Cracked just reported one I had missed. The title sequence of Watchmen is a series of scenes showing the history of the superhero characters. And the first scene show the original Night Owl punching a mugger and saving the mugger’s intended victims.
But I hadn’t realized that if you look at all of the little clues in the scene, you’ll realize the people being saved are Thomas and Martha Wayne - Bruce Wayne’s parents. And it was their death that inspired their son to become Batman.
So the implication of this scene is that this is the moment that changed the superhero universe. Instead of having the DC universe with Batman and the other DC heroes, we got the Watchmen universe.
Well, it is a cute little shout out, but I’d say Kal-El not showing up in his rocket ship from Krypton was a pretty major point of diversion from the DCU. And chronologically, I’m pretty sure that would’ve come first.
I’m a **huge ***Peanuts *fan, and the other night when this aired was the first time I ever noticed that in one scene Lucy is holding a TV guide. On the cover of the TV guide? Lucy.
In my defense, I don’t care much for the tv specials (except the Christmas one, which is one of the greatest half hours in TV’s history).
Eh, depends on a few factors. Would this have been a universe where Superman and Batman are the same age, or one where Bruce is significantly older? How old was Bruce at the time? It’s entirely possible (and consistent with published variants of the universe) that the Waynes could have died before Clark ever arrived.
Still the biggest change, of course, is the existence of Nite Owl to save the Waynes at all.
(Also, no sign of Themiscyra or Atlantis on Earth, no contact with aliens, etc… There’s actually very little to suggest that the Watchmen universe could have become one that was significantly similar to the main DCU.)
Also, now that I think of it, the chronology is iffy - there’s a very brief period in the late 50s-early 60s, where the Waynes could have died in 1939, but neither the earliest version (where Bruce was an adult, and early in his career as a costumed vigilante in 1939), nor the main versions published contemporary to the release of either version of Watchmen (where he wouldn’t have even been born in 1939) - that is to say, none of the three versions that could be called ‘the DCU’ and would make sense to compare to it - work for that.
Nite Owl could have, by his actions, changed the Watchmen universe from one that was like the (late, lamented) First Wave universe, but he didn’t prevent it from becoming like ‘the DCU’ - at most he prevented the creation of the Batman.
It’s a cute reference, but hardly the breakaway point for the universe.
You can’t overthink comic book chronology. It always falls apart.
So figure the Watchmen universe is one of the DC universes. One in which the turning point that separated it from others is Night owl saving the Waynes. In this universe, there was no Batman and costumed heroes arose without him as a role model.
At the end of The Blues Brothers, Dan Aykroyd is in Chicago, being chased toward city hall by the police and National Guard, along with fellow SNL castmate John Belushi, in a retired police car.
At the end of Ghostbusters, Dan Aykroyd is in New York City, being escorted away from city hall by the police and National Guard, along with fellow SNL castmate Bill Murray, in a retired ambulance.
Again, no…even if you assume there must be some single break point between the main DCU and Earth-Watchmen (not supported by the universes that had been created by the time Watchmen the comic was coming out - Earth-X, Earth-S, and Earth-C, especially… Even Earths Two, Three and C-, while quite similar to Earth-One, don’t fit the premise), the fact that Nite Owl is around to save the Waynes means the Waynes being saved cannot possibly be it - the only time Batman, Superman etc aren’t the very first wave of superheroes is post-Crisis when it’s the JSA, who were already established by the time Bruce was born and Kal had crashed. The JSA, not the Minutemen. Ignoring information from the comic that may not be applicable to the movie, the moment Nite Owl put on the costume is the LATEST possible break point for the universe.
Also, again, no sign of Krypton, Themiscyra, Atlantis, etc; no magic; the only freaky science accident is the one that created Doctor Manhattan - so it could only have possibly been an unusual variant where there were no superhumans.
The Watchmen universe never would, and never could have matched the main universe, or even any of the primary alternates.
Did Nite Owl prevent the creation of the Batman in that universe? Possibly. Is that what kept it from becoming a close variant on the main universe? Not even ‘hand grenades’ close. Would it have been significantly different than it was if Batman had existed? Arguable, but I doubt it - Batman would have been very much in his element in this world - the whole damn world is Gotham. (And Bruce Wayne would have been at the top of Ozy’s hitlist - he’s very much Ozy’s equal, and only capable of slightly more shades of grey than Rorschach (the biggest difference between Bats and 'Schach in that respect is Bruce’s got a much less skewed idea of what black and white are), so he’d be a huge and obvious threat to the Plan.)
It’s a cute reference, don’t overthink it by trying to find some greater meaning.
Batman could exist in the Watchman universe, he doesn’t have superpowers. But the Watchman universe wouldn’t work with Superman, Wonder Woman, or any of the other myriad of aliens, gods, and technologically warped freaks running around.
Well, not entirely - it’s hinted that some people may have genuine psychic powers in the Watchmen universe.
It’s also not entirely essential that he be the only person with super powers, just that he be the most powerful super powered person on the planet by an order of magnitude. The story would still work if there were superheroes on the level of Spiderman or Wolverine running around.
Unlike many other posters on this board, I love the musical Rent (although, as I said in another post, at the same time I can understand where its detractors are coming from).
I’d heard the line “reaches way down deep and pulls you inside out till you’re torn apart–RENT!” a million times.
It took an essay I read on the show to remind me that the word “rent” ALSO means “torn apart.” (There were several meanings of the word the show played on, and apparently, this was creator Jonathan Larson’s favorite.)
Did Alan Moore believe in psychics anyway? They’re pretty much presented without comment in the comic. It’s just “here are some people who happen to be psychic.”
I don’t recall that - but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
It might work, but I think it would weaken the story. In particular, Ozymandias is special precisely because he is a normal human with no superpowers, just the will to condition himself to the extreme. Ozymandias’s acts on the gymnastics routines, for instance, become trivial when there’s a guy zooming around on giant spiderwebs. The point seems to be that these otherwise normal humans get into being “costumed vigilantes” not because they have actual skills at being better at stopping crime, but rather other motivations, most of them fucked in the head. Whereas a guy with spider powers or a guy who regenerates and has an adamantium skeleton, you can’t help but expect them to do something like that.
