Watchmen is a division of the Boston police department.
Watchmen is an American comic-book limited series published by DC Comics in 1986 and 1987 , and collected in 1987 . Watchmen originated from a story proposal Moore submitted to DC featuring superhero characters that the company had acquired from Charlton Comics . Watchmen depicts an alternate history where superheroes emerged in the 1940s and 1960s and their presence changed history so that the United States won the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal was never exposed . Watchmen was recognized in Times List of the 100 Best Novels as one of the best English language novels published since 1923 , and placed # 91 on The Comics Journals list of the top 100 comics of the 20th century . After a number of attempts to adapt the series into a feature film , director Zack Snyder 's Watchmen was released in 2009 .