DC Comics produces material featuring a large number of well-known characters including Batman and Superman. Watchmen, a movie put out by D.C. Entertainment and Warner Bros., is also a twelve-issue comic book series written by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. It was under D.C. comics and lasted from 1986 to 1987.
Wikipedia says "Moore used the story as a means to reflect contemporary anxieties and to critique the superhero concept. Watchmen takes place on Earth in an alternate history where superheroes emerged in the 1940s and 1960s, helping the United States to win the Vietnam war. 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 to stave off nuclear war by killing millions of people."
D.C. Comics and Marvel Comics both have a trademark on the term superheros. The first aspect about watchmen is the focus on the superhero or superhuman. It plays with the idea of an extraordinary person dedicated to protecting the public. The most important aspect of why superheros where invented was because of the Great Depression and the harsh times. I guess the United States and maybe the world needed an uplifting and what better way have one than to create an fictional "God."
Watchmen is set in a time where technology is booming, along with pressure and tempers, and government funds and time where being invested into technology at a fast rate. Archigram was an avante garde architectural group formed in the 1960s based at the Architectural Association in London that was futurist, anti-heroic and pro-consumerist, drawing inspiration from technology in order to create a new reality that was solely expressed through hypothetical projects.
I believe that Archigram is related to the watchmen due to the fact that they see problems around them, they feel like they want to help make a difference, but there's still that little piece of them that wants to escape and leave the job up to someone else. Archigrams designs are very much so of that of a comic book, taking influence from Gotham city and such. Their designs are in a way, solutions to the problem by embracing the problem, just like the watchmen.
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Your post made me think of different movie tendencies that are influenced by the social fears. During the Cold War superheroes were caused by the need of social "uplifting" and positive thinking. In the contemporary society there is a tendency of post- and pre- apocalyptic movie scenarios, which, I think, are results of a fragile image of the world, caused by nuclear weapons, terrorist attacks and global epidemics. Realistic view may look uncomfortable and emotionally disturbing for those who are used to “happy endings”. But it is definitely the source for the social debate about possible cataclysms and their preventions. We can see the similar tendency in architecture where green design starts taking significant place. Architects and designers realize how important it is to minimize the impact of their activities on the environment as they learn about possible negative consequences.
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