Reminds me of Alan Moore's "Watchmen"

Rating: 10/10 (5 December 2004)

I enjoyed "The Incredibles" thoroughly. The plot was engaging, and the characters were well thought out and vividly portrayed, both in the animation and in the voice performances. The movie deals with complex and yes, realistic problems (e.g.: the frustrations of a husband and father sacrificing his personal aspirations and his sense of mission and purpose for the sake of providing a stable life for his family) in a nuanced and (despite the "superhero" element) believable way. The movie deserves high marks all around.
Many other reviewers have said as much, and I add my praise to theirs. But there is an aspect of the movie that I haven't heard comments about elsewhere, and I wanted to point it out. I found in certain elements of "The Incredibles" some interesting echoes of Alan Moore's groundbreaking comic series / graphic novel "The Watchmen".
SPOILERS (TO BOTH WORKS) FOLLOW! --------------------------------
Both works deal with superheroes living in a world that has rejected super-heroism (or superhero-ism?). In "The Incredibles" we hear the term "supers", where in Moore's world they are metonymously termed "masks". but in both works their status is similar: public backlash against the (unintended, and arguably comparatively minor) bad consequences of the heroes' deeds has led to government suppression and the heroes' forced retirement. Each work revolves around the experiences of a central ex-hero character (Mr. Incredible in "The Incredibles", Night Owl in "The Watchmen") who is a misfit in his non-heroic life, a man of great potential gone prematurely to seed, chafing under his restrictions and pining for the old days when he could fulfill his real purpose. Each central character has clandestine connections to other ex-heroes, who are his only outlet for genuine friendship because only they can know his true self. Both works feature a female "spouse" character who has adapted successfully to the new world order (Elastigirl in "The Incredibles", Silk Spectre II in "The Watchmen" -- although in that work, intended for adult audiences, the character's role is more complex, since she is both the concubine of the successful post-hero Dr. Manhattan and the paramour of the hopelessly dysfunctional Night Owl). This female character may reminisce nostalgically about the old days but will take no action to revive them until catalyzed (for Elastigirl, by the threat to her family, and for Silk Spectre, by the psychological attack on Dr. Manhattan and the ensuing visit to Mars). I could go on drawing parallels: to avoid arrest and escape the consequences of having performed outlawed super-heroics, even in a good cause, Frozone chooses to incapacitate (harmlessly) a police officer; this is reminiscent of Rorschach's contemptuous refusal to retire, and the rapacious malevolence of the police when they finally apprehend him. Et cetera.... even the endings are similar: in both worlds, there is now a core group of superheroes who have been reactivated and will obviously continue to pursue their mission, while the surrounding society remains ambivalent or even hostile to them. In both worlds, we are left to wonder whether the good deeds the supers/masks do, and the manner in which they do them, makes them heroes or villains (or both).
I am forced to wonder whether Brad Bird was familiar with "The Watchmen", and consciously determined to work out the effect that the rules of Alan Moore's imagined world would have for a family of superheroes, or whether the parallels are simply the inevitable result of logically deriving the same consequences from fortuitously similar hypotheses.
I would welcome further analysis from those familiar with both works.