Watchmen, anyone?

I was reading news on CNN earlier and ran across this article:

(CNN) -- Mr. Ravenblade, Mr. Xtreme, Dark Guardian and hundreds of others. Some with elaborate costumes, others with haphazardly stitched outfits, they are appearing on city streets worldwide watching over the populace like Superman watched over Metropolis and Batman over Gotham City...

I wonder if any of the folks involved have read Watchmen?