Mastermind · Comics

Ozymandias

He already did it thirty-five minutes ago

Threat index 82 Watchmen 1986 #1 Smartest

Attribute scores

Power62

Intellect99

Menace86

Fear factor70

Cultural impact84

Charisma88

Editorial estimates on a 0–100 scale, calibrated against every other character in the index. Not official canon.

Who they are

Veidt is the smartest man in the world and he uses that to commit mass murder in order to prevent a nuclear war. Watchmen refuses to tell you whether it worked, and that ambiguity is the whole point. His most famous line, delivered when a hero announces he is going to stop him, is the single most efficient demolition of the superhero premise ever written.

Defining traits

Peak human physical conditioningGlobal business empireCatches bulletsUtilitarian ethics taken to the limitGenuine altruistic self-image

What makes them dangerous

By the time you understand the plan, it has already been executed and cannot be undone.

And what undoes them

The poem he named himself after is about how nothing built by a man like him lasts.

Things you might not know

His codename comes from the Shelley poem about a ruined monument to a forgotten king, which is a warning the character ignores.
The story never confirms whether his plan produces lasting peace.
Moore has described him as the character he finds most personally uncomfortable to have written.

Why number 1 in Smartest

He completes his plan before the heroes arrive and the story refuses to tell you whether it worked. No other villain in comics has an ending that unanswerable.

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