Robert, Joe said I do resent the hacks not the originating work. You missed his point.

 And I can see his point of view. Watchmen was meant to be a stand alone. That's one of the reasons it was done with throw away characters. But then everyone went "wow this is how all comics should be done". Umm, no.

If Moore was dead, he would turn in his grave.

He's not, but still..

I think Moore's ending was appropriate. The "dark age" of the world was ending, and its new "golden age" is built upon a lie.

Rorschach would never have seen reason--his entire worldview is based on there being right and wrong with no compromise between. Does anyone really believe he could have been persuaded to remain silent? That is an example of a fan's thinking "what ought to be" rather than what suits the needs of the story. Not everyone may like the ending Moore wrote, but it is faithful to the story's premises and maintains the story's integrity.

Besides which, what is the point of Dr. Manhattan punishing Ozymandias? How would that change anything? Ozymandias commits an act of terrorism... and the world is saved from its own madness by an instant of absolute horror. WATCHMAN (if nothing else) forces us to ask the question, what does it mean to save the world? In this instance, Ozymandias launches a first strike of his own against the US, which is portrayed as a global aggressor. That first strike kills millions in NYC--but it directly prevents the death of billions.

Would killing Ozymandias and revealing the truth have done anything other than push the world toward Armageddon? I don't think so.

Sorry, but the ending was the ending. For my money, Moore got it right.

As for the thread's topic--

Squadron Supreme was a good effort at showing a broken world where the heroes were trying to put things back together. It played by the rules and even explored the limits of the superhero paradigm in making the world a better place--can violence really achieve positive outcomes in a hopelessly complex situation?

Watchman, on the other hand, was a game-changer. The comics industry reacted to Watchmen as something new, even unprecedented; whether it really was or not I leave to individual opinion. But it shaped a generation of story tellers, for better or worse. (And I would agree that there was much "worse" that came out of Moore's imitators than "better" but that is not Moore's fault or responsibility.)

Squadron Supreme was a good comic book story; Watchmen was something more (no pun intended). That is why SS doesn't get the praise Watchmen does-- it simply isn't on the same level.

Finally, with regard to the movie's ending-

From what I have read in interviews with the film makers, the ending was changed because explaining the creation of the squid--which, remember, involved the disappearance of many people and an interlude on an island not unlike LOST, with the creators ending up dead and a bit of foreshadowing as a piece of artwork washes ashore--would have eaten up a very large amount of time. Blaming Dr. Manhattan was tidier, not necessarily better, and certainly not because the film makers thought Moore got his own story's ending wrong.