The Before Watchmen project really started to unravel as it reached the end. The Rorschach, Comedian, and Dr. Manhattan series started missing their deadlines. The Crimson Corsair backup was abruptly canceled, as well as the planned Epilogue issue. This meant that DC not only needed something quick to hit the stands while waiting for the other issues to come out, but they also needed something to help even out the collected trades that would be released once this whole thing had ended. The solution DC came up for both these problems was to rush out a random one-shot. Why they chose Dollar Bill will forever remain a perplexing mystery.
Our main cover is by Steve Rude, pulling off a very convincing Alex Ross impersonation. In hindsight, it is kind of surprising that Ross wasn’t involved in Before Watchmen. Anyway, I really enjoy this cover. It has a lot of energy and color, perfectly capturing the over-the-top Golden Age optimism of superheroes, fueled with an unhealthy dose of corporate greed.
Darwyn Cooke did this variant cover, which is perfectly adequate. Kind of an obvious metaphor, but at least it was done competently.
To my surprise, Jim Lee decided to “grace” this one-shot with another variant cover of his own, making a complete round of all the Before Watchmen miniseries. This one is quite ridiculous (as most of them are). Dollar Bill’s arms are too big and his head is too small. And all the extra space above his head makes him look real short. He actually reminds me of that weird anti-drug Robin knockoff from the ‘80s. Look, I’m not saying I dislike Jim Lee. I’m just saying there’s a time and a place for his style. And Watchmen isn’t it.
I think one reason why DC chose Dollar Bill for this extra one-shot was because he had the simplest, most straightforward story for Len Wein to rapidly crank out with little thought or effort. Making Wein’s job even easier was how Cooke had already told us all anyone would ever want to know about Dollar Bill in the Minutemen series. So let’s take a quick look at what Wein decided to add.
William Brady was a legendary high school athlete, who received a scholarship to play baseball and football at Dartmouth. But a nasty knee injury in 1938 killed his dreams of having a professional career. Instead of going into coaching or broadcasting like any sensible former athlete would, William decided he wanted to be an actor. He tried to get on Broadway, but bombed his audition. However, a job listing in the classifieds caught his eye.
National Bank — led by four identical annoying businessmen, who were a cross between Woody Allen and the Three Stooges — decided to hire its own superhero. William was initially concerned that the costume would make him look gay, and he was worried about the safety hazards that cape would pose right from the beginning. But he was desperate enough to take the job. The National Bank PR team soon had Dollar Bill starring in promotional films and turned him into a real-life celebrity. The Bank then convinced William to try out for the Minutemen, believing it would add more legitimacy to this publicity stunt.
The Minutemen realized that Dollar Bill was more of a movie star than a superhero, but they decided to admit him anyway, believing his celebrity would help improve the team’s reputation. William soon found himself in the middle of the firework factory raid that Cooke created for his Minutemen series. Just like Nite Owl, Dollar Bill was initially impressed by the might of this coordinated team, but quickly dismayed to learn the whole thing had essentially been a hoax set up by Captain Metropolis. However, William joined Hollis Mason in keeping his mouth quiet as the Minutemen’s popularity began to soar.
Dollar Bill and the Minutemen did actually engage in a few real missions, however, including foiling a robbery at Dollar Bill’s own National Bank. Slowly but surely, William realized he was actually becoming the hero he had been pretending to be. But that wasn’t enough for William. He flew out to Hollywood, only to find out that all the studios could only see him as Dollar Bill and refused to cast him in anything. (Apparently he didn’t have a secret identity?)
So William kept working for National Bank and earned enough money to buy an upscale apartment. When Silhouette was killed, William was almost sad, but mostly comforted by the thought of God punishing her for her “deviant lifestyle.” Then came the day that William died. His bank was attacked once again by a group of armed robbers, who apparently didn’t believe that Dollar Bill was a real person, even though everybody in Hollywood and everywhere else knew full well about him. Anyway, Dollar Bill got off to a good start preventing this robbery until he became oddly distracted by one of the robbers, who looked a lot like the TCU player who had injured William during his football career.
We never find out if that man was actually the same player. The story keeps moving at its brisk pace, showing Dollar Bill’s cape getting caught in the revolving door and the other gunmen shooting him down. The Minutemen attended William’s funeral in full costume, giving the highest honor they could to their slain colleague. After the services, Mothman bemoaned the pointlessness of everything, saying in six months that nobody will even remember Dollar Bill. But Captain Metropolis laughed him off, pointing to a group of kids playing “Dollar Bill” in the streets.
Coming right after Ozymandias #5, I can’t help but wonder if Wein was intentionally mocking DC and this whole Before Watchmen enterprise. This was a story about a cash grab told inside a very large cash grab that had worn out its welcome by this point. And to put the spotlight on this incredibly obscure, joke of a character was downright ludicrous. Dollar Bill mostly lives in the supplemental material of Alan Moore’s Watchmen (which most people skip). Cooke wisely portrayed Dollar Bill as an unlikable character by making him homophobic. Wein followed suit perfectly — so much so that I can’t help but wonder if he wasn’t openly mocking DC with that ending. There never has, and never will be a group of children playing “Dollar Bill” in the streets. Mothman was right. Dollar Bill was instantly forgotten.
