Is Watchmen better as a standalone?

Would you prefer Watchmen be incorporated into the larger DC universe, or is it better as a pure standalone comic? Personally I feel that watchmen has no need for the larger DC universe, and that it should stay a standalone.

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I can appreciate both sides of the argument. At first I preferred it as standalone but when I grew incredibly attached to Mime and Marionette I felt conflicted.

In a way we could always just look at Watchmen as remaining standalone and that the introduction of them in the DC Universe could be just versions of these characters… not sure where I stand to be honest.

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It’s really tough to say. I’m sure everyone will lean towards Watchmen staying standalone but I think that’s just because it’s how we’ve always seen it. We’ve only just now seen the characters crossover to the main DC Universe. I’m open to them being fully integrated. I’m sure there are probably a lot of cool story opportunities and a great way to bring a new tone and perspective to the rest of the DC Universe.

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I would prefer for Watchmen to stand alone because Alan Moore (I think) wanted it to be that way, and I respect what ever he say’s. Although, I do like some of the things that have spawned from it like the show a Doomsday Clock. As long as it’s handled well, then I’m ok with it.

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I really don’t care. I will say that outside of the TV show, every Watchmen thing that isn’t the original comic has been either extremely bad or just extremely uninteresting and unoriginal.

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I think I prefer it as a stand alone.

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It’s better as a Saturday morning cartoon.

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It certainly didn’t need to be integrated into the larger DC Universe, but I’ll still be forever grateful to Geoff Johns for doing exactly that. I really don’t think things like Rebirth and Doomsday Clock tarnish the original, as you can just keep the focus on that if you feel that it’s something sacred that should never be touched. But I’ve found that Rebirth and Doomsday Clock have only increased my love of both Watchmen and the main DCU, not only because the novelty of seeing those two worlds collide is amazing on its own, but Johns has injected it with so much heart and clearly cares about doing this kind of crossover in the right way

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It was a standalone for 25 years. It was written as a standalone. So yeah.

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Curveball, I would like to see a team of the characters that The Watchmen were based on. After that team is established I would be all in on The Watchmen showing up in DC continuity.

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Like the Charlton characters? That did technically happen but it’s apparently bad enough that even @HubCityQuestion warned me off of reading it.

Which is a shame, because any series that has the Question, Captain Atom, and Blue Beetle in it deserves to be good.

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Wait, this is bad?!?! First, thank you for bringing this to my attention. The Question is pretty much amazing and I do love me a good Ted Kord story. Sadly, I am not as familiar with Captain Atom as I should be. Second, I will still have to read this at some point in my life because this is something that I really want to be good.

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In the meantime, Captain Atom’s Post-Crisis series by Cary Bates and Greg Weisman is really good. I’ve found that most of his other appearances don’t really live up to it, but he’s one of my favorites because of it in any case.

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Technically all comics for a while were written as a standalone and were then proactively combined into a universe. That doesn’t take away from the original stories and it doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. As the Watchmen show has shown everybody, there’s still a lot of great Watchmen stories out there. I’m sure if they get the right people behind it, you can have something great!

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Stand-alone.

Easy answer.

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With respect to Moore’s vision I have to disagree. He wanted to use the then recently acquired Charlton Comics characters, but DC said no because they wanted to incorporate those characters in the DCU Post Crisis and Watchmen was too dark to use those new characters (and DC worried they would be dead or screwed up).

Fast forward 30 years and DC is all about using them. The characters might belong to DC, but that world belongs to Gibbons and Moore to me. I dismiss pretty much everything DC is doing with them. It’s a big reason I don’t read much mainstream anymore and stick to Black Label and fringe titles.

Watchmen is one of the great graphic literature accomplishments of the 20th century. You wouldn’t try to create a shared universe between Transmetropolitan and Planetary just because it’s the same writer and publisher. It’s a disservice to the creators. Not a fan.

Edit: My understanding is Stan Lee always intended the Marvel relaunch in 61 to be a shared universe because of the influence of what DC was doing at the time with JLA.

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I totally respect your opinion and understand your point of view. Watchmean means the world to me. But I just wanted to point out that just because something starts as standalone it doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. Superman was standalone but now he is the leading man of a giant universe. And, as you pointed out, Moore intended to use the Charlton characters but didn’t want to be bogged down by continuity for that story. That story has been told, and there are new ones to be told in a shared universe. That’s just my perspective at least. And it’s important to remember that just cause something new is done, a fan can always choose to ignore it and view Watchmen in the way they want to. It doesn’t take away from how great the original story is. Thanks for sharing your perspective and challenging mine though. :slight_smile:

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