By the time he's shown in Watchmen, Moloch the Mystic is an aged joke of a criminal. But Before Watchmen reveals that in his heyday, Edgar Jacobi was one of the fiercest criminal bosses who began his career with a surprisingly brutal act.
Though Watchmen only follows a handful of 'masks', in the parlance of their world, the history leading up to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' story is rich with other costumed individuals. In the days before the Keene Act, the law that put a stop to costumed adventuring, there were a number of theatrical villains and heroes in Watchmen's world. While more emphasis is given on the heroes of the world, one evil-doer from the Golden Age managed to eke out a living until Watchmen's setting of 1985: Moloch the Mystic, aka Edgar Jacobi. In the original story Moloch serves as a minor source of information for the hard-hitting street vigilante, Rorschach.
While he doesn’t get to play a huge role in the original series, Before Watchmen gives Moloch a chance to shine and fans see for themselves how much a threat he really is. Before Watchmen: Moloch #1 by J. Michael Straczynski, John Higgins, and Eduardo Risso shows the Watchmen villain’s tragic origin story, including his youth as an outcast among his peers. Bullied over his appearance, Edgar takes comfort in the joys of magic after discovering a traveling act that comes through his town. He dazzles his class with his tricks and even manages to impress a girl he fancies. However, Edgar secretly discovers she's planning on embarrassing him with her actual love interest. The future Moloch beats them to the punch by tricking Edgar's rival into a box and killing him, leaving the boy's corpse for Jacobi's crush to find.
Moloch's Origin Explains the Meaning of His Name
Beyond being an unwilling informant for Watchmen’s fan-favorite Rorschach, Moloch doesn’t get much face time in the original story. Much of his past is told through dialogue and supplementary material from the comic’s backups and all fans see is the broken-down husk Jacobi is in 1985. However, this glimpse into the villain’s past not only shows that he was once someone to be feared, it sheds a light on what his moniker truly means.
Edgar mentions at one point that Moloch was the name of a god worshiped for its vast power, which is a pretty appropriate name for a villain that specialized in magic. However, the Watchmen character also acknowledges the god was associated with the ritualistic sacrifice of children. Knowing that Edgar started his criminal career with the murder of a boy not much older than him puts Moloch in a terrifying new light. In Watchmen's setting, it's hard to imagine 'Moloch' as anything other than the flashy name of someone who specialized in stage magic. Knowing that the Watchmen villain's namesake honors such a brutal fact makes the character a lot more intimidating than he was originally presented.