What it turned out to be was a comic book writer being unable to shake his own conventions when writing &quot;serious&quot; one. The main problem with discussing Watchmen is how easy one can rise up the &quot;b-but it's supposed to be a parody&quot; and/or &quot;it's mockery how dumb it is&quot;. Only that it really isn't. It would be a mockery if it had a pay-off in tune of  And it's not about &quot;n-no, y-you don't get it&quot; or &quot;grug can't get subtelity, look at him&quot;. There is ZERO subtelity in Watchmen.