"I have goals to achieve. Dreams to make come true."
Before Watchmen: Ozymandias #1 - "I Met a Traveler...!" is the first issue of the series Before Watchmen: Ozymandias.
Plot[]
In 1985, Adrian Veidt is hidden away in his Antarctic fortress, Karnak. Veidt decides to record his history leading up to his master plan to save the world from the brink of world annihilation. With Bubastis by his side, Veidt plunges right into his childhood pre-World War II.
Friedrich Werner Veidt, a prominent businessman in Germany, books passage to the United States as soon as he learns of his wife's pregnancy to escape the looming fascist threat. With high hopes for his son, including the presidency, Mr. Veidt wanted his child to be born in the United States. A few months later, in New York City, Adrian Alexander Veidt is born.
Growing up, it was clear to Adrian that his intellect was not like that of other children. He mastered complicated reading by age four and when he far exceeded the academic aptitude test at six years old, his parents were called to the school under the school's assumption that Adrian must have cheated. From there, after smoothing things over with the school, Friedrich makes it clear to Adrian that he must keep his intellect a secret to prevent being treated differently and thought a freak by others. He tells Adrian whilst in his room, “Sadly my boy, life is never fair…what matters is to get through it alive.” Reluctantly, Adrian complies. Through grade school, Adrian lived in a bullying environment and resisted defending himself. Declining assistance from his father, Adrian decided to secretly train under a local dojo and continued to resist defending himself. Many months later, when confronted again by the same tormentors, he warns the attackers, to which they do not heed, and he unleashes his fury with no remorse. Adrian's demonstrates his power with a fierce intensity as the bullies suffer his wrath. Conversely, so does his calm nature after the fact. He is apt and still when standing in the principal's office with his parents. Quiet, yet calculating.
Due to the nature of the violence and how badly his attackers were hurt, expulsion was on the horizon. Saved by his father with his influence and money, from then on Adrian no longer hid his intelligence. In fact, he excelled at an accelerated pace and graduated top of his high school class at age fourteen. A few years later, while taking graduate-level courses at Harvard University, Adrian's parents were killed in a traffic accident. Devastated and alone, Veidt spends weeks in the antiquities wing of a local museum focused on a bust and the life of his hero and namesake, Alexander the Great. He pondered; ”How did one man drag a civilization barehanded from the blood and filth of such utter barbarity?” Veidt's obsession with Alexander helps to build his cold, cunning character and adds an air of grandiose ego-centrism at a very impressionable age. Simultaneously, the stories of Alexander also push this character towards more knowledge. Not just in books or museums, but through experience.
Giving up his entire inheritance to charity, Veidt books passage to northern Turkey determined to seek his own way. Wanting to compare his accomplishments to that of Alexander, Veidt set his sights high. He spent months following the routes of Alexander. Constant travel, training, and learning helped to further shape the boy into a man. At one point, Veidt is given some hashish by his male lover, which he takes as he wanders the dessert on his last night in the east and begins to hallucinate. Veidt relates the hallucinations and voices he hears to history, Kings, Pharaohs, and of course Alexander himself, further aligning his self-anointed king and/or God-like status.
Veidt returned to New York City and set out to make his fortune by manipulating the stock market. While reading up on the stock market at the Gunga Diner, he meets a beautiful young woman named Miranda St. John who he falls in love with. Due to stock market manipulation, Veidt's fortune begins to grow vast and he pools his money and resources to build his new business, Veidt Enterprises. He has also been coined “the smartest man in the world” while vigilantes like Nite Owl and the Comedian are making headlines. One night, St. John goes out and ends up in a posh underground club owned by Moloch the Mystic. The gangster introduces her to heroin, and Veidt discovers her dead in bed from an overdose that same night. For the first time time since his parent's deaths, he wept.
He decides that reporting Miranda's death may not bode well for his growing empire and prestigious reputation. Simultaneously, looking to Alexander the Great, he reasons the only way to right Miranda's death is to go it alone. Inspired by the exploits of the Minutemen, Veidt dons his first vigilante suit made from an elaborate Halloween costume and pieces from his Alexandrian artifacts, the not yet named, Ozymandias is born.
Appearances[]
Characters:
- Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias (flashback and main story)
- Friedrich Werner Veidt (flashback)
- Ingrid Renata Veidt (flashback)
- Miranda St. John (flashback)
- Moloch the Mystic (flashback)
- Bubastis
Locations:
- Germany (flashback)
- New York City (flashback)
- Gunga Diner
- Adrian Veidt's Apartment
- Turkey (flashback)
- Greece (flashback)
- Egypt (flashback)
- Afghanistan (flashback)
- Pakistan (flashback)
- China (flashback)
- Tibet (flashback)