DC Comicsowns the rights to Alan Moore’sWatchmen, and over the past few years, the publisher has made several stop-start attempts to integrate Moore’s characters into DC’s shared universe; despite these efforts,however, it is arguably in the best interest of both DC andWatchmento let them remain distinct properties.
DC has every right to continue trying to find the winning formula for bringingWatchmeninto continuity with the DC Universe, but these efforts might be doomed to fail.
Why is that? In short, it comes down to the irreconcilable differences betweenWatchmenand DC; clashes of tone, and purpose, that make mixing the two difficult for fans to accept.
Watchmen Is The Opposite Of DC’s Superhero Storytelling, Making The Two Hard To Reconcile
Alan Moore’sWatchmenIs Distinct From The Genre It Helped Define
Spanning twelve issues, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’Watchmenwas released monthly over the course of 1986 and 1987, but it is best known as a dense, single-volume graphic novel.Watchmenis still widely cited as thegreatest superhero story of all time, and regardless of rank, it is certainly among the most influential, genre-defining works in comic book history.
Alan Moore made his story about the psychological reality of superheroism…This is at the crux ofWatchmen’sincompatibility with the DC Universe.
Along with perennial rival Marvel, DC Comics and its stable of characters invented, and defined, the superhero genre. Meaning, theboundaries of superhero storytelling that Alan Moore pushedwere boundaries DC was instrumental in setting. This is worth noting, because what makes Moore’s work so singular to this day are the ways it fundamentally differs from traditional superhero stories.
Part ofWatchmen’sappeal is its use of realism. Aside fromDoctor Manhattan, Moore’s one concession to superhero fantasy, the rest ofWatchmen’scharacters lack powers, and are better described as “costumed vigilantes.” And by putting these vigilantes in a realistic setting,Moore made his story into the opposite of the usual superhero story’s escapism.
That is, Alan Moore made his story about the psychological reality of superheroism, and ultimately, supervillainy as well. This is at the crux ofWatchmen’sincompatibility with the DC Universe. Like matter and antimatter, they’re opposed to each other at a fundamental level. One exposes the flaws in the other, instead of a synthesis making both stronger.
DC Has Been Trying To Integrate Watchmen Into Its Universe For Years, With Mix Results
WhyWatchmenResists Fitting Into DC Lore
DC first began integratingWatchmeninto its continuity withthe 2017 seriesDoomsday Clock, which centered on the characters of Superman and Doctor Manhattan, the two most powerful heroes in their respective universes. The effort has continued as recently asauthor Mark Waid’sNew History of the DC Universe#1, which references the earlier series.
Doomsday Clockproved exciting as a crossover, but its attempt to mergeWatchmenwith DC canon received mixed responses, and in the years since, it seemsWatchmenhas been relegated to the status of existing in a far-flung corner of the DC Multiverse, when there is one, with aspects of it only seldom bleeding into DC canon.
Forty years later, [Watchmen] serves as a snapshot of its era, the details of which are at odds with DC’s shifting timeline and malleable history.
This suggests thatDC itself recognizes thatWatchmendoesn’t fit right with the DC Universe.Again, it comes down to a simple difference in purpose. DC Comics are fantasy;Watchmenis essentially a realist thriller. DC stories offer an alternative to the real world, whileWatchmenis an exploration of it, and in retrospect, is an artifact of its era.
Watchmenis very much a product of Alan Moore’s political perspective, both commenting on and critiquing American Cold War politics up through the time of the book’s publication in the mid-1980s. Forty years later, it serves as a snapshot of its era, the details of which are at odds with DC’s shifting timeline and malleable history.
Watchmen Is A Product Of And Commentary On Its Time, And It Doesn’t Makes Sense In DC Continuity
DC’s Fictional World Clashes WithWatchmen’s
Watchmenfamously replaced sitting U.S. President Ronald Reagan, serving his second term at the time of the book’s publication, with a version of Richard Nixon who successfully repealed the two-term limit and was in the midst of campaigning for a fifth term at the time of the series’ events.
This, and othergeopolitical commentary Alan Moore made throughWatchmen’salternate reality setting, don’t carry over to the DC Universe.Of course, DC Comics has featured plenty of its own political messages over the years, and plenty of fictionalized versions of real people, but there is a critical difference between this and what Moore did withWatchmen.
That is, there is a distinction between using real people as characters, and creating a version of the real world for fictional characters to operate in. DC Comics does the former, and withWatchmen, Moore did the latter. This is an almost metaphysical difference that makes the worlds of DC Comics andWatchmendifficult to sync up.
There Can Be No True Continuation Of Alan Moore’s Watchmen
Let It Stand On Its Own
To be clear,characters and concepts fromWatchmencan appear in DC Comics stories, but there is a level of detachment from their original context, their original purpose, that renders these more akin to shades of the actual characters. More simply put: the characters of Alan Moore’sWatchmenonly exist in the confines of his series.
Outside of that, there can only be imitations. This goes forDamon Lindelof’s HBO sequel toWatchmenas well. The one-season series was a gripping tale of generational trauma told within the superhero milieu, using Alan Moore’s characters as their basis, but it is no more an actual continuation ofMoore’s work thanDoomsday Clock.
A sequel, sure…but not a continuation. This is the last reasonWatchmendoesn’t belong in DC Comics continuity: it is a story that should not be concerned with such matters as canon, outside of its own internal timeline. Because, ultimately, this is a distraction from what makesWatchmensuch a legitimate literary achievement.
