Watchmen…..have you heard of it?

As it is with all cult classics, whether it be a book, movie or comic strip, there is always a group who is “in the know” and crazy about every aspect of the classic and those that don’t have a clue.

Such is the case with the Watchmen, which is a is a twelve-issue limited series comic book published by DC Comics in single issues during 1986 and 1987, and has been subsequently reprinted in collected form. Watchmen originated from a story proposal writer Alan Moore submitted to DC featuring superhero characters that the company had acquired from Charlton Comics.

Watchmen takes place in an alternate history (1985) United States where the country is edging closer to a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, freelance costumed vigilantes have been outlawed and most costumed superheroes are in retirement or working for the government.

The story focuses on the personal development and struggles of the protagonists as an investigation into the murder of a government sponsored superhero pulls them out of retirement and eventually leads them to confront a plot by one of their own to stave off nuclear war by killing millions of innocent people.

When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion - a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers - Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity... but who is watching the Watchmen?"

CHARACTERS

• Doctor Manhattan/Doctor Jonathan Osterman: A superpowered being who is contracted by the United States government. Scientist Jon Osterman gained superpowers when he was caught in an "Intrinsic Field subtractor" in 1959
• Nite Owl / Dan Dreiberg: A retired superhero who utilizes owl-themed gadgets. Nite Owl was based on the Ted Kord version of the Blue Beetl
• Ozymandias / Adrian Veidt: Drawing inspiration from Alexander the Great, Veidt was once the superhero Ozymandias, but has since retired to devote his attention to the running of his own enterprises. Veidt is believed to be one of the smartest men on the planet. Ozymandias was directly based on Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt, whom Moore had admired for using his full brain capacity as well as possessing full physical and mental control
• Rorschach / Walter Kovacs: A vigilante who wears a white mask that contains constantly shifting ink blots, he continues to fight crime in spite of his outlaw status. Moore said he was trying to "come up with this quintessential Steve Ditko character - someone who's got a funny name, whose surname begins with a 'K,' who's got an oddly designed mask"

Watchmen has received critical acclaim both in the comics and mainstream press, and is regarded as a seminal text of the comic book medium. After a number of attempts to adapt the series into a feature film, director Zack Snyder's Watchmen is scheduled for release in March 2009.

But when Zack Snyder became the director of the film adaptation of Watchmen, the graphic novel about troubled superheroes in a declining age, he knew that he was taking on not only a seminal piece of popular culture but more than 20 years of unfulfilled expectations and competing agendas.

From his encounters with the original comics, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons, he was well versed in the creators’ weighty, grown-up ideas about the futility of heroism and knew that they had no enthusiasm for seeing “Watchmen” turned into a movie. He was also aware that many directors before him had been unsuccessful at the same endeavor, and he expected that he would have to fight his studio to make the film he wanted. (He did not anticipate, however, that one year before its release, a rival studio would sue to prevent his movie from reaching theaters.)

But Mr. Snyder said he believed that his greatest challenge would be satisfying the desires of the book’s devoted fans, who, like him, regard it as an exemplary work of postmodern storytelling and who would eviscerate him if he strayed too far from the original comics. And he believed that the only path to satisfying these viewers began by breaking from the source material.

So, whichever camp you belong to, devoted fan, curious film buff or couldn’t give a damn. Time will tell if this mystique of Watchmen continues on in the movies or remains a classic on the bookshelf. You decide…..