There’s a little bit of Watchmen in Batman v. Superman. Well, actually there’s a lot of Watchmen in BvS, since the dark, overly serious movie took all the wrong lessons from the seminal graphic novel. However, there’s one little Easter egg where the book is literally in the movie, as an eagle-eyed fan noticed.
Redditor BrunoBots saw that a collected hardcover edition of Alan Moore’s 1986 comic makes an appearance on one of Lois Lane’s bookshelves in her cramped apartment.
Now, Watchmen being canon in DC Cinematic Universe could open up a whole host of head-scratching questions and twists. Is everybody so against superheroes because they read about Dr. Manhattan and co. in the book? If Watchmen was inspired by classic DC superhero comics in the real world, then are we to believe that those comics existed in the world of BvS?
We’re wildly overthinking this, of course. The real reason the book is in the shot is almost certainly because Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder also directed the pretty good film adaptation of Watchmen back in 2009. It’s just a little nod to his past work.
Still, it’s hard not to look at this Easter egg and think about how Watchmen’s landmark, grim view on superheros has and has not aged well, and how it’s literally haunting pretty much everything DC has made since.
