me Smart Black Nigger”), and the actors’ consistently delayed reactions to one anothers’ lines. But the last 40 minutes finally get us where the film really wants us to go. (Spoilers ahead.) It’s revealed that Dr. Kinkade isn’t actually working on a cure for heart disease but has developed a potion that can make a man in top physical condition—a man like Abar, it turns out—“indestructible” so that he can clean up the ghetto in one fell swoop. At first, Abar is resistant, but he soon changes his mind (although not before a surely unlicensed Martin Luther King excerpt is heard, for some reason) and drinks the serum.

This last act of the film is all over the place, with Abar realizing that the serum has worked on him after two cops shoot him for coming upon them as they plant a gun on an unarmed black man they’ve just killed. Abar’s unhurt and now roams the ghetto using his new superpowers for good. A guy steals a lady’s purse on the street and runs off? Abar squints hard and compels the thief, by telepathy, to run and tumble back to her, returning the bag. (Waka-chicka-waka-chicka.) A prostitute is being slapped around by her pimp? Abar telepathically confers on her the strength and skill to defend herself and beat him to the ground. (Waka-chicka-waka-chicka.) Troubled youths are hanging out on the street, smoking and shooting craps? The powerful mind of Abar sends them straight to graduating, emerging from a school in caps and gowns with diplomas in hand. (Waka-chicka-waka-chicka, then, generic graduation music.)

youtube

The most bonkers moment is saved for the end. Abar uses his powers to bring down a plague of biblical proportions upon the Kinkades’ white neighbors—powerful, hurricanelike winds (you should see the actors tossing their bodies around like rag dolls for extra effect), rat infestations, snakes in beds. He drives them all away, except for the aforementioned Mabel. She approaches the Kinkades in the middle of the street, meekly humbled. And then: “I want to apologize for the way I behaved when you moved in to Meadow Park. The reason I didn’t want you to live next door to me is because … I’m black, and I’ve been passing as white all these years and—”

The doctor cuts her off. “Yes, I know.” But how did he know? Well, in an earlier scene, Mabel fainted—immediately after calling their son a “little black bastard,” mind you—and the doctor was kind enough to take her in to his home and call her doctor to find out if she had any pre-existing conditions. It turns out she had—wait for it—sickle cell anemia.

She asks for forgiveness. The Kinkades look at one another and embrace her reassuringly, as MLK’s voice swoops in once again: “I HAVE A DREAM that one day my four little children …” They walk down the street together, happily, as a proud Abar looks on.

Abar, the First Black Superman is truly a cinematic marvel. It has its heart in the right place and fumbles spectacularly in every way possible—the painfully preachy dialogue, the scrappy special effects, the too long running time. But even if it’s not anywhere close to the achievement of Black Panther, it’s a fascinating product of the time and more proof that black superheroes have long existed outside the Marvel universe. And just like Black Panther, their superpowers are almost always political.

0 notes

thespokenblerd-blog · 5 years

Text

Blerd History: Abar, The First Black Superman

Before films like Meteor Man (1993), Spawn (1997), and the Oscar-nominated Black Panther (2018), there was Abar: The First Black Superman. It was essentially the first superhero film that both for us and by us.

Abar: The First Black Superman, is a blaxploitation low budget film that was released in 1977. In 1990, the film was re-released with the title In Your Face. The major themes were with…

View On WordPress

#thefirstblacksuperman blerdhistory blerd blerds

0 notes

cultfaction · 7 years

Text

Abar: The First Black Superman (1977)

Dubbed by many as “the first black science fiction film”, Abar: The First Black Superman (aka In Your Face) follows Dr. Kenneth Kinkade (J. Walter Smith) and his family who move into a bigoted neighbourhood and are targeted by their neighbours.

In a bid to protect themselves the Kinkade’s higher a body guard, John Abar (Tobar…

View On WordPress

#Abar: The First Black Superman #featured #In Your Face #J. Walter Smith #Tobar Mayo

0 notes

schlock-luster-video · 2 years

Text

Abar, The First Black Superman (1977)

#abar the first black superman #frank packard #blaxploitation movies #blaxploitation films #blaxploitation #tcm underground #superhero film #cult movies #midnight movies #movie gifs #gifs #gif set #gif warning #action movies #comedy movies #tcm underground gifs

2 notes · View notes

schlock-luster-video · 3 years

Text

Today in blaxploitation / superhero movie history: on April 1, 1977 Abar, The First Black Superman debuted in Miami.

#abar the first black superman #frank packard #j walter smith #in your face #cult classic #superhero film #blaxploitation film #blaxploitation #cult cinema #tcm underground #70s action movies #action movies #black cinema #70s movies #movie history

1 note · View note

aion-rsa · 5 years

Text

Every Easter Egg and Reference in HBO's Watchmen

https://ift.tt/2pENQ64

The Watchmen HBO series is here, and while it's not an adaptation of the classic story, it has plenty of references to it.

facebook

twitter

tumblr

This article contains nothing but spoilers for the first episode of HBO's Watchmen. We have a completely spoiler free review right here.

HBO’s Watchmen is a sequel to the classic comic book story by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. That’s right, it’s a sequel, not an adaptation of the original work. And yes, you’ll note that we said it’s a sequel to the book and not Zack Snyder’s movie, which was faithful to the broad strokes of the book save for a handful of details.

While Watchmen isn’t the most sprawling superhero universe in comics by any stretch, it’s one rich in comic book mythology, commenting on the superhero genre as a whole while engaging in some incredibly detailed worldbuilding. HBO’s Watchmen moves the story from 1985 to 2019, offers echoes of the comic that inspired it whenever and wherever possible, and has hints that more familiar Watchmen characters could appear in the near future.

Here’s everything we caught in the first episode. Let us know what we missed either down in the comments or on Twitter, and we’ll keep this updated.

- The episode is called “It’s Summer and We’re Running Out of Ice,” a line from “Poor Jud is Daid” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!.

- The episode opens on a moment from history that seems like it should be fiction, but it wasn’t. The Black Wall Street Massacre of 1921 took place in Tulsa from May 31 to June 1 and killed hundreds of African-Americans. “When I first heard about the massacre of Black Wall Street in Tulsa of '21 I couldn't believe that I was a grown adult and I'd never ever heard about it before,” Watchmen executive producer and writer Damon Lindelof tells us. “And the more I researched it, the more I was just shocked and embarrassed that I didn't know anything.”

Even the moments in this that seem like they might be “amplified” for this show, such as planes dropping dynamite on black businesses, are from the historical record. We have more info on that here.

- The hero of the silent film the young boy is watching is Bass Reeves, a real historical figure who was the first deputy black marshall of America’s west. He notched over 3,000 arrests in his lifetime, and HBO announced a few years back that they were developing a miniseries based on his life.

Interestingly, Bass Reeves in his “disguise” here looks quite a bit like Hooded Justice from the Minutemen. We see Hooded Justice later in the episode as part of the "American Hero Story: Minutemen" advertisements, a documentary series about the original masked adventurers in the Watchmen world.

- The Reeves of the silver screen tells the angry lynch mob that there will be “no mob justice today, trust in the law.” This echoes the concerns about masked vigilantes that led to the passing of the Keene Act in the Watchmen world in 1977, where a police strike led to the outlawing of superheroic activity. But it also echoes the themes of this show, where police are now sanctioned to wear masks and keep secret identities. Also, it may be coincidental, but in Superman #1 (1939) one of the Man of Steel’s very first acts is to bust up a lynch mob who have broken into a prison.

- The young boy being sent away as Black Wall Street is being destroyed feel quite a bit like Jor-El and Lara sending young Kal-El away from Krypton in the Superman mythos. In some versions of that story, Jor-El intended for the rocket that carries Kal-El to Earth to also hold Lara, but there was only room for the baby. Even the “look after this boy” note feels like a particular version of the Superman origin story, Elliot S! Maggin’s Superman: Last Son of Krypton, where Jor-El sent a telepathic device to explain to potential foster parents the importance of the child they would find. This was no accident.

“The other thing about what happened in Tulsa '21, it felt like it was very similar to what the way that a lot of superhero stories or comic book storytelling starts, which is it's the destruction of the world that you know,” Lindelof says. “This felt a lot like Krypton or Bruce Wayne losing his parents. So to take an actual real world historical event and use that iconic sort of mythological comic book storytelling at the same time...because if you're giving an audience vegetables, they'll push them to the side of the plate. It has to feel like it's as delicious as the rest of the meal. And more importantly, I think the more that the season goes on, more pivotal we'll see Tulsa '21 was to our storytelling.”

- When we arrive in the present day, you can see the truck driver is driving an electric vehicle. While hybrid and electric cars are no longer the stuff of science fiction in our world, in Watchmen, they were commonplace as early (if not earlier) than 1985, thanks in part to scientific advances brought on by the arrival of Doctor Manhattan.

- Watchmen stories always seem to take place in the fall, and this one begins on Sept. 8. The original comic takes place in the month of October. DC Comics’ print sequel, Doomsday Clock, takes place in November.

- The “good guy” lawman getting “bad news” while attending a theater production is a common trope in both regular law enforcement and superheroic comic book storytelling. You could easily see this scene playing out the same way if Don Johnson was playing, say, Dick Tracy for example.

I’m unfortunately not as fluent in the works of Rodgers and Hammerstein as I am in Moore and Gibbons, so most of the Oklahoma! significance is lost on me at the moment. Feel free to offer your own analysis in the comments.

- The concept of police keeping secret identities and wearing masks is explored throughout this show, but it’s a notable shift in policy from the comic book, where masked vigilantes were outlawed by the Keene Act, passed in 1977 after a police strike and violent riots. Later in the episode you can hear about Senator Joe Keene, Jr., who we’ll see more of in future episodes.

- When you see Regina King's Angela Abar cracking eggs in the classroom, one of the yolks has blood in it, at roughly the same angle as the bloodstain pattern on the Comedian’s badge in the comic book. The yolks also briefly make a smiley face that recalls that same Comedian badge.

- In the classroom, you can see photos of four important Presidents to this world: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Richard Nixon (who in the world of Watchmen, not only never resigned in disgrace, but served multiple terms, well into the 1980s), and current President Robert Redford.

Redford’s candidacy for President was hinted at the end of the original comic, as someone who was likely to challenge Nixon in the upcoming election. In Doomsday Clock, which begins in 1992, he is already in office, and he’s still serving in the 2019 of HBO’s Watchmen.

The “squid showers” everyone periodically endures appear to be an after effect of Adrian Veidt’s grand plan to avert nuclear Armageddon in the original Watchmen, in which he genetically engineered a psychic entity to simulate an alien attack and thus unite the world’s governments against a perceived common threat. The fact that squid showers are taking place confirms that this is a sequel to the book and not the squid-less 2009 movie version of the story. It's not clear if these have been happening since the incident in 1985, but in any case, they've been going on long enough for there to be public servants devoted to cleaning them up, squid anatomy posters to be in classrooms, and people to be formulating conspiracy theories about them in the press.

We explained the signficance of the squid rain in much more detail here.

And while we're on the subject of Adrian Veidt...

- Despite a newspaper headline that says “Veidt Declared Dead” it sure does appear that the mysterious “Lord of a Country Manor” played by Jeremy Irons is Adrian Veidt, doesn’t it? The colors he wears echo Veidt’s Ozymandias costume, and he seems to be the appropriate age that Veidt would be in 2019. If Veidt has been “declared dead” though, that means he has been missing for a number of years. It’s worth pointing out that in DC’s Doomsday Clock, Veidt departs the Watchmen reality for the DC Universe in 1992 in an attempt to find Dr. Manhattan. That likely won’t have any significance on HBO, but if he has been missing for over 25 years, that’s certainly enough time to declare someone dead.

- Veidt...ahem, I mean “the mysterious gentleman played by Jeremy Irons” is working on a play for his servants, “The Watchmaker’s Son.” That can only be a reference to Jon Osterman, better known by his glowing blue naked form as Dr. Manhattan. Osterman was indeed the son of a watchmaker.

This may not be important to anything, but something in Veidt’s diagrams looks like a Spartan war helmet.

- Detective Angela Abar is Sister Night, personifying the idea that police in this world now must hide their regular lives behind, not just masks, but superheroic identities. And no, your eyes do not deceive you, this badass superhero’s look appears to be based on a nun. Why a nun? The Watchmen team ain’t saying just yet. Watchmen executive producer and director Nicole Kassell promises us that “you will learn that as you continue to watch... it's not going to remain a mystery.”

We have more info on Regina King's Sister Night right here.

- Other supercops include those with the equally on-the-nose codenames of Pirate Jenny and Red Scare. The most significant of these is Tim Blake Nelson’s Det. Looking Glass, whose creepy full-face mask and Rorschach-esque monotone during interrogations are sure to make him a fan favorite. We have more on Looking Glass right here.

- The beating administered to the 7th Cavalry suspect behind closed doors is reminiscent of the jailbreak scene in the Watchmen book, where Rorschach excuses himself to the bathroom to take out an enemy. We don’t see the action, only the blood seeping out from under the door.

- Angela calling her bakery “Milk and Hanoi” is perhaps a reference to how much Vietnamese culture has been integrated into American life in the world of Watchmen. Here, the US won the Vietnam War and eventually annexed Vietnam as the 51st state.

- Angela walks past a man carrying a “The Future is Bright” sign. Walter Kovacs used to walk around with a “The End is Nigh” sign when he wasn’t wearing a mask, trenchcoat, and fedora and issuing brutal justice as Rorschach.

- Speaking of Rorschach, he is the inspiration for the 7th Cavalry (or 7th Kavalry) a reactionary, right-wing group of white supremacists here who have adopted his mask and mode of speech. The end of the Watchmen book saw Rorschach mail his journal off to his favorite conservative publication, the New Frontiersman. It’s unlikely it was ever published in full, as the video manifesto of the 7th Cavalry misquotes Rorschach here and there, and mixes it with alt-right memespeak. There also doesn’t appear to be a functioning internet in this world (you’ll note that everyone carries pagers and not smartphones), so it’s not clear how this has been passed around, which could account for the inaccuracies in their imitation of Rorschach.

We wrote more about the 7th Kavalry and Rorschach connections right here.

- The area of Tulsa with the highest concentration of white supremacists is known as “Nixonville.” Nixon had some troubling views on race that have been recently compounded and brought back to light by the audio of an awful phone call between him and then-future President Ronald Reagan.

- There’s a red phone on Judd’s desk, which may or may not be a little nod to the 1966 Batman TV series. Then again, sometimes a red phone is just a red phone. But there’s also a copy of Under the Hood by Hollis Mason. Under the Hood was the autobiography of the original Nite Owl, several chapters of which are “excerpted” in the Watchmen graphic novel.

- In the 7th Cavalry hideout, where they’re harvesting watch batteries for some nefarious purpose, there’s a poster featuring Minutemen hero Dollar Bill. Dollar Bill was an extremely minor character in the original Watchmen book, a college athlete from Kansas who was recruited by a bank chain to be their very own superhero, in what was essentially a glorified PR stunt. He died while trying to stop a bank robbery when his cape got caught in the revolving doors and he was shot to death. The poster in question is a racist depiction of a white hero (Dollar Bill) beating up on a cartoonish black criminal.

- The idea that the 7th Cavalry are harvesting watch batteries to create some kind of “cancer bomb” plays with how Dr. Manhattan’s presence was linked with cancer in people who associated with him in the book.

- The police apparently use the same technology for their aerial vehicles as the second Nite Owl’s ARCHIE Owlships, right down to the pushbutton operating system for weaponry like an aerial flamethrower. Considering that Dreiberg went into hiding at the end of the original Watchmen with a new identity, it’s not clear how local police forces would have ended up with this kind of hardware.

- Judd’s incongruous “you ok?” followed by everyone sharing a laugh as the camera tilts up to the sky faintly echoes Dan Dreiberg and Laurie Juspeczyk laughing at a dark joke at Rorschach’s expense in the first chapter of the Watchmen book.

- They even manage to squeeze in Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable," which was the commercial jingle used to sell Adrian Veidt's "Nostalgia" perfume line in the book. Yes, it was also used in the movie, but we won't hold that against it.

- The episode ends with a drop of blood on Judd’s badge, echoing the “minutes to midnight” blood pattern on the Comedian’s badge from the first issue of the original Watchmen.

Mike Cecchini is the Editor in Chief of Den of Geek. You can read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @wayoutstuff.

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

facebook

twitter

tumblr

Feature

Books

Mike Cecchini

Oct 20, 2019

Watchmen

HBO

from Books https://ift.tt/31xqsF9

#aion-rsa #Books

1 note · View note