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Before Watchmen: Minutemen (2012) #4

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"War Stories": Having received a chilly response to his memoirs from two of his former colleagues, Hollis Mason travels to Maine to reunite with Byron Lewis, formerly the Mothman and now a mental patient, hoping that Byron will understand his intentions. But Byron is catatonic, and does not even

Quote1 People have an amazing ability to cope with the madness of life. Quote2
— Hollis Mason

Before Watchmen: Minutemen #4 is an issue of the series Before Watchmen: Minutemen (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 2012. It was published on October 17, 2012.

Synopsis for "War Stories"

Having received a chilly response to his memoirs from two of his former colleagues, Hollis Mason travels to Maine to reunite with Byron Lewis, formerly the Mothman and now a mental patient, hoping that Byron will understand his intentions. But Byron is catatonic, and does not even acknowledge Mason's presence.

Resolving to sit with his old friend for a while, Mason's mind travels back to 1946, to the day he and Byron learned of Silhouette's murder. She had been cast out of the Minutemen six weeks earlier, after her relationship with her doctor was exposed in the press, but she, Nite-Owl, and Mothman had resolved to continue working together, operating out of a sub-basement workshop, and had been closing in on the "Friend of the Children" murderer. But a pervert calling himself the Liquidator killed Ursula and Gretchen.

When word of Silhouette's murder reached the Minutemen, they scrambled to track down the Liquidator. Captain Metropolis and Hooded Justice's investigation focused on gay circles while Nite Owl and Dollar Bill searched other neighbourhoods. Eventually, a disgusted Silk Spectre tracked down the Liquidator herself and brutally killed him. When Metropolis and Justice confront her, she quits the team, leaving them to clean up the mess.

As Sally Jupiter pays her respects to Silhouette, she is reunited with Eddie Blake, who has parlayed his Comedian persona into war-hero status. He tells her about his experiences in the war. At one point, he was badly injured, but was nursed back to health by a local woman and her son. However, when he managed to return to his superior officer and inform him of what happened, the captain ordered an artillery strike that killed the mother and son.

Elsewhere, Nite-Owl breaks into Gretchen's house to collect her and Ursula's work from their investigation into the "Friend of the Children". He finds a tape recorder and several spools, as well as Gretchen's copy of A Child's Garden of Verses, then returns to Byron's hideout. Unbeknownst to him, Hooded Justice has been watching him.

Back at their hideout, Nite-Owl and Mothman listen to one of the tapes, labelled "Ursula". The tape reveals that Gretchen first met Ursula and her sister Blanche at an orphanage in Linz, where Gretchen had been working as a chemist. Gretchen and Ursula fell in love, and planned to escape with Blanche to the United States, but the Nazis took Blanche away. Enraged, Ursula mounted a failed attempt to rescue her sister, only to find her dead.

Elsewhere, after a nightmare about being lost at a circus, Hooded Justice wakes up screaming...

Appearing in "War Stories"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • The Axis (Flashback only)
  • Liquidator (First appearance) (Dies in flashback)
  • Minutemen's villains (Flashback only)
    • Iron Lid (Cameo)

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

  • "A Child's Garden Verses" (Flashback and main story)
  • "Bluecoat and Scout" (First appearance)
  • National Regaler (First appearance; unnamed) (Flashback only)
  • "Under the Hood" (Mentioned only)

Events:


Synopsis for "Wide Were His Dragon Wings: Part Two"


Appearing in "Wide Were His Dragon Wings: Part Two"

Featured Characters:

  • Gordon McClachlan

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:

  • Slavers (All die)
    • Snakehead
  • Mesoamerican tribe (Unnamed)

Other Characters:

  • Ju-ju Lady (Cameo)
  • N'Tunga (Zombified) (Cameo)
    • N'Tunga's baby (Unnamed) (Cameo)
  • Quetzalcoatl (Mentioned only)

Locations:

Items:

  • "The Curse of the Crimson Corsair" (Behind the scenes)

Concepts:

  • Magic (Behind the scenes)

Notes

Trivia

  • One of the villains seen fighting the Minutemen appears to be Iron Lid, one of the rejected auditioners from Issue 2.


See Also


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