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                           THE ANNOTATED WATCHMEN

                   Chapter 12: "A Stronger Loving World"

     Watchmen is a trademark of DC Comics Inc., copyright 1993.  These
annotations copyright 1993 by Doug Atkinson.  They may be freely copied and
distributed, provided the text is not altered.  Corrections and
additional information should be sent to douga@yang.earlham.edu.

     Certain notes are true for each issue.  Each one is written by Alan
Moore, drawn and lettered by Dave Gibbons, and colored by John Higgins.
     Moreover, 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 to the broken
windows of Jewish-owned businesses in Germany (actually spelled
"Kristallnacht", a euphemism for the pogrom 9-10 November 1938).  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.
The "T" in "Utopia" is missing, so the sign reads "U OPIA." 
Opia is the plural for opium, a drug causing sleepiness and 
complacency.
        In death, Joey and Aline are reunited, as are the psychiatrist and 
his wife.  Bernard and Bernie are also together.  Kind of saying, in the 
first two cases, all is forgiven in the face of death.

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.

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.

Page 6: Mass death and spattered blood (and ichor) at the Institute and the
newsstand. 
The creature's ichor covers up all the lettering on the 
Institute For Interspatial Studies' sign, except for the letters: OR AL DIE.  
Probably refers to Veidt's idea, "This had to be done, or all would die." (Not a quote.)           
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.  The spatter on the plug from the
spark hydrant also brings back the smiley-face.

        Also, note that the Utopia is playing The day the Earth stood still,
the famed sf flick in which an alien comes to Earth to check it out for
admission into interplanetary society, and which has a strong antiwar
message...more or less ties in with what Veidt is trying to do.

Notice also that amongst the papers is an Adrian Veidt advert that reads:
Adrian Veidt

I'll give you bodies beyond your wildest imaginations.

Page 7, panel 1:The tears in Laurie�s face mimic the shape of the 
Smiley-face button.

Panel 2: They left early on the first, and it's very early on the
third.

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.

Tandoori is presumably an Indian dish sold at the Gunga Diner.

Page 10, panel 6: Not quite everyone; he missed Roy Chess.  Interesting
that he'll freely admit to killing half of New York, but not his own
servants.

Page 13, panel 1: Another radiation symbol.

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

Page 14, panel 2: This scene, in which Veidt asks his cat's forgiveness
as he decimates her, reminded me of a bit in "Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg 
des Arturo Ui" by Berthold Brecht.
Arturo, a Hitlerian tyrant, is moved to tears when he learns that his
dog may someday die.  Apparently, this was a trait of the real Hitler as
well.  More or less, Veidt kills everyone he loves, or tries to:  the
only survivor of such an attempt is Dr. Manhattan.

Page 19, panel 1: "A pregnant woman, convinced her unborn child was eating
her...". "Illustrating that sequence where the young chew their way out of 
their mother's womb was quite an _experience._"
Twice in WATCHMEN Moore refers to a horror novel ostensibly written by
Max Shea about a foetus eating its way out of its mother's womb.  This is
from a real horror novel by Ramsey Campbell, The Doll who ate it's Mother.
See also issue #8 page 11, panel 5.

Panel 6:  The "big octopus" ending was, initially, a letdown to a lot of us
fan-readers who expected something more than that, and some, such as   
Howard Chaykin, thought Alan hadn't visualized the ending yet when he wrote 
the opening chapters.  But I doubt that, since Moore used the line, 
"They're not paying me to handle monsters from outer space" in one of the 
earlier issues.  The same basic plot was used (in a better manner, I say--
but not sneeringly!) in one of Theodore Sturgeon's stories from A way home.
But Moore may also have been jogged by Reagan's statement that an 
interplanetary war might be the only thing which could unite the nations 
of Earth...a viewpoint also offered in Will Durant and Ariel Burant's 
THE LESSONS OF HISTORY.

Page 22, panel 7: The silhouette calls to mind the Hiroshima lovers
graffiti. Dan's silhouette makes him look like a demon, his tuft of 
hair appearing as a horn, and his hood seeming to be the wings.

Page 23, Panel 1: Rorschach's mask clearly has the two lovers embracing 
on it (see issue 1 page 24).

Page 24, panel 5: More spattered blood.

Page 27, Panel 6: Veidt's little solar system bubble appears to have a 
mushroom cloud exploding in it.

Adrian asks Jon whether he did the right thing, "in the end". Jon
answers that nothing ends. This doesn't seem to reassure Adrian, who
looks doubtful.

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

Panel 2-3: The outer limits in which Robert Culp is physically transformed by
"The Architects of Fear". 

Alberto Mart�nez Mercado notes: This episode of "The outer limits", set in
the sixties, dwells with a scientist who undergoes voluntarily a horrible
physical transformation to resemble an alien, so the EU and the former USSR
can unite their forces against an alien invasion and the world be safe from
a nuclear holocaust.

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.  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,
an amendment to the previous "One in eight go mad" signs seen. It could 
be a comment on increased insanity as a result of Veidt's "method".

New Utopia's playbill reads: "Tarkovski Season This Week: The Sacrifice" The
film is Andrei Tarkovsky's (the russian master film maker) last movie (1986)
and it takes place in the hours before a NUCELAR HOLOCAUST. The main
character named ALEXANDER makes a promise to God he will sacrifice all he
holds dear if the disaster can be averted.

The spark hydrant reminds me of the DC-superhero "Flash" symbol.

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.

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."  The headline reads, "NY Survivors Reveal
Nightmare Under Hypnosis." 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 speak).  Notice the similarity between the double-P Pioneer logo and
the Rumrunner logo.  (The box by Seymour's left 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 reference, of course, to ex-cowboy actor Ronald Reagan.

Panels 6-7: As Seymour reaches for Rorschach's journal, the spatter of
ketchup across his T-shirt brings us back to the beginning.

In the last panel of the story, it looks as if Rorschach's journal
will be printed in the new frontiersman. This could concievably have
Rorschach reveal Veidt from the grave, assuming someone would put the
pieces together of the mask killing and the manhattan massacre.
© by Ralf Hildebrandt
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This file was last modified 17. Jan 2007 by root