Redrafting the Jazz: 2002

I have been cursed by a witch to repeatedly travel back through time to relive every NBA draft. Fortunately, her spell sends me directly to the Utah Jazz war room on draft night and all the executives magically know I’m from the future and will do whatever I say. Unfortunately, the curse prevents me from seeing how my advice altered the future, as I am sent back to the previous year as soon as draft night ends.

June 26, 2002 – Madison Square Garden, New York City

Previous season:

With Utah’s core of Karl Malone, John Stockton and Bryon Russell past their prime, the Jazz limped along to a 44-38 record in 2001-02, before losing to Sacramento in four games in the first round of the playoffs (it was a best-of-five series back then). The roster had quite a bit of dead weight on it, with the only bright spots being rookies Andrei Kirilenko and Jarron Collins. Well, mostly Kirilenko, but Collins did prove he could be a dependable role player.

The draft:

General Manager Kevin O’Connor spent both of Utah’s picks on big men — No. 19 on Ryan Humphrey from Notre Dame and No. 47 on Jamaal Sampson from Cal. O’Connor then immediately traded those two picks to Orlando for the 18th pick, Stanford’s Curtis Borchardt.

Analysis:

Trading two draft picks to move up just one spot is a pretty stupid thing to do. But apparently the Jazz were quite enamored with Borchardt and believed he had slipped in the draft, despite the injury concerns surrounding the 7-footer. Turns out the teams that passed on him made the right choice. Borchardt had extensive feet problems and even had to have screws implanted in his foot. He sat out his entire rookie season, played only 16 games the next, and 67 in what became his final year in the NBA. Luckily, the Jazz didn’t miss out too much on Humphrey and Sampson. They both had extremely subpar careers that lasted 85 and 72 games, respectively.

Watching the draft live as an impressionable youth, I was shocked the Jazz didn’t take Carlos Boozer. I had followed the power forward’s career at Duke and felt he could conceivably be the next Karl Malone. Utah obviously didn’t think that — at first — but following a strong start in Cleveland (and a sudden need to rebuild on the fly), they offered Boozer quite a bit of money to take Malone’s place. True, he did fall quite short of the Hall of Famer’s standards, but Boozer was an All-Star and helped take the Jazz to the Western Conference Finals one year. I think having him start his career in Utah and learning directly from the Mailman himself could have helped Boozer maximize his potential.

Obviously, I want to keep that second-round pick, but I don’t have that many decent options to choose from. So I’m going to go with Rasual Butler, who had an unremarkable, but productive 14-year career. He wasn’t too bad of a shooter, and maybe Jerry Sloan could have taught him to be the next Bryon Russell.

My advice:

1. Keep the 19th pick and use it on Carlos Boozer.

2. Keep the 47th pick and use it on Rasual Butler.

I was frustrated by Boozer’s many injuries and apparent lack of effort during his stay in Utah. But I like to imagine that an aging Karl Malone could have taken a young rookie under his wing and molded him into something truly great. Maybe. Truthfully, I mainly picked Boozer because he was best player available. And sometimes, that’s all it comes down to.

The Unwatchable Watchmen Motion Comic

After the last bit of role-playing material in 1990, DC went nearly two decades without producing any major adaptations of Watchmen. But not for lack of trying. Work on a film began even before the comic was finished. (It continues to astound me how so many people instantly knew this was going to be an all-time classic!) Alan Moore was initially supportive of a cinematic adaptation, but quickly soured on the project when the initial script butchered the ending with convoluted time-travel nonsense.

Moore wasn't the only one, who had doubts, and Watchmen spent the next 15 years in development hell, being passed around from studio to studio, and director to director. It earned the reputation of being "unfilmable" — a reputation encouraged by Moore himself. But DC never gave up, and in 2006, for whatever strange reason, things fell into place. Zack Snyder was chosen as the director and given a budget of $100 million (which later swelled to $150 million). This led to a flurry of Watchmen content. The comics were remastered, recolored and recollected; Dave Gibbons and John Higgins worked with Snyder on the film; Gibbons wrote a book about the making of the graphic novel; video game tie-ins and soundtracks were commissioned, the whole nine yards. Including this motion comic.

The digitization of comic books led to a lot of experimenting from Marvel and DC — and not all of it was good. Motion comics sought to find the middle ground between animation and traditional, static images. Something less expensive than an out-right cartoon, but more immersive than a typical reading experience. The end result was little more than an old-fashioned radio drama accompanied with puppets cut out from the comics, bouncing around on the screen. Ultimately, the motion comic experiment proved to be just a brief fad that died out in 2010.

However, the motion comic does allow for the most faithful, most literal adaptation possible — if that's your goal. Going panel by panel, word by word seems like the best way to preserve the original creators' intentions. Of course, Moore refused to be involved in anything regarding Watchmen at this point, even insisting that his share of the royalties go to Gibbons. I don't know if Gibbons was involved in this motion comic at all, but it appears he may have at least given it his blessing as he worked so closely with the filmmakers and promotion team.

Director John Strider Hughes made one 30-minute episode for each issue of Watchmen. The first was released on July 17, 2008, but the second didn't come out until October 6. I wonder if DC initially made just one episode to gauge the audience's reaction. And apparently it was good enough to greenlight the rest of the episodes, which were released every two weeks like clockwork, with the final episode coming out on February 23, 2009, just in time for the movie's debut in London. I don't know what the budget or timeframe for this project was, but it feels cheap and rushed.

The motion comic is technically an abridged production, but as far as I can tell, that's only because it omits all the supplemental material. Every panel from the main story seems to be included, presented with very limited animation, camera zooms and pans, sound effects and a light soundtrack by Lennie Moore. But the most bizarre choice was to have a single narrator, Tom Stechschulte, who provided the voice for each character in the story. He handled the male voices just fine, but was woefully out of his depth with the female voices. Distractingly so.

The second most bizarre choice this production made was the inclusion of the speech bubbles. They showed up just like they do in the comic, sometimes dramatically moving on their own to provide emphasis, other times awkwardly sliding along with a character who was "walking" out of the frame. This created a rather pointless distraction, seeing as how Stechschulte was already reading every single word for us. These two bizarre choices made this motion comic unbearable for many audiences, myself included. I know there are quite a few fans of this out there, but I simply cannot get over Stechschulte's grating falsetto, the unnecessary speech bubbles and — most importantly — the sheer pointlessness of the entire exercise.

What's the point in adapting a story if you're not going to change a single thing about it? With this motion comic, I'm basically just paying someone else to read it to me. The animation is so crude and static, I have to use my imagination to visualize in my mind's eye how a fully animated story would look. And I can already do that just by reading the comic. Same for the sound effects and voices. But the benefit of the voices in my head is that they're more authentic than a voice actor who cannot convincingly mimic a woman's voice. So ultimately, while this may technically be the most accurate adaptation of Watchmen you'll find, I can't recommend that anyone subject themselves to the five hours of viewing it. It truly is unwatchable.

Redrafting the Jazz: 2003

I have been cursed by a witch to repeatedly travel back through time to relive every NBA draft. Fortunately, her spell sends me directly to the Utah Jazz war room on draft night and all the executives magically know I’m from the future and will do whatever I say. Unfortunately, the curse prevents me from seeing how my advice altered the future, as I am sent back to the previous year as soon as draft night ends.

June 26, 2003 – Madison Square Garden, New York City

Previous season:

The Stockton-Malone era in Utah sadly ended with a whimper. In 2002-03, the Jazz went 47-35 and lost to the Kings in five games in the first round. Shockingly, nobody realized it was the end of the dynasty until John Stockton abruptly announced his retirement in May. Karl Malone was a free agent, but not ready to retire yet. However, at the time of the draft, he still wasn't sure if he wanted to return to Utah for his 19th season. The entire organization wasted most of the offseason waffling on whether to start the rebuild or try to use their cap room to make one more run at the Finals. Ultimately, Malone went to the Lakers, leaving Utah with only two good young players — Matt Harpring and Andrei Kirilenko. In other words, completely unprepared for life without Stockton and Malone.

The draft:

General manager Kevin O'Connor used the 19th pick on a Montenegrin swingman named Aleksander "Sasha" Pavlovic.

With the 47th pick, the Jazz took a point guard from Alabama named Maurice "Mo" Williams.

Analysis:

Pavlovic only spent one quiet season in Utah before he was snatched up by the Charlotte Bobcats in the expansion draft. The Jazz didn't want to lose him, but they had to make somebody available for the new team, and Pavlovic seemed the most expendable. They ultimately didn't miss out on much. Pavlovic did linger around the NBA for about a decade, but had a rather mediocre career.

There are quite a few decent, respectable players available in this draft, but there aren't any replacements for Stockton and Malone. So I'm going to simply grab a superior version of Pavlovic — Kyle Korver. He eventually did join the Jazz — twice, in fact — but both times were at the wrong time of his career. Korver was plagued by injuries during his two-and-a-half seasons, and he was simply too old when he came back for 54 games in 2019. But in between those stints, Korver underwent a rigorous training program, finally became healthy, and was named to the All-Star team for Atlanta. He was a fan favorite in Utah, and ended his career as one of the greatest shooters in NBA history. Even though he wasn't taken until the 51st pick, I'd like him to start his career in Utah, and I don't feel bad about grabbing him at No. 19.

Williams also had a quiet rookie campaign for Utah, but he showed just enough promise for the Jazz to protect him from the expansion draft. However, O'Connor shockingly refused to match Milwaukee's offer once Williams became a restricted free agent. He went on to have a terrific career and become an All-Star. O'Connor lamented this as one of his greatest mistakes, and brought Williams back in 2012, but he was old and injured by that point. So I am going to recommend that the Jazz go ahead and draft him like they wanted to. But I'm also going to give O'Connor strict instructions to hold on to him this time.

My advice:

1. Use the 19th pick on Kyle Korver.

2. Use the 47th pick on Mo Williams.

This draft wasn't a huge game changer for a team about to be thrust into a massive rebuild. But I have given them two nice pieces that fill in around Harpring, Kirilenko and whoever else O'Connor can pick up in free agency. The biggest thing is to make sure Korver and Williams are protected from the expansion draft. I'd rather lose Jarron Collins (as nice as he was) than either of All-Stars.

The Watchmen Sourcebook: The last of the role-playing material

In 1990, Watchmen made one last foray into the DC Heroes role-playing game. But instead of writing another adventure, Ray Winninger was tasked with creating a comprehensive sourcebook for every single character seen or mentioned in the Watchmen comic book series. This was probably a good idea, seeing how difficult it was to make a decent campaign for these characters — not to mention all the editorial interference that crippled the last one. Frankly, I'm a bit surprised that Winninger returned for this project. But I guess his love for this material (and his friendship with Alan Moore) outweighed his disappointment from Taking Out the Trash (which he wanted to call The Harlot's Curse).

Of course, I wonder exactly how much new material Winninger wrote for this. The whole book is basically just an encyclopedia of all the Watchmen characters, providing their DC Heroes statistics and their background information. The vast majority of the background info is regurgitated supplemental material from the Watchmen issues and the previous role-playing adventures. The new stuff that Winninger did write tried to follow the format of newspaper clippings, letters, etc. This may help preserve the "flavor" of Watchmen, but I think this book would have been a lot more usable had all the text been presented in a straight-forward way.

It also hurts that this is a visually unappealing book. It's filled with the bland stock images of the characters and random panels from the comic, presented in black, white and an off-putting shade of orange that was used way too much. Dave Gibbons did provide an original cover, which was strong enough to be reused for the Watchmen Companion in 2019. But beyond that, this is an ugly, boring and bland book.

The worst part was the Villains section. Watchmen doesn't have any traditional villains, but role-playing games need them. Beyond Moloch (who was prominently featured in both the adventures), Winninger really had to scrape the bottom of the barrel. He included every single villain mentioned in casual passing throughout the series, and the whole exercise reeks of inauthenticity.

On a random note, I was surprised by Winninger's omissions in the Hooded Justice section. In Taking Out the Trash, Winninger came right out and said that not only was Hooded Justice a gay white man, but that he was also secretly killed by the Comedian. But none of that is mentioned here, falling back to the ambiguous backstory originally presented by Moore. I prefer the wiggle room created by Moore, especially because I like what the HBO series did with the character. But that review is for another day.

I'm sure this sourcebook would have been quite valuable for obsessive nerds like me in a pre-Wikipedia age. It would have been incredible to have all the backstories of all the Watchmen characters in one place without having to flip through the comics. Unfortunately, this information was not presented nearly as well as it could have, or should have been. In fact, I'd even go as far as to declare this book unreadable, which may have contributed to DC's decision to stop trying to create more role-playing material for Watchmen.

Redrafting the Jazz: 2004

I have been cursed by a witch to repeatedly travel back through time to relive every NBA draft. Fortunately, her spell sends me directly to the Utah Jazz war room on draft night and all the executives magically know I’m from the future and will do whatever I say. Unfortunately, the curse prevents me from seeing how my advice altered the future, as I am sent back to the previous year as soon as draft night ends.

June 24, 2004 – Madison Square Garden, New York City

Previous season:

The 2003-04 season was the first after the Stockton-Malone era. Many people expected the Jazz to be absolutely dreadful, but they surprisingly went 42-40 and only missed the playoffs by one game. This was largely due to the emergence of Andrei Kirilenko, Carlos Arroyo and Raja Bell, as well as a timely midseason trade that turned DeShawn Stevenson into Gordan Giricek. If Matt Harpring hadn't been limited to 31 games, Utah may have been a playoff team. There were certainly a few intriguing players to build around, but the Jazz desperately needed a consistent presence in the low post.

The draft:

Utah's strong record put them at the very bottom of the lottery, and with the 14th pick, they drafted power forward Kris Humphries, a freshman from Minnesota.

In February 2004, general manager Kevin O'Connor made one of the best trades of his career, sending Keon Clark and Ben Handlogten to Phoenix for Tom Gugliotta's bloated contract, some cash and three draft picks. One of those picks ended up being Gordon Hayward in 2010. But the first pick given to the Jazz was the 16th in this draft, which Utah used on Nevada swingman Kirk Snyder.

Thanks to the 2003 John Amaechi trade, Utah also owned the 21st pick, which they used on Russian center Pavel Podkolzin. But because O'Connor didn't want to add three rookies to the roster, he immediately traded Podkolzin to Dallas for a 2005 first-round pick (which was used to help the Jazz trade up for Deron Williams).

Utah didn't own their second-round pick because they had traded it to Sacramento in 2003 for Clark. Which I suppose worked out great for O'Connor, since he definitely wouldn't have wanted four rookies.

Analysis:

Humphries, perhaps best known for marrying (and promptly divorcing) Kim Kardashian, only lasted two seasons in Utah before being traded for Rafael Araujo (who only played 28 games before dropping out of the NBA). So that really wasn't the best pick the Jazz made. Humphries did go on to have a fairly productive career — he even averaged a double-double for two straight years in New Jersey. But he just wasn't a great fit in Utah, especially after the signing of Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur.

I really struggled deciding who to take with this pick. There are so many good options this year! Ultimately, I think I'm going to go with Al Jefferson, the high schooler taken just one spot after Humphries. Jefferson ended up having the career everyone hoped Humphries would have — even making the All-NBA Third Team once. Of course, every good Jazz fans remembers well the three year rather disappointing years he spent in Utah as Boozer's replacement. But that was during a period of intense turmoil for the Jazz — Jerry Sloan's abrupt retirement put the frankly incompetent Tyrone Corbin in as head coach and Jefferson was unable to play up to his full potential. My theory is that a rookie Jefferson, developing behind Boozer and under Sloan's tutelage, could turn into a very valuable player for the Jazz. I hope.

Snyder's athleticism made him an exciting prospect — Jazz fans even gave him the nickname Snyder-Man. But after just one year, Utah dumped him off in an insane five-team trade. By 2008, he was out of the league. Back in 2004, I remember being shocked that the Jazz didn't draft Jameer Nelson. He had an impressive pre-draft workout and interview with Utah, and certainly seemed like a perfect fit for the Jazz. Nelson's career was hampered by injuries, but he did make one All-Star game and was the starting point guard of an Orlando Magic team that reached the Finals. I suppose the Jazz were pretty happy with their three young point guards — Arroyo, Raul Lopez and Mo Williams — but I know that Arroyo's arguments with Sloan would soon get him traded, Lopez would quickly suffer a career-ending injury, and O'Connor would fail to resign Williams (which he later called his biggest mistake). So even though it feels weird in the moment, I'm going to recommend drafting a point guard.

The 7-foot-5 Podkolzin was a pretty big bust for Dallas. He played just six games in two seasons before being waived. Naturally, I'm not upset the Jazz missed out on him. But I am quite upset that O'Connor gave away a perfectly good first-round pick just because he didn't want to add too many rookies to the roster. So first I'd have to explain to him that that's a ridiculous philosophy, especially when you're rebuilding a team and that just lost last year’s first-round pick (Sasha Pavlovic) to the Charlotte Bobcats’ expansion draft. Plus, there are quite a few good options still available at No. 21. Options like Tony Allen, a three-time All Defensive First Team member. I know that Raja Bell will leave the Jazz after just two seasons, and Allen would not only fill the void he left, but even be an upgrade.

My advice:

1. Use the 14th pick on Al Jefferson.

2. Use the 16th pick on Jameer Nelson.

3. Keep the 21st pick and use it on Tony Allen.

I'm quite excited by the prospect of adding Tony Allen and Jameer Nelson to the Jazz. Al Jefferson still has me a bit worried, though. It really comes down to the belief that putting a player in a different situation at the start of their career can dramatically alter the course of their career. Jefferson had the potential to be one of the best power forwards in the league. Maybe being drafted by Utah could have helped. Sadly, I'll never get to see the results of my experiment. As soon as draft night ends, I'm teleported back to the year 2003.

Taking Out the Trash: One more Watchmen role playing module

The second Watchmen module for the DC Heroes role playing game was also developed before the comic series was finished. This module's author, Ray Winniger, says he spent hours on the phone with Alan Moore, discussing the plot of the soon-to-be published issues. Moore is also given credit in this module for contributing "special design assistance and concepts." Perhaps this is why Taking Out the Trash: Curses and Tears feels even more like a Watchmen story than Who Watches the Watchmen. Unfortunately, I don't think this is as strong an adventure as its predecessor.

Part of this module's problem was not Winneger's fault. His work was heavily edited, with some pages printed out of order and every reference to a real world place or person was removed. This was especially problematic for Richard Nixon, who was known only as the Vice President in this story about the Republican nomination for president. It frankly makes the text nearly unreadable at parts.

The other problems of this module lie squarely with Winnegar, though. He tried really hard to mimic Moore's writing style and presentation, but it just didn't quite work. Winnegar sprinkled the text with quotations from William Blake's poem "London," and he even tried writing some passages from Rorschach's journal. This created a rather cheesy effect, especially since Winnegar's prose is nowhere near on the level of Moore's. Granted, it is nearly impossible to get into the mind of a younger Rorschach, one described as "not nearly as unstable or schizophrenic as he will one day become." And since Moore never really explored this era of Rorschach's life, Winnegar had nothing to build on. It was a noble effort, I suppose, but not executed too well.

Anyway, the story features Moloch working with a corrupt presidential candidate. Oddly, the adventure is largely split up between a solo mission for the Comedian and a mission for Rorschach and Nite Owl. Silk Spectre and Ozymandias can be awkwardly shoehorned in if you have more than three players at the table, but there's no compelling narrative reason for them to be there. And, as was expected, Winniger issues strong warnings about using Doctor Manhattan. He simply does not work for games like this.

Dave Gibbons did not provide any new art for this module, so we're stuck with images pulled from the comics and promotional materials. Some of the supplemental material looks fairly nice — like actual letters and newspaper clippings, for example — but all the maps are extremely rudimentary. The most interesting part, by far, was the section on the Minutemen. Winnegar came up with stats for all their characters and pulled from the backup pages of Watchmen to provide short bios on each of them. Truthfully, I think a role-playing module based on the Minutemen would be a lot more interesting (and functional). Sadly, DC never published one, but they did provide the tools for any ambitious game master out there.

As far as an adaptation of Watchmen goes, this module suffers from the same limitations of the first one. None of the Watchmen characters are likable. But if you want players to play them, then you need to clean them up a bit. This forces the game to take place in an unexplored setting, almost entirely separate from the source material. And every character description carries notes about how this adventure takes place before they became too violent or too insane or began a plot to reshape the entire world. It all leaves a rather awkward and unsatisfying taste in your mouth, despite Winniger's (and Moore's) best efforts to make this feel like a Watchmen story. From what I can tell, neither one of these modules were particularly well received.

Redrafting the Jazz: 2005

I have been cursed by a witch to repeatedly travel back through time to relive every NBA draft. Fortunately, her spell sends me directly to the Utah Jazz war room on draft night and all the executives magically know I’m from the future and will do whatever I say. Unfortunately, the curse prevents me from seeing how my advice altered the future, as I am sent back to the previous year as soon as draft night ends.

June 28, 2005 – Madison Square Garden, New York City

Previous season:

The 2004-05 season was the worst of Jerry Sloan’s coaching career (and that includes his unremarkable stint in Chicago). Utah was rebuilding, and pieces were beginning to come into place. The Jazz brought in big men Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur to form the foundation of a decent frontcourt with Andrei Kirilenko and Matt Harpring. But Boozer only played in 51 games and Kirilenko just 41. And as promising as Utah’s frontcourt was, their backcourt was horrendous — especially at point guard. Carlos Arroyo had shown promise in previous years, but by 2005, his relationship with Sloan had deteriorated to the point of being traded away for absolutely nothing. All this led to a 26-56 record for the Jazz, which was unfortunately not quite bad enough to land a coveted spot in the lottery.

The draft:

Owner Larry H. Miller wanted to end the rebuilding process as quickly as possible and ordered General Manager Kevin O’Connor to be as aggressive as possible. The Jazz tried to trade for the No. 1 pick, but Milwaukee wouldn’t budge. However, Portland was surprisingly willing to part with the No. 3 pick, which would guarantee Utah’s ability to grab one of the top two point guards in this draft and solve their roster’s biggest problem. Hours before the draft, the Jazz gave the Blazers their own No. 6 pick, the No. 27 pick (which they acquired from Dallas in 2004 for Pavel Podkolzin) and the 2006 first-round pick they got from Detroit in the Arroyo trade.

With the third pick, the Jazz selected Deron Williams from Illinois. Portland used Utah’s picks on Martell Webster (No. 6), Linas Kleiza (No. 27) and Joel Freeland (No. 30 in 2006).

Utah used their No. 34 on high school swing man C.J. Miles.

Thanks to a 2003 trade involving John Amaechi, the Jazz also owned the 51st pick, which they used on Walsh big man Robert Whaley.

Analysis:

Do I even need to say it? The Jazz should have drafted Chris Paul. Yes, I defended the Williams pick, and for the first few years, there was a legitimate argument to be had. But Paul quickly outpaced Williams in every way and is still playing at a high level today, while Williams is long since retired. I’m beginning to wonder if the Jazz never really considered taking Paul because they assumed (like everyone else) that Atlanta would draft him. But the Hawks shocked the world by picking Marvin Williams instead.

But even though the Jazz chose the wrong point guard, they still got the better end of that trade with Portland. None of those three players developed into half the player Deron Williams was. So I wouldn’t recommend canceling that trade, even if I could. I’ll just point out which point guard will have a far superior career. I can pretend that Paul would have gotten along better with Sloan and that his time in Utah wouldn’t have ended as abruptly as Williams’ did. But I don’t honestly know how that would have played out. I just know Paul is a better player, and I want the Jazz to draft him.

C.J. Miles was a rather frustrating player for me. The Jazz committed wholeheartedly to him right from the beginning by giving him a guaranteed contract that’s normally only for first-round picks. And a few years later, they matched a rather exorbitant deal offered by Oklahoma City. I just felt like the first four or five years of his seven-year Utah stint were filled with a lot of talk about how young he was and how everyone needed to be patient with him. Look, he wasn’t a bad player by any means (he lasted 15 years in the league), but he wasn’t particularly dynamic. So I’m going to save Jazz fans from seven years of meandering mediocrity and roll the dice on Monta Ellis. This undersized shooting straight out of high school eventually developed into one of the top scorers in the league. Yeah, personality issues might have hampered his time playing under Sloan, but I’m willing to risk a second-round pick on the slim chance of adding a dynamic player to Utah’s roster.

Robert Whaley only played 23 games his rookie season, earning more attention for what he did off the court. He and Deron Williams were involved in an altercation in Park City, where Whaley sustained a six-inch cut on his hand and he lied to the team about how he got the injury. Utah traded him to Toronto in the offseason, and the Raptors immediately waived him, ending his NBA career. But a few years later, Whaley chose to return to Utah, where he was arrested a few more times on various marijuana and burglary charges. Needless to say, the Jazz could have made a better pick here. Luckily, we have a half-decent center available: Marcin Gortat. This Polish big man enjoyed a 13-year NBA career, twice averaging a double-double during the season. And, as far as I know, he does not have an arrest record.

My advice:

1. Use the 3rd pick on Chris Paul.

2. Use the 34th pick on Monta Ellis.

3. Use the 51st pick on Marcin Gortat.

It’s kind of interesting how Deron Williams is still regarded as one of the best Jazz players in franchise history (his jersey was the only one I’ve ever owned), and yet he will go down as one of the biggest draft mistakes the Jazz ever made. Chris Paul was just that good. And plenty of people were saying it at the time, but the Jazz didn’t listen. Luckily, my witch’s curse compels Kevin O’Connor to heed my warnings. Unluckily, I never got to see that a Paul-Boozer duo in action.

Who Watches the Watchmen?: Time for the adaptations!

Now I can finally start looking at the many adaptations of Watchmen to see how other creators interpreted Alan Moore’s work. Of course, I’m using the word “adaptation” quite loosely with the first projects I’m looking at. But I don’t really have a better word for it. Additions? Non-canonical supplemental adventures? Eh, I won’t worry about it.

Before Moore and Dave Gibbons had even finished their 12-issue story, DC began working on two modules for their DC Heroes role playing game. The first, written by Dan Greenberg, was called “Who Watches the Watchmen?” (I’ve never played DC Heroes, but I am experienced with Dungeons & Dragons, so I get the concept.)

Greenberg had a difficult task of turning these deeply flawed, unlikable characters into something players would like to be. His solution was to set the story back in the 60s, when the Watchmen were young and most closely resembled traditional superheroes. Of course, these characters really didn’t do much together as a team, so Greenberg cleverly found a good excuse to bring everyone together.

The story takes place shortly after Captain Metropolis’ failed attempt of uniting all the major costumed vigilantes of the day. Someone close to each of the Watchmen has been kidnapped and Captain Metropolis coordinates the rescue mission. But none of the players realize that Metropolis was behind all the kidnappings in a desperate attempt to unite the heroes and frame Moloch.

It’s a pretty straight-forward mission, if a little “railroady.” I’d imagine it’d get rather redundant having to investigate seven separate kidnappings. But the neat thing is how the campaign handles the true mystery. It’s entirely possible for players to rescue all the hostages and capture Moloch and have no idea that Captain Metropolis was actually behind it. Of course, most players should be able to put the clues together by the end. Wisely, Greenberg recognizes how sharp-eyed players would be suspicious of Metropolis right from the beginning, so he recommends coordinating with another player ahead of time to play Captain Metropolis and present him as just another character in the game.

The biggest obstacle is Dr. Manhattan. Out of a sense of obligation, I suppose, Greenberg did include the off-the-chart statistics for Dr. Manhattan. But he included a stern warning to only use him if absolutely necessary, as he can easily break a game like this.

A slightly smaller obstacle is the fact that it’s still rather odd to imagine anyone wanting to be Rorschach or the Comedian or even Ozymandias. Greenberg tries to allay these concerns by saying things like this adventure takes place before Rorschach went fully insane, and the Comedian wasn’t quite as ruthless and violent as he later became. And all the players are supposed to pretend they don’t know that Adrian Veidt has secretly begun his work to cause Armageddon. It’s all a bit of a stretch, but I think it’s the best anyone could have done with such an assignment.

Gibbons drew the cover (a rather boring image, if you ask me) and he provided a few new sketches for inside. But most of the art is bland stock images, presented in mundane black-and-white. I have no idea how well this was received, but that’s not really the point. The point is that DC recognized they had a massive hit with Watchmen right away and sought to capitalize on its success every way they could imagine — even if that meant making slightly awkward role playing games.

On a whole, I feel like Greenberg followed Moore’s vision rather faithfully. It could easily be inserted into the Watchmen story without disrupting anything. And I especially liked the twist of making Captain Metropolis the villain. After all, in the main series he was portrayed as a racist, closeted homosexual with a naïve, regressive worldview. I fully support any story that reminds the audience that these characters are not really the good guys.

Redrafting the Jazz: 2006

I have been cursed by a witch to repeatedly travel back through time to relive every NBA draft. Fortunately, her spell sends me directly to the Utah Jazz war room on draft night and all the executives magically know I’m from the future and will do whatever I say. Unfortunately, the curse prevents me from seeing how my advice altered the future, as I am sent back to the previous year as soon as draft night ends.

June 28, 2006 – Madison Square Garden, New York City

Previous season:

Three seasons removed from Stockton and Malone, the Jazz were still rebuilding in 2005-06. But a promising picture was beginning to take shape with Mehmet Okur, Andrei Kirilenko, Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams. But injuries limited Boozer to 33 games and Williams was just a rookie, so Utah only earned 41 wins and missed the playoffs.

The draft:

With the 14th pick, Utah drafted Ronnie Brewer, a defensive-minded swing man from Arkansas.

Thanks to a 2003 trade involving John Amaechi and Glen Rice, the Jazz owned Chicago’s second-round pick (No. 46), which they used on Deron Williams’ old Illinois teammate, point guard Dee Brown.

And with the 47th pick, Utah selected Paul Millsap, a power forward from Louisiana Tech.

Analysis:

Ronnie Brewer’s hustle quickly won him over with Jerry Sloan and he became a full-time starter in his second season. His terrible outside shooting certainly limited him offensively, but he was excellent at attacking the rim and scored a decent amount of points off layups and dunks. But what really set him apart was his defense. In the two full seasons he was a starter for Utah, he finished in the top 10 in the NBA for steals. Unfortunately, Brewer was traded to the Grizzlies during his fourth season, just to help the Jazz avoid the luxury tax. Brewer was injured the moment he arrived in Memphis and was never the same.

Brewer truly was exactly what the Jazz needed at that moment in time. He fit in so naturally with the starting lineup and was a big reason for Utah’s success in that three-year stretch. It wasn’t his fault Kevin O’Connor couldn’t find a better way to save the franchise money. And I don’t think it’s entirely unreasonable for me to suggest that maybe Brewer wouldn’t have torn his hamstring had he been able to stay in Utah. I’m a firm believer in the role emotions and stress can play on injuries, and Brewer’s trade was a pretty big shock — especially to Williams.

Yes, I know Rajon Rondo and Kyle Lowry have had much better careers. But I don’t think either of them would have been as good a fit on the Jazz at this time as Brewer was. So, slightly to my surprise, I’m going to recommend the Jazz stick with Brewer here.

Dee Brown helped Williams guide Illinois to a legendary 37-2 season, and it seemed like he was also destined for a great NBA career. But then he broke his foot and decided to go back to school for one more year. By the time he made it to the Jazz, he wasn’t nearly the explosive player he once was. Utah did give him 49 games to try to prove himself, but his NBA career never panned out.

So I recommend replacing Brown with Puerto Rico’s José Juan (J.J.) Barea. The undersized point guard used his tremendous grit and deep knowledge of the game to have a long, productive career with the Dallas Mavericks. I think he’s just the player Sloan would have loved.

Paul Millsap was one of Utah’s greatest draft picks of all time. Very few players taken this deep in the draft develop into four-time All-Stars. Unfortunately, Millsap made all those All-Star games after he left Utah and signed with Atlanta. He gave the Jazz seven very solid seasons, but when his contract expired, I felt like the team didn’t try very hard to keep him. Maybe his time in Utah would have been even better had he been encouraged to develop his 3-point shot earlier. Or if he wasn’t saddled alongside Al Jefferson right after he emerged from Boozer’s shadow. Regardless, the production he gave Utah was incredible, and there’s no way I’m recommending anyone else.

My advice:

1. Use the 14th pick on Ronnie Brewer.

2. Use the 46th pick on J.J. Barea.

3. Use the 47th pick on Paul Millsap.

This is the 12th draft I have redone for the Jazz. And it’s only the second time I’ve left the first-round pick as is. (Heck, if Dee Brown had been even slightly better, I might have even suggested no changes at all!) I know Ronnie Brewer wasn’t the best player available at that pick, but I think he was the best fit. And who knows what he could have developed into had he been able to stay and avoid injury.

Watchmen #12: The end of the beginning

Here it is. I am finally almost done with my page-by-page review of Watchmen. And this isn’t the end — it’s only the beginning of my grander goal of looking at all the adaptations of Watchmen to see how closely they fit what I perceived to be Alan Moore’s original vision.

This issue has one of the most powerful openings in all comics. Six silent splash pages depicting grotesque horror.

Gibbons didn’t do any official two-page spreads in this series. But he came frustratingly close a couple of times. I just want to go in and tweak that tentacle ever so slightly to make it line up.

It was a little convenient to have all these minor characters at the same place at midnight. But it does make for a satisfying, albeit macabre finale for them.

At the center of everything is poor Bernard and Bernie — the man who read all the newspapers and the boy who read all the comic books. They, like most of the other victims of this attack, are some of the very few truly likable characters of this story. Which helps give this tragedy some real stakes.

I had previously wondered how long it took Dr. Manhattan to teleport to and from Mars. Perhaps it was usually instantaneous, but the story doesn’t specifically say. I wish Dr. Manhattan would have said something like he wanted to go back two days ago. Regardless, the tachyons somehow caused him to skip ahead in time a bit — lost in teleportation limbo from Mars for 48 hours. I can only presume that was a happy accident of Adrian’s plan.

For the first time in years, Dr. Manhattan feels the sensation of surprise. And he gets so excited by this, it takes him a minute to acknowledge Laurie’s suffering — again.

Adrian won’t stop belittling Rorschach and I am here for it!

My biggest frustration with Watchmen. If young Robert Deschaines really was the key, then why didn’t we ever get to see him?

For the first — and only — time in this story, Adrian is legitimately afraid. He does fear for his life, but I think he’s also worried that Dr. Manhattan’s arrival means that he also prevented the attack in New York.

Dave Gibbons devotes a lot of space to Laurie making her way into Adrian’s lair. This highlights her continued isolation and unfortunate role as the most forgettable character in this cast. But I also think Gibbons and Moore were trying to build up the tension of Laurie bringing a gun to the final confrontation. Personally, I think that bit fell flat.

It’s quite impressive how Adrian’s preparation (and paranoia) led to him recreating the device that turned Jon Osterman into Dr. Manhattan. It’s also quite lucky that Adrian was able to put Dr. Manhattan in range of this machine.

This was unnecessary. It feels like Alan Moore saw what he concerned a plot hole in Adrian’s staged assassination and decided to justify it after the fact. But I never worried about the possibility of the gunman hitting Adrian first instead of the secretary. If Adrian knew when and where the hitman would be, he would have had ample time to protect himself. I also worry that having him “catch” a bullet makes him too powerful. I thought the only one here with real superpowers was Dr. Manhattan. Adrian’s already the smartest and the best fighter. Does he really need another physical ability outside the realm of human feasibility?

I do love this line, though. Adrian has just pulled off his decades-long scheme, easily bested Nite Owl and Rorschach in hand-to-hand combat, obliterated the most powerful being in the universe, and even caught a bullet. He has no time for Dan’s chivalry.

Dr. Manhattan hasn’t been in a real fight in a long, long time. Yes, this is a dramatic act of intimidation. But it’s not very efficient. Obviously he wanted to question Adrian before killing him, but he wastes time trying to belittle him. I guess it’s just a petty act from the allegedly emotionless being.

Hey, Jon! That termite just pulled off the greatest conspiracy of all time right under your nose! (Man, I’m really becoming an Adrian cheerleader here …)

Even though we knew Adrian’s plan worked, he had no confirmation of it until he turned on his TVs. And for the first time in this story, he permits himself to celebrate like a normal human. It’s a rather unsettling sight to see him exhibit so much emotion, especially when one considers what, exactly, he’s cheering.

I am stunned, absolutely gobsmacked that this conversation only lasted three panels. I’m not saying it’s wrong to have these characters ultimately come to these conclusions, but they needed to have a longer conversation about it! This is the story that spent an entire issue teaching Dr. Manhattan the value of life. But this incredibly complex moral problem is condensed to a few quick lines?

It’s a little surprising that Adrian didn’t kill his “guests,” considering how he coldly murdered his most loyal servants to prevent the slim possibility that one of them would expose him in the future. I suppose Adrian initially wanted someone to gloat to. And once Dr. Manhattan showed up, he probably assumed that he wouldn’t let anything bad to happen to Laurie (and maybe even Dan). As for Rorschach, well, it’s refreshing to see Adrian’s finally realized he’s not much of a threat. I’ll still maintain that Adrian needn’t have bothered conspiring to throw Rorschach in jail.

This issue has so much to get through — so many loose ends to tie up and deep conversations to have — that the pacing sometimes feels a bit jarring. Especially this moment. Adrian abruptly leaves his “guests,” Dr. Manhattan leaves to kill Rorschach, and Dan and Laurie spontaneously start making love. It’s an absolutely insane response to this moment, but I guess that’s sort of the point. How would people to a situation like this? Especially Laurie, who still hasn’t had time to reconcile with the revelation of her true father?

Rorschach may be an idiot, but he’s not stupid. (Wait, does that even mean anything?) He knows he’ll never be able to find his way back to the Owlship, get it working again, and fly it all the way back to New York. But he has to try because he can’t conceive of anything else to do. Yes, he’s made a bunch of compromises during his life, but he doesn’t count those because they were born of the cognitive dissonance in his own brain. It’s when someone else asks him to compromise that makes him dig in his heels and double down on his illusions. And finally, at the very end, he’ll pay for this obstinance with his life.

This is not the portrait of a courageous martyr fighting for his beliefs until the end. This is a terrified, defeated, sorry excuse for a man. He’s not daring Dr. Manhattan to show some backbone. He’s begging Jon to save him the indignity of freezing to death on the Antarctic plains. He’s pleading to be saved from himself.

Dr. Manhattan’s actions are rather perplexing at the end of this story. It’s almost like a new, more assertive Dr. Manhattan was born after Adrian “killed” him. Does he still see himself as a puppet bound to the predetermined future? Or does he now finally realize that he possesses the power to influence the world around him? After he reformed himself, he led the brief, yet crucial discussion on accepting Adrian’s plan. He then committed what can best be described as a mercy killing of Rorschach, before walking in on Laurie and Dan sleeping in each other’s arms. He grants a smile of approval before oddly choosing to walk across the water of Adrian’s swimming pool. Was this an unconscious act of one considering taking on the role of a god? Or was he “testing the waters” of divinity?

In one of my favorite parts of the story, Adrian allows himself to be vulnerable in private with Dr. Manhattan. He reveals the pressing doubt he surely felt during every step of his massive plan. Adrian begs the seer to tell him he did the right thing, but he only gets vague answers in reply. Dr. Manhattan is leaving this world to create a new one. Is that because this world is destined to become a utopia that won’t need his services anymore? Or is it now tainted beyond redemption? The doctor coyly will never say.

From what I understand, DC made a deal with Moore to give him back the rights to Watchmen as soon as they stopped publishing Watchmen stories. But DC quickly learned this is a cash cow that will never dry out. Every few years, they release a new collection of the core story in hard cover, paperback, oversized omnibus format, new coloring, no coloring at all, and on and on. Then there’s the adaptations, including the movie, the prequel comics, the sequel TV series, and many other little things in between. No, Watchmen will never end.

I’m a little surprised that this issue — overfilling with content it can’t fit — would devote three full pages to Sally. I guess Moore really wanted to get in that “you look like a waitress” line (which is a great line, by the way). But seriously, I do understand the need to have some closure to this relationship. Laurie’s forgiveness comes quickly and easily, which is hard to imagine happening without the apocalyptic event putting things in perspective. Maybe she would have eventually gotten there on her own, but I think it would have taken longer.

The story began with Eddie Blake dying on the street. It ends with his portrait being kissed by the woman he attempted to rape, then later fathered a child with. Sally’s relationship with Eddie is so complex and messy and confusing — a wonderful encapsulation of this entire story. Bad people don’t always do bad things. Good people don’t always do good things. We sometimes grow to love the people we hate. And even switch back and forth several times through our lives. Nothing is as neat and tidy as we’d like. And that’s part of the power of this story. It dared to feature a main cast of unlikable characters. It didn’t shy away from an unsatisfactory ending. Giving in to those conventional tropes would have robbed the readers the chance to ponder the unanswerable questions Moore asked.

I consider the last two pages an epilogue. It’s been some time since Adrian’s fake invasion — probably a year or more. New York is cleaned and repaired. There are new electric chargers on the streets and restaurants bizarrely selling American and Russian cuisine. But through all that upheaval, the radical New Frontiersman survived with the same old abusive editor and poor little Seymour who never thought to get a new job. But it’s a good thing he stuck around — he’s about to stumble upon the biggest story of the century.

What a glorious final panel. Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons and John Higgins have told their story. And now they leave it in our hands. For better and worse, “our” includes DC Comics, which has unceasingly sought to profit off this story. The slew of adaptations and reprintings isn’t necessarily a bad thing — even at their worst, terrible sequels can’t tarnish the image of a masterpiece.

Redrafting the Jazz: 2007

I have been cursed by a witch to repeatedly travel back through time to relive every NBA draft. Fortunately, her spell sends me directly to the Utah Jazz war room on draft night and all the executives magically know I’m from the future and will do whatever I say. Unfortunately, the curse prevents me from seeing how my advice altered the future, as I am sent back to the previous year as soon as draft night ends.

June 28, 2007 – Madison Square Garden, New York City

Previous season:

After going 51-31 in the 2006-07 season, the Jazz pulled off a dramatic 7-game victory over Houston in the first round, beat the outmatched Warriors 4-1 in the second round, before being crushed 4-1 by San Antonio. It remains the last time Utah reached the Western Conference Finals. Granted, the Jazz got incredibly lucky when Golden State upset the 67-win Mavericks in the first round. But it still was a good sign for such a young roster — only Matt Harpring and Derek Fisher had more than five years of experience. It seemed all Utah needed to do was add a solid sharpshooter and they’d be set. (Gordan Giricek was NOT getting it done.)

The draft:

With the 25th pick, Kevin O’Connor drafted a sharpshooter from Rice named Morris Almond.

With the 55th pick, the Jazz selected Providence forward Herbert Hill and immediately traded him to Philadelphia for the 38th pick, Ukrainian center Kyrylo Fesenko. Officially, the Jazz were also supposed to give the 76ers “future considerations” for this seemingly lopsided trade. However, I could find no record of what those considerations ended up being.

Previously, I had mentioned O’Connor’s unusually friendly relationship with Philadelphia, his former team. At the 2007 trade deadline, Philadelphia was in danger of going over the salary cap, so they traded Alan Henderson to Utah, along with some cash and the right to swap second-round picks in exchange for … absolutely nothing. Utah immediately waived Henderson, who promptly re-signed with Philadelphia. A few months later, the 76ers seemed to honor this trade by drafting Fesenko for Utah. But O’Connor oddly insisted that the Fesenko trade had nothing to do with the Henderson trade. Yet he refused to explain what else the 76ers wanted in exchange for swapping the 38th pick with the 55th.

My guess is that the Henderson trade was O’Connor doing a favor for his old friends. And then he sheepishly forgot to exercise the pick swap before the draft. His Philadelphia buddies were happy to grant the late swap, but it technically had to recorded as a new, separate trade. And then O’Connor was too embarrassed to admit his mistake later. This is entirely my speculation on the scenario, and it ultimately doesn’t matter.

Analysis:

Morris Almond’s career (or lack of one) remains a perplexing mystery for me. On paper, he was everything the Jazz wanted. He put up big numbers in college and was dominant in the NBA’s Development League. But for some reason, he just could not get any action in real NBA games. And this wasn’t just a case of Jerry Sloan refusing to play his rookies. After two seasons and just 34 games in Utah, Almond spent three years in basketball purgatory (D-League and Europe) before appearing in four games with Washington. And then he retired. I don’t think he had a serious injury. He just … wasn’t that good.

Luckily, I have a solid pick at shooting guard, who was drafted just two spots below Almond. UCLA’s Arron Afflalo enjoyed a productive 11-year career, shooting 38% from 3-point range. I think he would have made a bigger impact on Utah’s roster than Almond.

Herbert Hill never played in the NBA, so the Jazz truly got Fesenko for free. Unfortunately, he never made much of an impact. Perhaps partly due to his enormous size, the Jazz really seemed invested in him and allowed him to stick around for four years — he even got to start nine playoff games in 2010. But his play never rose above the level of frustrating mediocrity. He joined the Pacers after his stint with the Jazz, but only lasted three games with them before exiting the league for good.

Fortunately, at the 38th pick, I have a much, much, much better center available: Spain’s Marc Gasol. A three-time All-Star, member of an All-NBA First Team and Second Team, and a Defensive Player of the Year — I’d be insane to pass on him.

My advice:

1. Use the 25th pick on Arron Aflalo.

2. Tell Philadelphia to use the 38th pick on Marc Gasol and trade him for the 55th pick (Herbert Hill).

Of course, my plan depends entirely on the assumption that Philadelphia asked Utah who they wanted right before they made the 38th pick. If that wasn’t the case (and I’d have to confirm this before the drafting started), then I’d have to use the 25th pick on Gasol. He’s too good to risk losing over a gentleman’s agreement.

Watchmen #11: Do the ends justify the means?

Yes, it’s true I’m gettin a bit annoyed with Dave Gibbons inserting that blood splat/10 minutes to midnight image everywhere. But I absolutely love this cover. Such a minimal, yet colorfully haunting and perplexing sight for the penultimate issue.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Adrian Veidt would have absolutely loved social media.

It is kind of cute that Adrian thinks he’s the first person in the world to think of a moral and intellectual dilemma like this. Didn’t America drop a couple of nuclear bombs on Japan in this reality?

Believing that Veidt is trying to cause World War III, Rorschach calls this the “heart of darkness.” But what would you call it when someone’s trying to prevent World War III? I guess it all depends on if you believe the ends justify the means — a philosophy that Rorschach often supports, according to the contradictory logic only he understands.

Alan Moore, like Adrian, worked really hard to conceal everything until after the “bomb” was dropped. Then it became a frenzied rush to explain every little detail all at once. But before that fateful moment was a vast, palpable silence of tension, articulated by this enormous painting of one of Adrian’s favorite stories. According to legend, the Gordian knot was an incredibly complex tangle of rope binding an ox cart to a post, with the belief that whoever untied the knot would rule all Asia. Alexander merely cut the rope with his sword. Some might say he employed an unethical tactic in solving the challenge. But Adrian praised him as a genius ahead of his time, who was able to think outside the box. I suppose it comes down to what you believe the priority was — untangling the knot or freeing the ox cart. With Alexander’s solution, the cart was freed quicker, but the rope was damaged beyond repair. With Adrian’s solution, peace may have been brought to the world, but in what condition did he leave the people?

And here it is. The moment where everything changed. Gibbons did place this panel in the middle of the page, highlighting its significance, but other than that, it’s so quiet and subdued, it’s easy to overlook.

The mariner in the pirate comic is able to understand the horrors he’s caused at the end of his story. But this Watchmen story ends before Adrian can have a similar moment.

Apparently this was the only issue where Gibbons really pushed back on Moore. Adrian’s monologue was originally even longer and Gibbons couldn’t fit it all in. But this overly verbose, self-aggrandizing speechifying is an essential element to his character. Without it, many readers (myself included) might end up liking him. But Adrian’s enormous ego makes him a thoroughly unlikable character, even to those who might agree with his tactics.

The mariner realized that he had caused the very thing he was trying to prevent. But he can’t quite understand how that happened. My simplistic explanation: He took the principle of allowing the ends to justify the means to the extreme.

Unlike Alexander, Adrian merely sought to unite the world, not rule it. But he eventually grew disillusioned with his hero once he realized how quickly Alexander’s kingdom crumbled. Paradoxically, he swiftly became enamored with the Egyptian pharaohs, deeming them “immortal.” Didn’t he realize that the pyramids only survived by the luck of their geographical location? How much of that hallucinogen damaged Adrian’s mind? Or is he actually insane like Rorschach believes? Of course, the best answer to that question is Dan’s response: With an intelligence like Adrian’s, it may be impossible to determine insanity.

 

Adrian’s servants were unfailingly loyal, and there was no apparent reason for him to kill them. He tries to justify this by mentioning the pharaohs who had their servants buried with him, but if he truly subscribed to that philosophy, then he would committed suicide at this moment. But Adrian wants to live and profit off his new world. I believe he was paranoid that one of his servants would eventually feel guilty and try to prevent Adrian from growing his fortune to even more obscene levels.

The interesting with this greenhouse was that Adrian designed it with a retractable roof. But down in Antarctica, there never would have been a good time to open it. Adrian always intended to destroy that greenhouse and bury his servants there. It’s a pity that none of them realized this when they helped him build it.

One final epiphany for the mariner: Davidstown was never in danger. But Adrian never realized that even with Dr. Manhattan taken out of the picture, the Soviet Union was never going to attack America. Richard Nixon would have eventually taken the “football” off his wrist, returned to the White House, and resumed business as usual. And I think that even in this alternate reality, the USSR would have eventually collapsed on its own.

It is great to see Nite Owl and Rorschach utterly intimidated by Ozymandias. We’ve seen the two of them pull off some pretty impressive stunts during this story, most recently Dan’s remarkable flight from New York to Antarctica in a tiny owl ship he built himself. Dan and Rorschach have also had their fair share of encounters with Dr. Manhattan, but Adrian unnerves them on a whole different level. It’s the culmination of this massive, technologically advanced base, combined with the sinister plot they’ve only begun to scratch the surface of, on top of what they already know about his physical and mental prowess. They’re in way over their heads here, and they both know it.

True, Rorschach is likely suffering from frostbite and pneumonia at this point, but it still is a rather embarrassing performance for him.

I still love how fluid Adrian’s fighting style is. Not a single wasted movement, everything flowing together in one seamless motion to take out the threat as quickly and efficiently as possible. All the other characters in this story are good fighters, but none of them are nowhere near this level of perfection.

This helps confirm my belief that Eddie Blake’s murder was partially motivated by revenge. I do believe that Adrian used his first fight against the Comedian to study his moves, but it still seems like he was really upset he lost. And although he can now credit the Comedian with opening his eyes, that process had to have hurt. Adrian genuinely wanted to unite the world with a team of superheroes. But instead his dream was crushed in a rather brutal, insulting way.

It’s kind of poetic (if improbable) how Moore brings all the minor characters together at Ground Zero. Refreshingly, some of these characters actually grew over the course of the story. Dr. Malcolm Long’s career and marriage are both in shambles. And just when it seemed like he had given up on humanity, he chooses to try to help some strangers in a fight on the street, unaware that this will be his final act.

This is where Adrian talks and talks and talks. Not everything he says is essential, yet it does help keep him unlikable. And I did like this bitter realization that Richard Nixon — of all people — has his name permanently engraved on the moon.

Bernard the newsman also has another bit of growth. Even though he previously gave his hat to his constant companion, he didn’t even know the boy’s name until now. After ranting about people not connecting with each other anymore, he abruptly — and sweetly — decides to follow his own advice.

This confirms my suspicion that Eddie Blake’s murder was a little bit personal. As much as Adrian tries to play it cool, he can’t help but relish the thought of Eddie’s world collapsing.

Adrian half-heartedly tries to justify killing Blake, but he really didn’t need to. Adrian knew Blake wouldn’t tell anyone what he learned, and even if he did tell someone, they wouldn’t be able to stop him. Neutralizing Dr. Manhattan makes absolute sense, but worrying about Rorschach’s delusions doesn’t. Adrian may be the smartest man on Earth, but that doesn’t put him above paranoia and petty grievances.

One of the most chilling lines in all comic book history. Perfection.

Bernard and Bernie are the first to be vaporized. Bernie read the Black Freighter comics over and over, not realizing that its author unwittingly contributed to this mass tragedy. Bernard read the headlines every day and constantly fretted over the end of the world, never dreaming that he’d literally be at the center of it.

Our supplemental material — the last of this series — is an interview with Adrian, conducted by Doug Roth, who played a role in helping send Dr. Manhattan to Mars.

From Roth’s point of view, Adrian hiring a handful of Vietnamese refugees is a noble act. But we have the hindsight of knowing Adrian always planned on killing them from the beginning. He wasn’t looking to help political exiles — he was looking for expendable cogs that wouldn’t be missed.

I don’t think even Alan Moore was bold enough to write a superhero who truly went after the root causes of crime and poverty. These are stories being published for profit by a large corporation. Understandably, they get a little queasy about anybody really challenging the status quo. So transformative ideologies like this have to be confined to the villains — even in works like Watchmen.

I had to look up the word Manichean. It basically means black-and-white, which perfectly describes Rorschach’s limited viewpoint. Yes, this is coming from the “villain” of the story, but it is Moore once again reminding readers not to root for Rorschach.