WATCHMEN AT 40: Fred Van Lente is in the ring! — UPDATED 5/13/26: Watchmen #1 was released 40 years ago, on May 13, 1986! Perfect time to reprint this piece from February 2022. Plus, check out 13 COVERS: WHO PARODIES THE WATCHMEN? Dig it! — Dan — In a lot of respects, this is recurring 13th Dimension columnist Fred Van Lente’s gutsiest COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH — pitting Marvel’s cult-fave 1980s maxiseries Squadron Supreme against what’s widely considered the greatest superhero graphic novel of all time, DC’s Watchmen. But it’s all about the details, isn’t it? So sit back and dig this exploration of two surprisingly similar, yet substantially different, comics classics. Who wins the big brawl? Read on. — By FRED VAN LENTE Hey there! For this latest installment of COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH, we are simultaneously reading two comics often mentioned in the same breath: Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, and Squadron Supreme by Mark Gruenwald and a bunch of artists, most notably Paul Ryan. Both are dark, self-contained mid-1980s 12-issue maxi-series that challenge the suppositions of the superhero genre; and, not coincidentally, their main characters are analogues for another company’s heroes. Rando humans given superpowers by the Grandmaster to fight the Avengers in Issue #70 of that mag by Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema, the Squadron Sinister were obvious stand-ins for Superman (Hyperion), Batman (Nighthawk), Flash (Whizzer), and Green Lantern (Dr. Spectrum). But of course this was far too clean-cut an explanation for Thomas, he of the Grand Unifying Geek, who retconned his own work in Avengers #85. There we learn that in addition to all his other flaws, Grandmaster is a plagiarist: He ripped off the idea for his Sinisters from the Squadron Supreme, a sort of League of the greatest heroes of an alternate reality, where they fight for Justice (get it, get it). Likewise, the main characters of Watchmen are all stand-ins for heroes created for notoriously shady publisher Charlton that were acquired in the 1980s by DC: Captain Atom (Dr. Manhattan), the Question (Rorschach), Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt (Ozymandias), Blue Beetle (Nite Owl), Nightshade (Silk Spectre—sort of) and Peacemaker (the Comedian). Alan Moore crafted a story that was basically “Who Killed Peacemaker?” but DC editor-in-chief Dick Giordano, who had gotten his start at Charlton, immediately saw that Moore’s plans would render...