8 Things You May Have Missed About DC's Watchmen

We could've had a very different comic book.

by Ewan Paterson
Watchmen Charlton Characters
DC Comics

Whether you're a comic book fan or not, it really isn't difficult to appreciate Watchmen.

Commonly cited as one of the most influential works of the 20th Century, you'd struggle to find a comic book more revered and indeed lauded than Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' 1986 classic. And for good reason too; Moore's timeless dissection of Cold War paranoia remains one of the finest literary works of all time, and provided the medium with a cultural salience that, quite noticeably, it has since failed to reclaim.

Moore's work has given rise to plenty of imitators over the years, and while he may lament the slew of merchandising that has since followed in its wake, it's mightily impressive that the book still manages to capture the conscience of so many of its readers across so many different mediums; even if all them happen to misunderstand Rorschach, but y’know. It’s cool nonetheless.

But what about the stuff people don’t know about the book? With so many twists and turns in the path to its creation, and indeed with the license itself today, there’s a lot out there that you may have missed. And, while we may not know who watches the Watchmen, we do know who watches (reads) everything about them.

This guy.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.