I'll be honest. The Watchmen comic had me somewhat disappointed in the end. It's as if Alan Moore just sat down at his desk one day and thought..."Hey, I've got it! I'll scar the memory of everyone's childhood by
Humanizing the superhero genre!"
The only problem is, Alan Moore's writing from what I've read by him usually plays out something like this. "
Rocks fall, hero dies, the world gets a reboot that cannot possibly last over ten years and will crumble into bloody anarchy or totalitarian rule."
The reason everyone's so charmed with the concept of superheros is that they can't fail. That's what makes them super.
And also? Seriously? Astronomical death counts = World Peace?
How messed up is That?
So, for everyone who was a bit bummed out by the Watchmen's ending....I offer the hero edition.

:EDIT: Props to

for teaching me (via observation) the angry face of doom.
But properly said, I don't affirm than it was Watchmen the masterpiece than started the "dark age", it was the misunderstanding of the work and its message (the way than comics could be done instead only what they are talking about). As I said, what made Watchment relevant is how take the visual language in comics and streched to new limits. The only new innovation I had see in such style has been in Locke & Key.
For example, chapter 6 was done (in write and drawings) symetically: There is an exact number of panels from beggining to end and the first one is a reflex/opposite to the last panel, could be in scene, angle or concept. There is only one panel which alone and is the one from the middle.
I think I understand what you're trying to say a little better now. Yeah, I'll agree that watchmen took it up a notch in storytelling for comics. Also Locke & Key is really nifty.