6 Reasons Watchmen Should Stay Out Of The DC Universe

2. It Was Never Meant To Be Revisited

Despite Dr. Manhattan’s line to Ozymandias, “nothing ever ends,” Watchman has a very tangible ending: the last page of the book. The perfect book ends, the opening and closing of the story with the stained happy face shows how the story was engineered to give us this glimpse into the universe and nothing more. Is it too much to ask that some stories stay finished instead of trying to squeeze out new life and creating Frankensteinian abominations in the process?

This is something that is infecting geekdom in general, most recently by Rogue One. There’s no reason to show how the Death Star plans were obtained; it’s only so the filmmakers can retread old territory. The upcoming Han Solo movie will almost definitely show the Kessel Run he mentioned in A New Hope. These were minor details of a larger story, but geeks are so obsessive over this franchise that they’ll lap up anything as long as it’s got the Star Wars label on it. It’s like they’ve chosen to use every part of the animal carcass, even the fur, no matter how bad it will taste.

For example, we don’t need to know how Superman’s Kryptonian parents met and fell in love; Jor-El and Lara’s only purpose is to sire Kal El and send him to Earth. It’s enough to know that Han and Chewbacca (or Rocket and Groot) are old friends who’ve grown closer over a series of adventures; finding out exactly how they met inevitably leads to an underwhelming reaction. An “oh, okay” of emotional impact.

Sometimes less is more, unless you feel that Darth Vader is more menacing now that you’ve seen him as a pre-teen shouting “yippee.”