Chapters 7-9 of Watchmen was a great blend of chapters that focused on character development, and keeping the plot moving seamlessly. I’d like to focus on the end of Chapter Nine, where Mr. Mason, the previous Owl Man, is killed. This scene was not in the film, and I have had little quality time to digest the reasoning behind removing this from the film.

First let me discuss the importance of this scene. Though it only last through pages 27-28 it really captures one of the important themes of the story: The good old days and how they relate to today. As Mr. Mason is attacked by the angry thugs who are enraged that the masked vigilantes have sprung Rorschach from his cell, there are several flashbacks to Mr. Mason’s earlier days. These were days where he could take on an angry mob and dispatch them with a smile. However as we read here, it doesn’t turn out so well now that he’s older. It really captures the ideas of past and future and the people caught in between. The scene doesn’t just relate to the previous Owl Man but to the ‘current one’, and the rest of the heroes who are all still trying to recovery a sliver of their glory days.

This scene could have easily been put into the movie (and whose to say it wasn’t when the DVD comes out with deleted scenes). But in the final cut, I think it could’ve worked really well to give us more of an emotional connection to Daniel, as well as to show us that the director is not playing around and that these characters deaths are right around the corner and we won’t be aiming for an everybody goes home happy ending. Watchmen the movie can only be as good as the source material, and even skipping  1-2 pages in the comic can have dire results for the movie.