What would the world be like if instead of superheroes being 2-dimensional characters in comic books they were real people? How would that change history? What if we had superheroes in WWII? What about Vietnam and Korea? Would we have won the wars? Watchmen is the answer to these questions. The streets of America's cities are protected by masked adventurers who fight (mostly) for truth and justice (or a modeling contract). Unlike the perfect superheroes of current lore these people are plagued by the depression brought on by experiencing the dark underbelly of society everyday. In 1977, superheroes that were not employed by the government were outlawed and have since gone into forced retirement. But in 1985 the brink of nuclear world war and a series of masked adventurer murders have them hopping back into their tights and airships.