Forget Watchmen, The Only Alan Moore Adaptation He Approves Is A Sci-Fi Masterpiece

Published Oct 24, 2026, 2:00 PM EDT Sean is a senior writer for ScreenRant and has been writing about new TV releases since December 2023. He has received multiple advance screenings of popular shows and ideated his own coverage read by hundreds of thousands of readers. Sean is a self-published author of a Western novel. Sean has also written award-winning opinion pieces related to local politics while getting his Bachelor's degree in journalism. Legendary comic writer and novelist Alan Moore is most often associated with Watchmen, but there's another adaptation of one of his stories that is by far the best. Over the years, there have been well over a dozen adaptations of Alan Moore's comics and novels. From several adaptations of Watchmen, including a film from Zack Snyder and a limited series from HBO, to V for Vendetta and Swamp Thing, Hollywood loves Alan Moore. Unfortunately, Hollywood has had several problems with adapting Moore's comics. Several adaptations of his work, like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, were downright bad. Others, like Synder's take on Watchmen, were flawed. On top of it all, Moore himself has denounced several adaptations of his own works, going as far as to refuse to be credited, or to insist on being credited as "The Original Author," ostensibly to distance himself from the adaptations. Still, there have been some good adaptations of Moore's work over the years. HBO's take on Watchmen is widely regarded as the best Alan Moore adaptation, mostly due to the way it interpreted the original comics. HBO's Watchmen, however, isn't actually the best adaptation of the writer's work. That accolade instead belongs to an unexpected animated show: Justice League Unlimited. Alan Moore Endorsed Justice League Unlimited's Adaptation Of "For The Man Who Has Everything" The animated DC comics show Justice League Unlimited adapted several famous comics over the course of its three seasons, including one of Alan Moore's comics. Justice League Unlimited season 1, episode 2 adapted "For the Man Who Has Everything," a story penned by Moore in which Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are attacked by the supervillain Mongul. In "For the Man Who Has Everything," Mongul uses an alien plant to cause hallucinations in both Superman and Batman, giving them visions of the lives they lost. In Superman's case, he was living on an undestroyed Krypton with a wife and two sons, while Batman visited a world in which his parents were never killed. It's a deeply tragic story, a stunningly insightful character study of both Superman and Batman, and it's often hailed as one of the best episodes of Justice League Unlimited, which is itself lauded as the best superhero show of all time. Justice League Unlimited also boasts a rare distinction among adaptations of Alan Moore's stories: he actually allowed the show to credit him as a writer by name. As previously mentioned, Moore is incredibly selective in which adaptations are allowed to credit him, and he often opts to distance himself from his adaptations entirely. The mere fact that Moore was credited for this episode is basically a mark of quality, a very clear sign that Moore endorsed how Justice League Unlimited handled his original story. "For The Man Who Has Everything" Is The Best Alan Moore Adaptation A big reason Alan Moore chose to endorse Justice League Unlimited and "For the Man Who Has Everything" is because it's easily the best adaptation of his work. The episode was incredibly faithful to the story Moore wrote, with only minor changes that actually enhanced the story of the comics. Most importantly, it preserved the central message Moore was getting at: an in-depth exploration of what makes Superman and Batman tick and the sacrifices a true hero must endure. Compare that to any number of Moore's other adaptations. Zack Snyder's Watchmen cut out a significant portion of the story, Moore famously ripped V for Vendetta to shreds for its changes, and Constantine was panned by critics. Arguably the two best adaptations are HBO's Watchmen and the live-action Swamp Thing, both from 2019, due to their near-universal critical acclaim. Still, neither of those earned Moore's seal of approval, Watchmen took creative liberties with its story, and Swamp Thing was canceled prematurely. "For the Man Who Has Everything" stands head and shoulders above the rest of Alan Moore's adaptations. No other adaptation comes close in terms of its faithfulness to the original, its critical and popular acclaim, and in Moore's own reaction to it. Though it is a children's cartoon, Justice League Unlimited did something no other show or movie can claim: it satisfied Alan Moore. Release Date 2004 - 2005 Network Cartoon Network Directors Joaquim Dos Santos