Damon Lindelof, the showrunner of HBO's hit show Watchmen, recently revealed a parallel between Hooded Justice's origin story and Superman's. The drama series was adapted from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' 1987 comics series of the same name. It premiered on HBO in fall 2019 with the story picking up over 30 years after the comics' ending. Regina King stars as Angela Abar, a detective known as "Sister Night" living in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The series details the events of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre in tandem with the present-day racial tensions between a white supremacist group called the Seventh Kavalry and the Tulsa Police Department. The show Watchmen proved to be a ratings giant and critical darling for HBO, with the first seven episodes averaging 7.1 million viewers across both the premium cable broadcast channel and its digital platforms. Despite its success, Lindelof has explicitly declined taking on another season, forcing HBO to reclassify Watchmen as a limited series and leaving the fate of season 2 hanging in the balance.
Luckily, the beloved season 1 of Watchmen is getting a well-deserved (and not to mention timely) second wind with its Blu-ray release set for tomorrow. In a recent interview with ComicBook promoting the release, Lindelof spilled an exciting new tidbit about Hooded Justice's origin story. Although the vigilante's identity remains unknown in the novel, the series includes a plot twist that unmasks him as Will Reeves — Angela's grandfather. Now, Lindelof has revealed yet another twist for fans of Hooded Justice: his origin story deliberately parallels Superman's.
Superman's story begins with him "becoming an orphan with the destruction of [his] world as [he knows] it" following the decimation of his home planet, Krypton. Lindelof said he wanted Hooded Justice's superhero story to start in the same vein. However, rather than blow up a whole planet, Lindelof chose to use the Tulsa Massacre as Hooded Justice's Krypton. "I suddenly wondered if there was a way for Tulsa to be the inciting, most pivotal story point in this entire season to essentially say, Tulsa is what creates Hooded Justice," he explained.
Although Lindelof won't sign on for season 2 of Watchmen, he has given HBO his blessing to move forward without him, even encouraging them to allow another showrunner to take the reins. Lindelof has made it clear he is satisfied with the story he told and doesn't want to taint the first season by making a sequel that feels contrived. Still, he believes — and hopes — that there could be a season 2, but does not think "it should exist just because people liked the first.” While Lindelof's fresh ideas and clever references will be missed if HBO orders another season of Watchmen, in an era churning out a bottomless pit of content, Lindelof's choice is a breath of peak-TV air.
The Superman and Hooded Justice comparison by Lindelof makes a lot of sense. For one, Superman's origin story is a comics classic for a reason. At its heart, it's applicable to many situations, which Lindelof clearly noticed. Superman may seem like a surprising inspiration for Watchmen, but it ended up leading to one of the series' most powerful stories.
Source: ComicBook