The Annotated Watchmen, Doug Atkinson [fb2 epub reader txt] 📗

each issue has a continuing motif, a reoccuring object

or pattern that is seen on the cover, the first and last page (usually),

and throughout the issue. This issue's motif is spattered blood, and

free-associating scene changes.

Another trend is the title, which is always an excerpt from an

apropos quote shown in its entirety in the last panel. This issue's title is

from "Santies" by John Cale. The clock appearing on the covers counts the

minutes to midnight, similar to the clock in the _Bulletin of the

Atomic Scientists_, which is an estimate of the world's closeness to nuclear

war. The clock stands at midnight.

Cover: Blood running down the big clock at Madison Square Garden.

Page 1: Mass death and spattered blood at the Pale Horse concert.

The shattered glass is ironic, since "Krystalnacht" refers a night of

terror against Jewish-owned businesses in Nazi Germany; the "Krystal" part

refers to the broken glass of the windows. Notice the prominence of the

knot-top hairstyle. The blood above the sign in the lower left is in the same

shape as that on the smiley-face button.

Page 2: Mass death and spattered blood on the street. There's an

airship crashed into the building on the upper left. We see the source of

the tentacle on page 6. The watch seller's wares lie in the front.

Notice the "War?" headline.

Page 3: Mass death and spattered blood at the Utopia. That's the

watch seller in the front, and the Gunga Diner's elephant on the right, and

"War?" headlines on the street.

Page 4: Mass death and spattered blood at the Gunga Diner. More

"War?" headlines. Joe lying against the police car, and, presumably, Steve

on the right. Rorschach blots.

Page 5: Mass death and spattered blood at the Promethean. Left to

right: Joey, Aline, Steve, Mal and Gloria, the Gordian man, and Milo.

Scattered Rorschach blots and "War?" headlines. Hiroshima lovers still on the

wall. A bottle of Nostalgia below Mal's foot. Chrysler Building on the far

right. Judging from the time clock, time is passing as we slowly pan

through the city (it was 12:00 at Madison Square, and 12:02 here).

Or the clock is fast.

The positions of the two couples (Joey-Aline, Mal-Gloria), resembling

intimate embraces, are, frankly, somewhat sick on Gibbons' part, but

it seems to fit somehow.

Page 6: Mass death and spattered blood (and ichor) at the Institute

and the newsstand. Bernard is covering Bernie. "War?" headlines, a no

longer Mint copy of "Tales of the Black Freighter," and the poster torn so "Gay

Women Against Rape" reads "WAR" at a distance. (I have a suspicion Moore

chose the phrase just for this scene.) The spatter on the plug from the

spark hydrant also brings back the smiley-face. Below the Bernards is the

Rorschach card from #6.

Page 7, panel 2: They left early on the first, and it's very early on

the third. Did the tachyons cause the delay? His teleportation seemed

to be instantaneous in the past.

Panel 3: Tachyons are theoretical particles that move faster than

light, and hence travel backwards in time. They're messing up Jon's time

sense. Note that he never made any references to the future past issue #9,

although he made several future references to events before then.

Tandoori is an Indian dish sold at the Gunga Diner. It involves

cooking in a clay oven on a spit. My correspondents highly recommend it; I've

never had it myself.

Page 9, panel 1: It's a few minutes before Jon and Laurie left New

York (compare clock here to page 8, panel 6).

Page 10, panel 6: Not quite everyone; he missed the courier.

Interesting that he'll freely admit to killing half of New York, but not his own

servants. Probably the New York killings seem less personal and

therefore less severe.

Page 11, panel 3: Another mis-colored word balloon.

Page 13, panel 1: Another radiation symbol.

Panel 4: "Stand Back When I.F. Subtractor is Activated." I.F. stands

for Intrinsic Field. Also, a skull-and-crossbones, evoking issue #5 and

the Black Freighter story.

Page 14, panel 2: The Subtractor panel has a Veidt logo. Naturally

it was built by the company, but this seems a little much somehow.

Page 16, panel 2: Leaving out Dr. Manhattan, the advanced technology,

and the psychic, this is about the only totally implausible event in the

series.

Page 19, panel 1: "A pregnant woman, convinced her unborn child was

eating her..." Reference issue #8, page 11, panel 5: "Illustrating that

sequence where the young chew their way out of their mother's womb was quite

an experience."

Panel 4: Mr. Healey is probably the British Prime Minister (not

Margaret Thatcher, as in our world)...

Panel 5: ...but Gorbachev was still the leader of the Soviet Union.

Page 20, panel 4: Another mis-colored word balloon.

Panel 6: Nixon is on the right, below Dan's word balloon. On the

screen below we can see the Chrysler Building.

Page 22, panel 7: The silhouette calls to mind the Hiroshima lovers

graffiti.

Page 24, panel 5: More spattered blood.

Page 25, panel 6: Jon's walking on water here marks a shift for him;

he's becoming more God-like in his symbolism.

Page 26, panel 5: I'm not sure if those are meant to be real

constellations, but they don't resemble any I'm familiar with. They

could be Southern Hemisphere, I suppose.

Page 27, panel 4: Jon's comment about creating human life fits his

godly transformation.

Panel 5: Jon's speech is one of the more profound statements made

here, and speaks heavily of Adrian's short-sightedness.

Page 28, panel 1: A jump ahead to Christmas '85. The Christmas cards

speak heavily of peace.

Panel 3: This is an actual episode of "The Outer Limits," involving

aliens.

Panel 5: And this is the actual opening to "The Outer Limits."

Panel 7: These are presumably some of the emergency identities Dan

had set up. (Odds are Laurie and Dan were presumed dead in the mass

destruction, and able to disappear without trouble.)

Page 29, panel 1: Veidt's business has continued successfully, and

Millennium has just come out.

Page 30: Laurie's suggestions here mimic the pattern her father's

career took; he switched from a flimsy yellow costume to a leather one with

facial protection, and began carrying a gun. No wonder Sally's upset.

Panels 4-5, 7: Sally still has the Nostalgia bottle. Symbolism?

Page 31: This page shows many of the changes Veidt's brave, new world

has brought to the established themes. The world has changed greatly in

just a few months.

Panel 1: The Gunga Diner has been replaced by Burgers 'N' Borscht,

reflecting new friendliness with the Soviets. The sign on the door

reads, "Happy New Year All Our Customers." (Seymour is just leaving it.) A

workman is scrubbing off the Hiroshima lovers, and another is removing the

fallout shelter sign. Pyramid Construction is rebuilding at the Institute

for Extraspatial Studies site. (The poster says "New Deal," possibly

referring to this new friendliness; the graffiti below it reads, "One in eight

[eight crossed out] 3 go mad" and an anarchy symbol.) The New Utopia's

playbill reads, "Tarkovsky Season This Week: The Sacrifice and Nostalgia."

(The Sacrifice is a Swedish film, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, about an

upcoming holocaust and peoples' reactions to it. I can't find

Nostalgia in my video guide.) The new spark hydrant is a different shape.

Panel 2: At the site of the newsstand, there's a redesigned spark

hydrant and a Gazette box; the headline reads, "RR To Run in 88?" The

fallout shelter sign is gone from the Promethean building. The "RR" referred

to here is Robert Redford, an actor.

Panel 3: The workman is putting up a sign reading, "One World: One

Accord" with crossed Soviet and American flags over the Earth. The

redesigned Promethean sign reads, "Promethean Cabs + Limo: Bringing Light to the

World," with an "Under New Management" sticker.

Panel 4: A Millennium sign has replaced Nostalgia. The graffiti

read, "Quantum Jump" and "New Deal."

Panel 5: Seymour is wearing Veidt sneakers. The graffiti on the left

reads, "Watch the Skies" (a reference to the phrase "Keep watching

the skies," used in '50s SF movies). The headline reads, "NY Survivors

Reveal Nightmare Under Hypnosis;" the newspaper shows Gorbachev shaking

hands with Nixon. Next to it is a copy of "Tales From The Morgue," a horror

comic (which may be increasing in popularity now) in the EC vein (so to

Notice the similarity between the double-P Pioneer logo and the

Rumrunner logo. (The box by Seymour's right foot also has something akin to

the Rumrunner logo.)

Panel 6: The graffiti has been painted over. Across the street at

Woolworth's, a "Sunbursts" sign has replaced "Mmeltdowns" (a more

peaceful image). Notice the clock.

Page 32, panel 4: A sly nod, of course, to ex-cowboy actor Ronald

Reagan, who became President in 1980 in our world.

Panels 6-7: As Seymour reaches for Rorschach's journal, the spatter

of ketchup across his T-shirt brings us back to the beginning.

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CHARACTER GUIDE

[Spoiler alert! This section gives away many of the surprises in the

series.]

Costumed types are listed under their aliases.

ALINE (?-1985): Joey's ex, she dies in the "alien attack." #'s 11-12.

ANGER, BENNY (?- ): Talk-show host, he interviews Dr. Manhattan just

before he leaves for Mars. #'s 3, 7, 11.

BERNARD (?-1985): The newsvendor who owns the newsstand in front of

the Institute for Extraspatial Studies. He took on the job after his

wife Rosa died. He was killed during the "alien attack." #'s 3, 5, 6, 8,

11-12.

BERNIE (?-1985): The kid who sat by the newsstand reading the "Tales

of the Black Freighter," because his mother and sister were out. He was

killed during the "alien attack." #'s 3, 5, 11-12.

BIG FIGURE (?-1985): A crimelord who Rorschach put away. He tries to

kill Rorschach in prison and winds up dead himself. #8.

BOURQUIN, JOE (?-1985): Steve Fine's partner. He investigates the

Blake murder, helps arrest Rorschach, and is killed by the creature in New

York. #'s 1, 5, 8, 11, 12.

BUBASTIS (?-1985): Ozymandias's genetically engineered lynx. Killed

when used as bait for Dr. Manhattan. #'s 4, 10-12.

CAPTAIN METROPOLIS (?-1974): Nelson Gardner. Gardner was a former

Marine lieutenant. He became an adventurer in 1939, and proposed the

formation of the Minutemen; he stayed with them until the end. In 1966 he tried

to organize the Crimebusters. In 1974 he was killed in a car crash.

's 2, 4, 6, 9, 11.

COMEDIAN, THE (1924-1985): Edward Morgan Blake. Began his career in

1939, cleaning up waterfronts in New York. He joined the Minutemen, and

was expelled in 1940 for attempting to rape Sally Jupiter. He changed

his yellow costume for heavier leather in 1941, and became a war hero in

the Pacific. In 1949 he met Sally Jupiter again, sleeping with her and

becoming Laurie's father. He was one of those at the meeting of the

Crimebusters in 1966. He became a government operative at some

point, working in Vietnam (where he was scarred on VVN Night in 1971), and

remaining active after the Keene Act in 1977. In 1985, he discovered

the island Veidt's creature project was based on, and was killed by

Veidt. #'s 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 11.

DERF (?-1985):