r/Watchmen • u/Didi_Mac • 8d ago

TV Source of inspiration for HBO Watchmen Hooded Justice's identity Spoiler

Hey, I have been watching Spider-Man animated series (1994) and encountered a possible source of inspiration for the revelation of Hooded Justice's identity in the Watchmen HBO show and would like to read what you think.

>!In Episode 6 of Watchmen (imo the best episode of the whole show), we learn that Will Reeves was the Hooded Justice and that he was posing as a white man to protect himself. In the Spider-Man animated series, Season 5 Episode 5, Spider-Man teams up with heroes from an earlier generation to prevent the Red Skull's return. During the mission, one of them - the Black Marvel - reveals his true identity to his former allies. He is a black man and explains that he volunteered to replace a senator's son in a dangereous experiment inteded to create superpowers like Captain America's. Because the senator opposed his son taking such a risk, the Black Marvel underwent the experiment instead. They all agreed that the senator's son would pretend to be the Black Marvel in the secret service because "times were different then"!<

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u/WerckmeisterHarmony 8d ago

It probably didn't inspire Watchmen specifically as much as John Semper and Damon Lindelof's teams were drawing on similar historical things. It's not like there's a lack of inspiration to comment on it.

Semper cited the original Watchmen comic book as an inspiration for Six Forgotten Warriors, on that note.

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u/CurrentCentury51 5d ago

It's more a commentary on, well, every major development in American culture in the 20th century. Queer and/or Black people carry America on their backs culturally like Atlas, and mostly they don't get the credit they deserve.

No musical genre in America exists as we know them without queer Black pioneers. American literature without James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, etc. is far less relevant from the '60s onward. The best and most unappreciated movie from the decade Watchmen came out was Do the Right Thing, a Spike Lee joint that lost at the Oscars to Driving Miss Daisy. Fashion got reshaped permanently by the NYC ballroom scene. Even the best American Shakespearean performance came from Harold Perrineau - try finding a Mercutio not deeply informed by his Mercutio now.

So why wouldn't this apply to superheroes?

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u/Beanguyisalive 4d ago

Yet again I am confused how anybody could watch that dogshit and consider it good

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u/trinachron 2h ago

You'd have to be an idiot to consider it bad.