It may not seem like a controversial question, but in his latest Twitter poll, Ed Boon has waded into an argument that's divided fans and scholars alike for a decade, or more.

The question: 'Do you want to see Watchmen characters in Injustice 2?' The answer: A somewhat unsurprising 74% in overwhelming favour from the 20,056 fans who voted.

If the concept is so popular with Ed Boon's followers, where's the controversy? For that answer, we need to unpack the last thirty years of popular comic book culture.

Watchmen was a twelve issue maxi-series written by Alan Moore and drawn by Dave Gibbons. Published over a stretch of months from 1986 to '87, the series was quickly embraced as a defining example of the mid-eighties wave of deconstruction in the superhero genre.

The myth of the Watchmen series grew rapidly to make it one of the best selling "graphic novels" of all time! Widely respected for its concepts and disciplined use of visual storytelling, the collected edition has been studied in literary syllabus, and held up by the comics profession as an example of its best. This broad acceptance was best encapsulated when Time Magazine included Watchmen in a list of The 100 Best Novels of All-Time.

Overwhelming popularity inevitably drew the attention of Hollywood, but the inability of directors as accomplished as Terry Gilliam, Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass to adapt the work to live-action film kept the comic from reaching theatres. A phenomenon that only fed the myth of the perfect comic book. A reverence that grew steadily over two decades, until Zack Snyder introduced the story to an even broader audience with his 2009 feature film adaptation.

The Snyder directed movie challenged the notion that Watchmen was an "unfilmable" comic, and in doing so, opened the floodgates to an untapped world of related Watchmen merchandise.

The movie spawned a promotional two-part downloadable video game developed by Deadline Games. Watchmen: The End is Nigh functioned as a beat 'em up prequel putting control of heroes Rorschach and Nite Owl in the hands of players. As the game advances, the monotonous violence creeps closer to the over-the-top indulgence unique to Snyder's film.

Adaptations such as these drew inevitable criticism from purists, not the least of which was Alan Moore, himself. In a 2008 interview with Entertainment Weekly, he expressed his broad disinterest in film adaptations, "the vast majority of them are pointless." Honing in on the ideas and visual structure of the narrative, he noted, "There are things that we did with Watchmen that could only work in a comic, and were indeed designed to show off things that other media can’t. "

Indeed, while Snyder works to slavishly recreate Dave Gibbson's visuals from the comic, one of its greatest criticisms can be the lack of nuance, depth, and its failure to fully realize the ideas of the comic. A comic which, despite its reputation, may not be unmatched as a quality work, but can be argued to be at its best when reveling in the enduring concepts and form of the medium. A celebration of a then-forty year old phenomenon.

Ironic, then, that the medium of comics became a perceivable traitor to Moore's convictions in 2012, with the release of several prequel series under the banner Before Watchmen.

Though Moore's own work explores and alludes to the serial nature of superheroes, he sees the work as an alternative to the infinity that inspired it: "Watchmen was said to actually provide an alternative to the superhero story as an endless soap opera. To turn that into just another superhero comic that goes on forever demonstrates exactly why I feel the way I do about the comics industry. It’s mostly about franchises. Comic shops these days barely sell comics. It’s mostly spin-offs and toys."

In the same interview with Fast Company, Moore expressed his disappointment with Before Watchmen: "It’s gone beyond anger. It’s almost tragically comical. It’s commerce over art. I’m proud of the work I did on Watchmen, but it’s surrounded by such a toxic cloud of memories. I wish I didn’t have to go through them. I don’t even have a copy of the book in the house." Of the state of pop culture in 2012, he elaborated, "It seems that every movie is a remake of something that was better when it was first released in a foreign language, as a 1960s TV show, or even as a comic book."

Earlier this year, DC Comics revealed the first hints that the Watchmen universe will be further exploited, playing a part in DCU event: Rebirth. The banner serves as a soft reboot of the previous line-wide restart, New 52. It is unclear if these events will have direct inspiration on Injustice 2.

[Related Article: SDCC: Wonder Woman & Blue Beetle Join Injustice 2]

It seems safe to assume Moore would be bemused by the addition of violent, mentally unstable Rorschach, or sarcastic rapist The Comedian to the fighting game frivolities of Injustice 2. Should this prevent their inclusion in the 2017 fighting game sequel? 15,042 or so fans say: no.

Of course, all of the Watchmen characters exist as facsimiles of DC Comics owned heroes. Rorschach is inspired by The Question, Nite Owl resembles Blue Beetle, Doctor Manhattan borrows from the sci-fi of Captain Atom, and so on. Which means NetherRealm Studios have a wealth of alternate options in the world they're already playing with, should watching the Watchmen prove more complicated than its worth.

What do you think? Put down the pirate comics and tell us your thoughts! Register to share your take on the DC Universe Injustice forum. Like and share stories like this via @MK_Online and Facebook.