Ozymandias (comics)
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- For the Marvel Comics character Ozymandias, see Ozymandias (Marvel Comics).
Ozymandias is a fictional superhero who is a central character in the classic comic book series, Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons and published by DC Comics. Named Ozymandias in the manner of Ramses II, he is a modified version of the character Thunderbolt from Charlton Comics.
Plot
The son of rich immigrant parents, Adrian Veidt was found to be super intelligent at a young age. He inherited his parents' substantial fortune at age seventeen, but chose to give it all to charity. Veidt then embarked on a vision quest, following the route of Alexander the Great - a childhood idol - throughout the Mediterrarrean, Asia Minor, and ancient Persia. It is during this journey that he consumes a ball of hashish and decides to become a superhero. Returning to America, he names himself Ozymandias and becomes a costumed vigilante, focusing particularly on organized crime and earning a reputation as "the smartest man on the planet." However, an abortive attempt to organize a new superhero team is disrupted by the Comedian noting that they cannot prevent the seemingly-imminent destruction of the world by nuclear war. This inspires Veidt to do just that.
In 1975, for his first move, two years before vigilante crimefighters (superheroes) are banned by the "Keene Act," he retires from superherodom, marketing his image for money. This helps bankroll his scheme of creating a catastrophic event to deceive the world that there is a horrific alien common enemy to unite against. To that end, he employed geneticists to clone the stolen brain of a murdered psychic and use it to create such a creature with a group of artists and creative personnel to help create the illusion. Upon completion, he arranged the murder of all his accomplices to maintain the illusion.
To prevent Doctor Manhattan from interfering, he hired old associates of the superhero and secretly exposed them to radiation to induce terminal cancers in them to allege that Manhattan is inadvertently responsible. By chance in 1985, The Comedian spotted the island where the creative staff was working and, heavily distraught, likely planned to alert his superiors. Veidt personally murdered the Comedian, which unfortunately caught the attention of Rorschach who investigated the crime on the mistaken conspiracy theory to murder superheroes. Although Veidt arranged an assassination attempt on himself to throw off suspicion, he decided to frame the wanted investigator on a murder charge to get him out of the way. In addition, Veidt started the accusations against Manhattan which drove him from the planet and set off a chain of events that threaten to start a global war.
Unknown to him though, Nite-Owl and Silk Spectre grew to believe that Rorscharch's investigation had merit and sprung him from prison to investigate the matter. In addition, Manhattan took Silk Spectre to Mars where she convinced him to return to Earth.
However, the superheroes were unable to stop the fulfillment of Veidt's scheme which led to the deaths of three million in New York City and the world governments falling for the ruse to agree to a union to oppose this new menace.
Analysis
Veidt is an idealistic ubermensch, and this image is reinforced by his wealthy German immigrant background and "Aryan" physique. His perfection of the human form is such that, during the climactic events at his Antarctic base, he was able to stop a bullet fired at him with his bare hands (how he was able to do this was never explained).
Veidt is also, at least by Rorschach, considered to be a liberal and possible homosexual. However, given the fact that these accusations are from Rorschach, it's highly likely these statements are false.
He also seems to embody the concept of moral relativism in the series, specifically that the ends justifies the means. His goal to stop a potentially apocalyptic nuclear war led him to murder the Comedian, dozens of unwitting accomplices on his private island studio, his own hired assassin, his three top henchmen and his pet, a genetically-modified lynx named Bubastis, to say nothing about the death of millions and induced insanity of many others in New York City. He also tried to kill Dr. Manhattan by removing the doctor's "intrinsic field" (although even Veidt was unsure exactly what that would do to him), as well as giving cancer to Dr. Manhattan's close associates. It seems he was prepared to kill anyone who could possibly discredit his efforts to trick the world into thinking an alien invasion was immenent.