Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Guardians: Chapter I.
Guardians: Chapter I is the most faithful adaptation of the groundbreaking DC Comics miniseries by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons to date, but deviates from the original in many ways. Below we have summarized (and rated) all the important changes Guardians: Chapter I makes to the comics.
5. The attachment has (mostly) disappeared
Moore and Gibbons filled all 12 issues of Guardian with an appendix intended to present the world of the story (and in some cases also its narrative) in more detail. Guardians: Chapter I leaves out almost all of this content from its adaptation of the first five issues—and that’s a good thing. After all, there’s no practical way to fully incorporate the memoirs, interviews, essays, and other prose content from the comics into an animated film. Frankly, it’s impressive that director Brandon Vietti and screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski squeezed out an excerpt from the fictional autobiography. Under the hood in the credits! But regardless of the logistics, this content is an essential part of the comics (readers who skip it miss the whole picture), so its absence here is worth noting.
4. New, changed and missing dialogs
This is another Guardians: Chapter IThere are understandable changes, but it is still worth highlighting them: The dialogues in the film are not 1:1 with those in the comics. There are new lines that fill in gaps caused by deleted scenes (more on this on The later) and fill in the gaps in world building caused by the missing back matter. Some of the long passages of the comics were also shortened; for example, Rorschach’s misguided admiration for his absent father is not in Guardians: Chapter I. Vietti and Straczynski have removed homophobic slurs and other less 2024-friendly language (Doctor Manhattan no longer refers to the man trampling on Janey Slater’s watch as “fat”). Oh, and similarly, the quotes that Guardian #1-5 are also gone.
Related: All main actors and cast list for Watchmen: Chapter I
3. The opening scene is different
Guardian #1 has one of the most iconic introductions in any superhero comic. Rorschach’s gruesome diary entry about a dead dog he found, combined with the striking image of a blood-soaked street and a smiley badge, draws readers in immediately. However, these aren’t the first things we see and hear in Zack Snyder’s 2009 live-action adaptation, and it’s not like Guardians: Chapter I doesn’t get the ball rolling. Instead Chapter I begins with a montage of still images and voiceover that establishes Guardian‘s premise of “superheroes in the real world.” The opening panel of the comics Is However, it is recreated immediately after the title screen. Nevertheless, it is interesting that no Guardian The current adaptation begins like the comics (unless you count the motion comic version).
2. Detectives Fine and Bourquin play smaller roles
Detectives Fine and Bourquin still fulfill the same basic function in Guardians: Chapter I. They’re still the guys investigating the Comedian’s murder, and they still catch Rorschach. But the pair’s screen time is much shorter than comic book readers might expect, because Chapter I does not represent its further activities. In particular, in the Guardian Comics we see Fine and Bourquin investigating the murders motivated by nuclear panic, which are only referred to in dialogue Chapter I. The comics also include a scene, omitted from the animated adaptation, in which Fine receives the anonymous tip that leads to Rorschach’s arrest. While not strictly necessary, it adds weight to the story’s central “masked killer” conspiracy.
Related: How to watch DC’s animated film ‘Watchmen’
1. The flashbacks are arranged differently than in the comic
Generally, Guardians: Chapter I sticks pretty closely to Moore and Gibbons’ comic roadmap. However, the first half of the film is structured a little differently, especially the way flashbacks are used. While most GuardianThe comedian-centered flashback scenes coincide with the vigilante’s funeral in the comic, in Chapter Ithey are scattered throughout the first act. Presumably Vietti and Straczynski wanted the beginning of the film to be less episodic than the first few issues of the comic. If so, they largely succeeded. At the same time, this material arguably has a greater impact as originally arranged. In particular, the rearrangement of the flashbacks hurts the mini-mystery surrounding the Comedian’s scar, because now we find out how he got it. super early in the process!
Watchmen: Chapter I is now available on Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD and Digital.
