Silk Spectre II

Laurie Jupiter, the second Silk Spectre, is the daughter of Sally Jupiter, the first Silk Spectre. Laurie's mother apparently wanted her to follow in her footsteps and so she fought crime for ten years before the Keene Act banned vigilantes. Unlike the other protagonists, Silk Spectre was not based on a particular Charlton character, although her relationship with Dr. Manhattan is similar to that between Captain Atom and the heroine Nightshade. Moore felt he needed a female hero in the cast and drew inspiration from comic book heroines such as Black Canary and Phantom Lady.[2]

Laurie is kept on retainer by the government because of her relationship with Doctor Manhattan and lives on a government base at the beginning of the comic. When Doctor Manhattan leaves Earth, the government has her removed from the base and suspends her expense account, forcing her to move in with Dan, with whom she starts a romantic relationship. At the end of the eighth issue, Doctor Manhattan appears and takes her to Mars because he knows she wants to convince him to save the world. On Mars, she realizes that The Comedian was her biological father. After the final encounter with Veidt at the end of the series, she assumes the identity of Sandra Hollis and continues her relationship with Dan.

In the Watchmen film she is played by Malin Akerman. In a 2003 draft script by David Hayter, which was reviewed by IGN, Laurie has the family name Jupiter and the alter ego name "Slingshot"

Watchmen

The story takes place in an alternate timeline in which masked, costumed vigilantes fight crime in America, originally in response to a rise in masked and costumed gangs and criminals. In the 1930s and '40s, the vigilantes formed a group called the Minutemen to "finish what the law couldn't." Of the eight Minutemen, three died violently, one disappeared, and one was committed to an asylum. Decades later, a second generation of "superheroes" attempts to form a similar team called the Watchmen. Various historical events are shown to have been altered by the existence of superheroes, such as the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the Vietnam War. The American victory in Vietnam, due to the intervention of the godlike being Doctor Manhattan, leads to Richard Nixon's third term as President following the repeal of term limits in the United States. By the 1980s, however, the Watchmen have been outlawed by Congress after an outpouring of anti-vigilante sentiment in the country, and tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union have escalated the Cold War with threats of nuclear attack.

By 1985, only three Watchmen remain active: the Comedian and Doctor Manhattan, both of whom act with government sanction, and the masked vigilante Rorschach, who refuses to retire and remains active illegally. Investigating the murder of government agent Edward Blake, Rorschach discovers that Blake was the Comedian, and concludes that someone may be trying to eliminate the Watchmen. He attempts to warn his retired comrades—his former partner Daniel Dreiberg (Nite Owl), the emotionally detached Dr. Jonathan Osterman (Doctor Manhattan), and Dr. Manhattan's lover Laurie Jupiter (the Silk Spectre). Dreiberg is skeptical, but nonetheless relates the hypothesis to billionaire Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias), who dismisses it.

After Blake's funeral, Dr. Manhattan is accused of causing the cancers afflicting his former girlfriend and others who spent time with him after the scientific accident that gave him superpowers. Dr. Manhattan exiles himself to Mars, giving the Soviet Union the confidence to invade Afghanistan in his absence. Later, Rorschach's conspiracy theory appears to be justified when Veidt, who had long since made his identity as Ozymandias public before retiring, narrowly avoids an assassination attempt, and Rorschach finds himself framed for murder.

Meanwhile Jupiter, after breaking up with Manhattan, goes to stay with Dreiberg, and the two former superheroes come out of retirement as they grow closer. After they break Rorschach out of prison, Silk Spectre is confronted by Dr. Manhattan. He takes her to Mars and, after she asks him to save the world, explains he is no longer interested in humanity. As he probes her memories, it is discovered that the Comedian was her father. His interest in humanity renewed by this improbable sequence of events, Manhattan returns to Earth with the Silk Spectre.

Investigating the conspiracy, Rorschach and Nite Owl discover that Veidt is behind everything. Rorschach records his suspicions in his journal, which he drops off at a newspaper office. Rorschach and Nite Owl confront Veidt, dressed once more in his Ozymandias costume, at his Antarctic retreat. Ozymandias confirms he is the mastermind behind the Comedian's murder, Manhattan's exile, and the framing of Rorschach; he also staged his own assassination attempt to place himself above suspicion. He explains that his plan is to unify the United States and the Soviet Union and to prevent nuclear war by destroying the world's main cities with exploding energy reactors he helped Doctor Manhattan create under the pretense of providing free energy for the world. Rorschach and Nite Owl attempt to stop him, but Ozymandias easily beats them. Ozymandias then reveals that his plan has already been set into motion: the reactors have been detonated, and the energy signatures are recognized as Manhattan's.

The Silk Spectre and Doctor Manhattan arrive at the ruins of New York City and determine that it must be Veidt's work. They teleport to the Antarctic retreat to confront him, but Ozymandias turns on a news report in which President Nixon states that the US and Soviets have allied against their "common enemy," Manhattan. The heroes are completely helpless to stop it and realize that revealing the conspiracy would only disrupt this peace. Only Rorschach is unwilling to remain silent and, at his own urging, is vaporized by a reluctant Manhattan. Manhattan shares a final kiss with Jupiter and departs for another galaxy.

With the end of the Cold War and the uniting of humanity, Jupiter and Dreiberg return to New York City as it's being rebuilt to begin a new life together. The film closes with a newspaper editor in New York complaining of having nothing worthwhile to print because of the worldwide peace. He tells a young employee that he may print whatever he likes from a collection of crank mailings, among which lies Rorschach's journal.

Super Capers

The story begins with a woman (Christine Lakin) in a red outfit being followed through a dark alleyway by a mysterious man who clearly has criminal intent. As she corners herself in a dead end, Ed Gruberman (Justin Whalin) arrives to save the day. The woman, calling herself simply "Red" reveals to both of the men that she has super powers, disabling the robber whom Ed strikes with a 2x4, sending him through the window of the law offices of Dewey, Cheatam and Howe. Red kisses Gruberman passionately before disappearing into the night, and he is left standing as the police come to arrest him.

In court, Gruberman is standing trial for viciously attacking an "innocent bystander" the mugger being defended by Roger Cheatem (Tom Sizemore) is flattened by the judge (Michael Rooker) who takes sympathy to Gruberman's story of how his parents were tragically killed after an accident at their circus wound up with them being killed by a short bus. In particular his fascination and respect for the television superhero the Dark Winged Vesper, with whom Ed shares his orphaning (and lack of powers unbeknownst to the court). Ed is fined $1 for the payment to the law firm's window and sentenced to a halfway house to super heroes whose powers still have not yet been developed. Ed is taken there by a cab driver (Adam West) who proclaims he was too a superhero once, named the Manbat. When he arrives, he meets Sarge (Tommy Lister) who is the Capers' human liason and other superheroes; Puffer Boy (Ray Griggs) who, when he gets frightened puffs up like a puffer fish, Herman Brainard (Sam Lloyd) who has the power to move objects with his over-sized mind, Will Powers (Ryan McPartlin) the vain and most super powered member of the group, and Felicia Freeze (Danielle Harris) an ice powered girl with whom Ed develops an immediate attraction to. Along with the unimaginative "Q" also known as Herbert who has a robot similar to a tiny version of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator whose primary invention was an RV fashioned after the DeLorean DMC-12 time machine from the Back to the Future films, complete with a flux capacitor, which they cannot tell actually work because the RV cannot get up to 88 miles per hour.

The group is called out on a mission to stop Captain Sludge (Jon Polito) a diminutive super villain with powers of super speed and his minotaur minion, and in a show of panic, Gruberman proclaims he has the power of "Prayer" and supposedly forces a lamppost to fall onto the minotaur, allowing the heroes to be victorious and earning Felicia's eye. However, Gruberman's world begins to fall apart, when he and Brainard attempt to follow the suspicious judge incognito, and Ed is set up for stealing millions in Gold Bullion and sending them to a Swiss Bank account, which the number was found conveniently in his pocket. He is sent to visit the Judge, who reveals himself to both be Gruberman's father AND the Dark Winged Vesper, and that the stunt that killed his parents was orchestrated by him, (but not intended to be fatal). Red, his accomplice makes an appearance and the pair attempt to lure Gruberman to the dark side (a'la Star Wars). Gruberman manages to escape, and in an ensuing chase, he drives the RV off the Mount Rushmore national monument, and when telling God that he will soon be with him, the vehicle inexplicably reaches 88 miles per hour, sending him back to the date of his first mission 1 week prior (as Will Powers had put the date into the time circuits to mark the event). He travels to the bridge, and learns that should he encounter his past self, one of them would spontaneously combust. He manages to meet the Super Capers, and in the process of revealing the Judge's plans encounters his younger self. After giving away the events to follow in the week ahead, the Judge is arrested and Sludge and his minotaur surrender while Red is defeated and Freeze admits her attraction to Gruberman. The confusion of two Grubermans is resolved, however when the past version combusts, leaving only the one from the future and the day appears to be saved.

Cat Claw

The publisher Dečje Novine and editor Sibin Slavković, called for comic strips that would resemble American superheroes for their magazine YU Strip. Of the creators solicited, only Branislav Kerac and Svetozar Obradović responded. Their suggestions included Gea, a Red Sonja-type character, Cyborg, a Terminator-type character (even though that character did not appear until 1984), and Cat Claw, a female version of Spider-Man. Kerac pencilled several pages and they were shopped around the Belgrade inkers, but none accepted the position. Kerac ended up performing both duties. He was busy with his Kobra comic book, so one of the characters had to be dropped. Bane chose to retain Cat Claw, which allowed him to emulate the work of one of his idols, John Romita.

The first episode, "Bane Claws," written by Svetozar Obradovic, was very much in the Marvel Comics style. It even included a cameo appearance of Peter Parker (on a bench in the park). Carol Connor, an introverted university biology student, was scratched by a cat which had been used in an experiment. Later that same evening, when she attempted to shut down an experiment in Dr. Baker's lab she was exposed to "Sigma radiation." As a result, Carol found she had developed a cat's agility and claw-like fingernails. She was also superhumanly strong and could see in the dark almost as well as during the day.

At first, Carol just used her powers for her own amusement. However, when she heard her roommate Jenny Jones being attacked outside their apartment building, she (literally) jumped to her defense and drove the attackers off. Carol enjoyed the experience and decided to create a costumed identity. Partly to draw attention away from her face, and partly because Carol would never wear anything so daring in her own identity, the costume was very revealing. Carol "borrowed" some special fabric, woven from metal, to create her mask, gloves, and boots from the Gray's Institute. There was insufficient fabric to create a complete costume, so Carol used a black bikini Jenny had given her (but she had never dared to wear) and fishnet pantyhose. (The ordinary fabric of the bikini and hose got torn up and had to be replaced after every fight. Later, Carol adopted a black leotard and black leather jacket to replace the bikini.) Kerac stated in a 1991 interview: "I tried to imagine what the wet dream of every male pig would look like, and Cat Claw was the answer."

Cat Claw went on to battle ordinary criminals and her own Rogues Gallery: Xtremity (aka Renate Roseblood), Berthold Schwartenberger (aka Catminator and, later, Grgur the monster), Dr. Sigismund Morse (Grgur's creator), Dr. Bruce Baker (who also turns into a monster), Ninja Deathbringer, and the Helloweeners.

In the late 1980s, Malibu Comics's imprint Eternity Comics republished 9 issues of Cat Claw's adventures. Cat Claw was also translated and published in France, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Turkey and some other countries.

In 2006 Cat Claw was published in hardcover albums as "Cat Claw Ultimate Collection".

Atomic Betty

Betty is a little girl with a big secret. To her friends and family, she's the sweet and brainy girl next door, but when the galaxy beckons, she sheds her humdrum persona and becomes Atomic Betty, Galactic Guardian and Defender of the Cosmos!

But Betty is not alone in defending the galaxy. With her are her faithful crew members, Sparky, the hyper-enthusiastic, hyper-hungry and just plain hyper co-pilot of the Galactic Starcruiser, and Robot X-5, a mobile encyclopedia of the universe. There isn’t a planet X-5 doesn’t know or an alien species whose customs he can’t mimic. While Sparky and X-5 are often at odds and squabbling with one another, when push comes to shove, they’re just as protective of each other as they are of Betty. Isn’t that what good friends are for?

Enemy Number One on Betty’s list is the ultimate super-villain, the Supreme Overlord, Maximus I.Q. Maximus would love nothing better than to visit Atomic Betty’s home world and destroy her once and for all! But for some infuriating reason Atomic Betty has been able to keep her secret base, well, a secret, even from him. One day she’ll slip, and when she does, he’ll destroy Atomic Betty and everything she stands for... BWAHAHA!, he’ll exult when that day comes.

Always at Maximus’ side is his long-suffering assistant, Minimus P.U. (Portable-Underling). Minimus has a prominent “swivel-head,,” essentially one head with two distinct faces that move back and forth, allowing Minimus to be both a sycophant and a grumbler at the same time; giving new meaning to the phrase “two-faced.”

But back on Earth, nobody suspects a thing — and that's just the way Betty likes it. If her mom and dad knew she was out zooming through the cosmos without a license, she'd be grounded for sure!

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