Just as a guess, because I don't have the issues on hand, I do feel like the Watchmen references are probably just there for flavor, as much as all the other comic-geek jokes are, not so much to actually add anything to the story.

And yeah... I don't think that Jeanty is a bad artist, but he's got a style that is not the one I would've picked for this particular material. Whether the story is meant to be serious or not, I can't tell, because the art makes it look like a parody either way.