This is one of the few moments in the film that actually works better than in the comic book, because it graphically demonstrates both the power and -- let's be honest -- the level of psychosis necessary for someone to be a superhero. What kind of person can survive a crazy avocation where you dress up in a costume and confront killers, an activity where your first mistake is your last? Even without Dr. Manhattan's superpowers, Nite Owl and Silk Spectre are deadly, and this scene goes a long way toward showing just why the world might be afraid enough of their "protectors" to outlaw them.

The second moment in the movie adaptation that completely worked was the altered ending. In the book, the ultimate plan of the was to create a fake alien invasion that would convince the U.S. and Soviet Union who were on the brink of nuclear war to put aside their enmities and join forces against a common foe. One of the most powerful images in the book was the dead "alien" in the middle of New York surrounded by the bloody corpses of thousands of people. The thing is, much like classic superhero costumes often have to be altered to work on real human frames, this simply wouldn't work in a film no matter how good the effects were.


I don't believe it would be acceptable because it's ultimately a comic-book plot and that's the only place it would work. It's the kind of thing done by a thousand Doctor Doom-esque villains with rubber monsters in a thousand funny books, albeit played for horror rather than done straight or for laughs. This change itself is symbolized in Adrian Veidt's statement to Dan Dreiberg that he had launched his attack 35 minutes ago. In the comic, he says that he's not a "Republic serial villain," referencing a film series with those sorts of cliched plots. In the film, the line is altered to say he's "not a comic book villain," deliberately distancing itself from its source material.

A Life of Conflict With No Time For Friends

In the end, that's the reason that so many game adaptations of film and comic book properties fail -- a lack of respect for the requirements of the game as a medium. This is often the result of a licensor more concerned with protecting a valuable intellectual property while looking for ancillary income, handcuffing the game's creators as a result. That was the problem with so many Warhammer 40,000 adaptations prior to Dawn of War -- a slavish devotion to replicating the tabletop game experience rather than taking the essence of the Warhammer 40,000 world and making it work in a new medium. I thought about that a lot while playing through Watchmen: The End is Nigh, a "Watchmen" prequel of sorts available through Xbox Live Arcade.