Contributed Notes for Chapter II
Manlio Loconte II.12.2-3 I don't think that it's Rorschach who comes up behind Dr. Manhattan with the flowers, I think it's Moloch. Because don't we see Rorshach with his sign post shortly after? and why would he bundle up? No one could pick him out without a costume, cause no one knows what he looks like. Also, it gives a little backup to Rorshach's claims that Moloch attended the funeral. Makes sense to me. -- sam
Greg Bole II.16.1 Comedian's new mask to hide his scar from Viet Nam. Many other soldiers came back "scarred" by Viet Nam.
Joe Aultman II This issue tells us all about the Comedian. Although he is dead, we learn about his past as five live characters remember him and some key moments in his life or at least how his life affected theirs. The flashbacks are arranged to provide us with a chronological overview of Blake's life as the Comedian. II.1.5 The aura around Jon keeps the rain off him. II.2.2 "...wash your hands of it and shut it away" text teamed with picture of signboard paint running over the Signboard Man's hands and the guy shutting the cemetery gates. II.7.6 Notice the blood falling in the exact place it will again when it hits the smiley face badge in a few decades. Decades! That's why I love comics... -- sam II.7.8 And I believe that is our familiar smear pattern on his tunic. II.9.5 ff. Watch the episode between Jon and Janey unfold. We don't find out about it in detail until issue 4, but in issue four we also find out Janey is right. He is checking Laurie out, because he knows they will be together in the future. II.10.1-3 These panels go together to form a single picture. II.10.5 Rorschach's words are not flying around in squiggly balloons here. He is not yet the Rorschach he is to become in '75.
II.11.4 Nelson has listed "Black Unrest" as one of America's problems and placed it smack over the southeast. Hollis Mason says in Under the Hood that he is a racist. Also notice that near "Anti-War Demos" on the map that Ohio is up in flames. See Kent State and Neil Young's song "Ohio" [1970? 1971? -- sam] Why It Should Have Been Obvious to You the First Time That Veidt Was The Mask Killer --Part 2: I.11.7 and your commentary about the savior unmasked, but also, why would Veidt think of this moment when he remembers the Comedian? Because this was when he began to get the idea of saving the world. How would Blake feel if he found out that his cynicism played an integral role in the formation of the plan that was so huge and overwhelming that it reduced even him to tears? I think this is pretty convincing (not to mention very smart). -- sam II.12.2-3 Add to your list of transitional effects II.18.8-9 & 11.23.8-9. II.13.2 "If we had lost this war...it might have driven us a little crazy...as a country." Commentary on what actually happened to the U.S. in our time line. II.13.3 Jon thinks Blake is "strange" -- strange enough to comment on when Jon doesn't understand humans anymore anyway. II.14.7 Could be blood on the smiley face badge, but it could be flying through the air. I imagine it's the former. II.15.4 Blake's accusation echoes Janey's regarding the assassination of JFK. Neither understands that the simple and only reason that Jon does not interfere is that he does not. II.15.6 Definitely blood on the smiley face badge here. II.15.6 Blake thinks Jon is "turning into a flake." II.16.1-3 Panels form single picture. II.18.3-4 Blake thinks that he's sane and that Rorschach, Doc Manhattan, and Byron, Lewis, the Mothman, are all crazy. Well, most people agree that Lewis is. Dan's "And you?" reply implies that he thinks Blake is crazy. Blake responds that he keeps things in proportion, then shoots a woman (with rubber shotgun pellets?) for vandalism. II.19.5 Does Jon recognize Moloch? II.19.6 "...as we forgive those that trespass against us..." Visual is Jon shaking hands with Veidt. Why It Should Have Been Obvious To You The First Time That The Signboard Man Was Rorschach -- Part 3: The signboard man watches Jacobi leave the funeral. Maybe he already recognized him, maybe he didn't, maybe he had to follow him home and then check up on him, maybe he already knew everything he needed to. However it works, Rorschach shows up in Jacobi's house on the next page. II.20.5 There's the stuff that Rorschach took out of the refrigerator so he could hide in it. So mass is conserved after all. -- sam WHICH IS NOT REALLY A JOKE. II.23.8-9 This is the fourth of four transitions from past to present involving "transition by analogy" in this issue. All four occur as the last two panels of a page. II.26.7 To your question: is Rorschach right about linear unavoidable time lines? Answer: yes. In the context of Watchmen, Jon Osterman proves that time progresses on a set path and that what happens in the future happens because that is what happens. This deterministic message is truly disturbing to those who believe in free will. Fortunately for us, Heisenberg seems to have proven Laplace and his determinist cronies wrong. Whew! -- sam II.27 Rorschach seems to think the Comedian was sane; lonely, but sane. II.28 "Curtains." I rescind my challenge to your conclusive statement that H.J. was homosexual. There is enough evidence to support it. I forgot about some stuff, like the comments Re Sally and him in II.Doc. I agree that it can be stated definitely.
Alexx Kay II.1.1 Dialogue and image help link the two scenes: "figure" referring to both Laurie and the angel monument, "city of the dead" being both the retirement home and the cemetary. II.2.1 Sally's speech here also refers to the layout of this panel. II.2.2 Rorschach now needs to "wash his hands", and the security agent at the gate is ready to "shut it away". II.2.6 Laurie, uncomfortable, is reflexively lying to her mother about what is happening in new York. II.2.8 The picture in the panel answers the question in the text. II.3.3 "Bury us" is obvious, but did you notice the placing of the flag "on top of" the coffin? II.4.6 The "brighter" flash transition is obvious, but did you notice that the flash cuts off the head of Captain Metropolis? II.6.3 Image of face with blood-obscured eye. II.6.9 King Mob's Ape Mask, highlighting the bestial nature of this scene. This is referred to more explicitly in I.26.5. II.8.1-2 Moving from one bestial sex scene to another... Also note H.J.'s disgust with the female body. II.8.6 Note that Sally has had her picture painted by Varga, a famous pin-up artist. II.8.7-8 "...it rains on the just and the unjust alike..." But it doesn't rain on a man rich enough to have a servant with an umbrella. And is he "the just" or "the unjust", anyway? II.9.3 "...O Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased..." Close-up on Veidt, who sees himself as a saviour of mankind from it's sins. Link to next scene with "displeased"/"pleased", also re-emphasizing the difference between the naive, hopeful past, and the grim, bleak present. II.9.5 We'll see this scene again later. Note how Dr. M is looking at Laurie, and their interactions in the background over the next few pages. Note also that Dr. M. is wearing a reasonable, if brief, set of clothes in this time period. Newspaper headlines: "French withdraw military commitment from NATO" and "Heart transplant patient stable". Both foreshadow political situations, since president Nixon is having heart trouble at the 'present' time of the story. II.10.2 Other 'evils' on Captain Metropolis's little visual aid include "riots", "anti-war demos" and "black unrest". More on the theme of super- hero as fascist, unconcerned with civil liberties. More headlines: "Dr. Manhattan 'an imperialist weapon' say Russians", and something about "Dick." II.11.4-5 Captain M is concerned about The Comedian's destruction of a symbol, he doesn't listen to his description of reality. II.12.1-2 The sermon here continues to apply to Veidt, but now focus shifts towards Dr. M. Will he, at the last hour, shut his ears to our prayers? II.12.2-3 No, that's not Rorschach, that's Moloch. II.12.5 And in 1971, Dr. M. is down to a pair of bikini briefs. The slowly shrinking clothes are an emblem of his slowly retreating humanity. II.13.2 Blake's comments refer on a meta-level to what really did happen to the American psyche after Vietnam. II.14.6-7 More faces with eyes covered by liquid; hers with tears, his with bourbon, then blood. Note also that some blood covers an eye of the smiley-face button. II.15.6-8 "God help us all." Dr. M. is a god-figure, but will he help? Or will we all be buried from his "great mercy"? II.16.3 "Dust to dust" Dan's life as a superhero is covered with dust. II.16.4 A background chracter is spray-painting "Who watches the watchmen", the first time, chronologically, that we see this phrase. he is painting it on the side of the Treasure Island store; this is happening in the same neighborhood that most of the present-day story is set in. II.17.5 "...some new act..." is of course the Keene Act, which will outlaw superheroes. II.17.6 Newspaper headline: "Cops say 'let them do it'. Senator Keene proposes emergency bill." Also note that the stain beneath the newspaper is a close match to the blood on the smiley-face. II.18.8-9 The sermon preaches of cleansing, while we ponder memories of corruption. II.19.5-8 Moloch is a trespasser here. In panel 7, he begins to "lead" Rorschach. Which of the two is "evil", and which the deliverer? II.20.1 Angry passerby is carrying New Frontiersman. II.20.2 Headline "Soviets will not tolerate US adventurism in Afghanistan" II.20.5 Hmmm..., now why is all that frozen food just been thrown away, as well as trays full of ice cubes... II.25.6 "Nothing is insoluble." Certainly not a simple padlock. II.25.7 But of course, he's entering the realm of death. II.26.6 "...bury their head between the swollen teats..." which the picture shows Blake doing, though in a very different sense than the caption. II.27.1 The picture or mirror behind Blake is full of "cracks", while he is pummeled by a masked man who is trying to hold society together. II.27.2 Note that we are not seeing this directly, but in a reflection in the bar mirror. II.Doc.9 Note that the picture has Captain Metropolis reflected in the solar weapon mirror. Did Hollis Mason know that H.J. was gay and using Sally as a cover? Was he trying to allude to that deliberately, or did he just buy the act?
J.D. LaFrance
I have... found evidence to support your claim on II.10.3 that the Comedian resembles Nick Fury. In an interview I have on videotape, Dave Gibbons states: "I came up with this image of a sort of a very muscular Groucho Marx. Because there seemed to be something about Groucho Marx that made me think of people like G. Gordon Liddy. You know, with moustaches. that make a man look kind of interesting. So, I ended up with this fearsome looking figure dressed in black leather. Kind of like a Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD, but kind of a super patriot incarnate, Arnold Schwarzenegger kind of character. How could we offset this? I know, give him one of those smiley face badges." Interesting eh? Gibbons goes on to say that the name Comedian and his profession were inspired by a Graham Greene novel of the same name about a man who messes up people in the name of the government... [In Greene's novel The Comedians, the title refers to the tontons macoutes, death squads run by Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier ("Papa Doc") during the 1960s. -- sam]
Randy J. Paske Regarding Moloch placing the flowers on Blake's grave in chapter 2, nobody seems to have pointed to II.26.5, in which Rorschach's diary reads " . . . so that when it's done, only our enemies leave roses." "Enemies" would of course refer to Moloch, and in that panel we see the roses he left on Blake's grave.
Pb Sanderson II.18.3-4 What Blake is using is not a shotgun, but a 'riot gun' that shoots cannisters (or grenades) of riot-gas, which he mentions having earlier; hence the plume of smoke and the coughing of the victim.
Kennedy II.1.2 First "little detail" I ever noticed in WatchMen: the flowers Laurie is giving to her mother look strangely like her mothers hair when she wore the costume. II.2.4 Not really anything important, but Kovacs looks innocent, even attractive here. II.9.5 Laurie is sitting on expensive looking equipment, her father has his feet on it. II.11.7 Is that a tear à la the angel on the cover, or a glare? II.12.1 The stars are badly out of proportion to the stripes. II.17.2 There's that nasty feminist symbol again. II.25 One wonders what Rorschach means by "American love"... II.28.7 The way the flowers obscure the date is interesting. When I first read the WatchMen, I thought it had been done very recently -- one of the main reasons it reminded me so much of AKIRA.
II.14.6 The sign on the mirror reads, "Gordon Gin," but in this panel it's "Gord Gin" or "Gordian.".
JM II.3.1 Dr Manhattan is surrounded by a force bubble which stops the rain. Compare to comment in II.8.7: "It rains on the just and the unjust alike".
Adam Noble II.1.1 Cover -- The raindrop in the eye of the statue and Sally's "City of the Dead" line. Look at Laurie in XII.7.1. Her tears look suspiciously like those of the statue. She is in the "city" again, surrounded by the dead. |