>>98276447>Watchmen ruined the industry because many of them approach it from a tongue in cheek perspective and would never dare put something like a pastel vagina squid in a "super smart and important story".Thing is that didnt happened.
There were no cheap imitations of watchmen until Identity Crisis.
That's why you are full of shit. Before watchmen we had Ronin, Squadron Supreme, Miracleman, Daredevil, Swamp Thing, and fucking Dark Knight Return in the same year (and before watchmen was over). That's only mainstream capeshit, without even going into epic or Heavy Metal
After Watchmen DC and Marvel were all over secret wars sequels, battle of the gods, invasion, The Evolutionary War, atlantis attack, and bullshit like that. Watchmen opened the gates for Doom Patrol and Sandman, Marvel never tried to had a Watchmen after that.
The industry in the late 80's and early 90's was focused on the same shit as everyone else: RADICAL culture. Terminator 2, Mortal Kombat, Teenage ninja turtles (Biker Mice from Mars, extreme dinosaurs), that gave us spawn, onslaught, the clone saga, bloodlines. The edgyness comes from trying to out edgy each other, not from an industry trying to copy watchmen. Moore's helped to give adult themed books a chance to be published by mainstream companies, but they were never the focus. Speculators and teens were. If anything Moore and the Spiderman-mcfarlane debacle helped the indie escene.
That's the entire point, anyone thinking watchmen is the issue is just flat out wrong or a casual, and johns implying doomsday is a clash of ideas is dishonest at best, manipulative at worst.
