Comic genius: superhero get-up with a kapow! factor

Now the superhero story The Watchmen is coming to cinemas, and it's taken an Australian to bring the dark characters to life.

NIDA graduate Michael Wilkinson - who dressed performers in the Sydney Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, designed Kylie Minogue's Showgirl Tour dresses and has been working his way to the top in Hollywood - has created costumes and designs for the comic's tragic anti-heroes which are faithful to the original, but updated for the screen.

"It was an enormous challenge because we wanted to pay full respect to the graphic novel and that meant bringing each page to life on the big screen," he said.

In the world of The Watchmen, set in an alternate New York City, masked superheroes are a part of everyday life.

They fight crime alongside the police until a new law orders them off the streets.

The Nite Owl, Ozymandias, Silk Spectre and others hang up their capes but some, including Rorschach, fight on. When one former costumed adventurer is murdered, Rorschach uncovers a plot to kill them all.

Dragging his ex-partners out of retirement, Rorschach and the heroes take to the streets once again, but find a lot has changed and the world might be better off without them.

The Watchmen won multiple awards when released as a comic, but was always thought too dark, violent and convoluted for the big screen.

"Treading the line between creating 'real' characters and 'heightened' characters [was the biggest challenge]," Wilkinson said.

"The audience has to feel that these characters could really exist but, at the same time, with a superhero film there is an expectation to be inspired by startling and exciting costumes that an audience hasn't ever seen before."

The Watchmen, starring Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley and Malin Akerman is due to premiere early next year.