Chapter III: “The judge of all the Earth”
(From Genesis: Chapter 18, V. 25: “Shall not the judge of all the Earth do right?”)
The world stands poised on the brink of nuclear armageddon. Everyone expects it, and the whisper of approaching death is loud in the air. Rorschach is predicting the end of the world --- tomorrow, he says, definitely tomorrow. Laurie's world has collapsed as she realises (as if she did not know already, but having it pushed in your face makes it impossible to ignore or deny) that she is not the most important thing in her lover's life. This has been made rather cruelly but abundantly clear by virtue of the fact that Doctor Manhattan has created two copies of himself, one to help in his lovemaking with Laurie while the third continues important research outside. Well, a girl can't help but feel less than a little special, can she?
She goes to see Danny, who says she can tag along with him on his visit to Hollis. On the way they are attacked by a knife-wielding gang. Just the usual night, and they leave battered and bleeding bodies behind them without hardly a thought. Well, they were both superheroes! Manhattan meanwhile has gone to do his first ever Q&A at one of the TV stations, and shocks everyone there by literally transporting himself into the studio. He can do stuff like that, you know. But when the line of questioning leads to dubious links to numerous deaths from cancer being linked to his friends and people who associated with him, and the news is broken that Laurie's mother also has cancer, this is too much for the godlike being and he brings the interview to a close. The reporters latch on to the possibility of a bit of dirt on the big blue giant though, and after he loses his temper he teleports them all into the parking lot, an action which is unfortunately caught on camera, live, coast to coast.
In his absence, Laurie is told she needs to be screened for cancer, which her mother now has, seemingly as a result of close proximity to the Earth's erstwhile protector, and Rorschach greets the newsvendor's jibe that the world didn't end after all yesterday, as he predicted, with a cool “Are you sure?” Shortly afterwards, the news breaks that Russian forces have invaded Afghanistan. With Doctor Manhattan, America's unstoppable ace in the hole, out of the picture, her enemies are ready to strike, and the world moves a step closer to doomsday. Nixon and his military advisers prepare for a pre-emptive strike, but even then, they forecast huge losses. The president decides to wait a week, no doubt hoping for the return of their saviour, who is at this moment staring up at the stars from an alien planet, and trying to figure out what he wants to, or should, do.
QUOTES
Newsvendor: “We oughta nuke Russia and let God sort it out! I mean, I see the signs, read the headlines, look things inna face, y'know? I'm a newsvendor, goddammit! I'm informed on the situation! We oughta nuke 'em till they glow! Of course, that's only my opinion. For what that's worth, y'know? Inna final analysis.”
Newsvendor: “How's the enna world coming along?”
Rorschach: “It'll happen today. I've seen signs.
National Examiner reported a two-headed cat born in Queens. Today for certain. You'll keep tomorrow's newspaper for me?”
Laurie's mother: “I remember how, soon after he failed to prevent JFK's assassination, we argued. I said 'John, you know how every damned thing in this world fits together except people!”
Interviewer: “In his first ever live questions-and-answers session, let's have a big hand please for Doc Manhattan himself, Dr. Jonathan Osterman! John, I hope you'll forgive me for asking you this, but what's up Doc?”
Reporter 1: “Also we have reports of more than two dozen other past associates, similarly afflicted...”
Reporter 2: “Doctor Osterman! Tina Price, from the
Washington Post! Is there any truth to these allegations?”
Interviewer: “C'mon, let's get out! The mob is getting aroused!”
Reporter 3: “Doc, I'm Jim Weiss from the
Enquirer. Do you think you gave Ms. Slater cancer by sleeping with her?”
Doctor Manhattan: “No, please... If you'll just let me through...”
Interviewer: “Let him through! He's not here to answer questions on intimate moments!”
Reporter 1: “How does it feel to know that you may have doomed hundreds of people?”
Doctor Manhattan: “Please ... if everyone would just go away and leave me alone...”
Doctor Manhattan: “Safety regulations. I see. It seems I'm incapable of cohabiting safely either emotionally or physically. Perhaps you'd best tell Ms. Juspeczyk and your superiors that I'm leaving.”
Army guy: “Leaving?”
Doctor Manhattan: “Yes. For Arizona first I think, and then Mars.”
Army guy: “
Mars? Oh ha ha ha ha ha! Doc, you had me going there! Ha ha ha! Y'know, you're a regular kind of ...” (Dr. Manhattan vanishes, leaving his clothes in a heap) “... guy ... Holy Christ!”
Newsvendor: “How about you? I see the world didn't end yesterday.”
Rorschach: “Are you sure?”
Interviewer: “Ms. Juspeczyk, I have to ask: did you place Dr. Osterman under any emotional stress last night?”
Laurie: “What! Are you blaming me for something? Who do you think you are? Listen, when Jon gets back you're in big trouble!”
Interviewer: “Jesus Christ, I have taken enough of this! Listen lady! If our psychologists are right, Jon is quite possibly
never coming back! Your meal ticket has flown the coop! The linchpin (sic) of America's strategic superiority has apparently gone to Mars! But you're right: I'm in big trouble, and you're in big trouble, and we're
all in big trouble!”
Between the lines
As the fallout shelter sign is attached to the wall of an office, we can see that it is called, or at least houses, Promethan Cab Co. Prometheus of course was the god who stole fire from the Heavens and brought it to Man. So too will fire soon threaten to rain down upon mankind. Later we see their catchphrase/strapline: “Bringing light to the world”. Quite what that has to do with cabs is anyone's guess...
The back cover of the issue of
Tales of the Black Freighter (which, just for good measure and to add an extra spoonful of irony, we can see is being read by a black kid) shows an advertisement for “The Veidt Method”. Remember Adrian Veidt?
A newspaper on the newsstand asks the question “How sick is Dick?” and mentions that the president has now survived his third heart bypass operation.
Scattered on the ground are empty food containers which bear the name
Gunga Diner, which we'll remember was firebombed in the first episode.
Over all of this, and occupying the first page, the newsvendor opines that the US should just nuke Russia.
From another angle, we can see that the building to which the sign was affixed also houses the Institute for Extraspatial Studies, where Doctor Manhattan works.
Laurie laments the fact that in New York, cabs can just disappear, as Doctor Manhattan vanishes from the Institute to reappear nanoseconds later at the TV studios for his interview.
As the guy from Army Intelligence warns him to be careful of the subjects he addresses in the interview, and “not to get into any tight corners”, we see the thugs corner Danny and Laurie as they walk down a dark alleyway.
We see an advertisement for
The New Frontiersman (which is actually the magazine Rosrchach was collecting at the newsstand in the earlier pages) which says “In your heart of hearts, you know it's right”, and someone has spraypainted the word “wing”!
Those clever little touches
With so much of
Tales of the Black Freighter in this chapter, there's a definite piratical and nautical theme, as we see Laurie stop outside a cinema which is showing
Treasure Island and has a flyer for
Mutiny on the Bounty. Perhaps even more ironic, as, if you take Manhattan as her “captain”, being her lover, then she has basically mutinied against him by running off.
As the TV receptionist moans “They ain't paying me enough to deal with monsters from outer space!” (shaken by Doctor Manhattan's literal appearance in the studio) Laurie and Dan pass a billboard for the cult classic
This Island Earth.
Is it just coincidence that the interviewer at abc looks very like Clark Kent, this being about superheroes and all?
Tales of the Black Freighter
It's only now that the story told in the comic-within-a-comic starts to hove a little closer to the reality of what's going on here. I could write literally pages about the symbolism and the synchrnonicity between the two stories, but that would take too long. For now, let's be content to analyse what we have here, and link them to the story. In essence, it's the story of a man seemingly captured by pirates. The text opens thus, and I'll explain how each panel it adorns is selected for the maximum impact.
“Delirious, I saw that Hellbound ship's black sails against the yellow Indies sky, and knew again the stench of powder, and men's brains, and war.” This first sentence is paired with a closeup of a Nuclear symbol, whereon, with the zoom used here, the top part of the three-pronged symbol does look like a black sail (and has black connotations) against a yellow sky (yellow background) and certainly presages war, if a very short and brutal one.
“The heads nailed to its prow looked down, those with eyes; gull-eaten, salt-caked, liplessly mouthing “No use! All's lost!” The heads of the screws are being tightened as the sign is attached to the wall, proclaiming this to be a nuclear fallout shelter. Despair is heard in the screeching, rasping voices of the screws as they are tightened. If fallout shelter signs are being put up, all surely is lost as the world prepares for nuclear armageddon.
“The waves about me were scarlet, foaming, horribly warm, yet still the freighter's hideous crew called out “More blood! More blood!” We see the back of the jacket of the maintenance guy who is attaching the sign (much in Watchmen happens over a number of panels, the camera, as it were, moving back a step each panel until finally you can see the whole picture, and so it is here) has a big red strawberry on it, for some reason, and I guess that can be linked to the request for more blood. More importantly, however, on the wall to the right is a missing persons poster, a writer reported as missing, and this will have profound implications later, so take note of it.
“Its star-streaked hull rolled over me. In despair I sank beneath those foul, pink billows, offering up my wretched soul to Almighty God, his mercy and His judgement.” I'm not sure, but I think the “foul pink billows” are sexually cast, in that, maybe, sinking into a woman's legs, or her buttocks? Not sure. But then there's judgement mentioned, and look at the title of the episode. We also see, only now, that the kid is sitting on the sidewalk beside the newsstand, reading the comic. These are the kind of slow revelations that make Watchmen such a rewarding read, over and over, and never ever to be rushed through.
“Waking from nightmare I found myself upon a dismal beach-head, among dead men and the pieces of dead men. Bosun Ridley lay nearby. Birds were eating his thoughts and memories. Reader, take comfort from this: in Hell, at least the gulls are contented. For my part, I begged they would take my eyes, thus sparing me further horrors. Unheeded, I stood in the surf and wept, unable to bear my circumstances. Eventually, tears ceased. My misfortunes were small: I was alive. And I knew life has no worse news to offer me.” Immediately this is read, we see a sign THE END IS NIGH and Rorschach arrives, looking for his magazine. It couldn't be more perfect. We also, for the first time, see the actual pages of the mag, but it's scribbly and indistinct. Someone is definitely crying.
“I had a sudden memory of clinging fast to someone through the tempest. The figurehead lay at my feet, blindfolded by seaweed. Alone upon that dreadful shore, she smiled. I made to take the ribbons of kelp from off her painted eyes, then thought better of it, not wishing her to suffer the terrible distractions of that grim tideline. It was all I could do for her, though she had borne me through seas of blood, though her cold wooden breast had nourished me in the heart of the storm. Her damp embrace had prevented me from drifting beyond reach, yet this small comfort was all I could offer. I could not love her as she had loved me.” With this, we switch to the Institute, where Doctor Manhattan is tenderly waking Laurie, and the connection is clear.
“The freighter's murderous onslaugh had surprised us”. This is shown over the revelation that Nova Express, rag of the day which has just been interviewing Janey Slater, is carrying the news of her cancer which can now be linked to her relationship with Doctor Manhattan.
“We'd been blasted to fragments before we could warn Davidstown of the hell-ship's approach. I alone survived upon my remote atoll.” If there is any man who is not only an island, but could survive that which nobody else could, it's our Doctor Manhattan.
“I thought of my family, vulnerable, unsuspecting, never dreaming that damnation bore down upon them, sails pregnant with a pirate wind, a necklace of heads at its prow. Crazed with helplessness, I cursed God and wept, and wondered if He wept too.” as these words are read, the newsvendor is talking about his wife, and rain begins to fall on the pages of the magazine.
“But then, what use His tears, if His help were denied me?” At this point the kid reading the comic book asks the vendor for his cap to protect his comic, but the newsman refuses.
“My own sobbing had frightened the gulls. They departed. And in the terrible silence I understood the true breadth of the word “Isolation”. Here, the vendor says “In the end, a man stands alone. All alone. Inna final analysis” as we get a closeup of the rain falling on the metal fallout shelter sign.
“That night I slept badly, beneath cold, distant stars, ponderong upon the cold, distant god in whose hands the fate of Davidstown rested. Was He really there?” Significant because at this point Doctor Manhattan has gone to Mars, from the desert, and all we can see is stars. Also, surely he is the god of whom is spoken? Can there be a being as close?
“Had He been there once, but now departed?” Has Earth lost its only chance of staving off nuclear armageddon with the departure (we're unsure at this point whether or not it's permanent, but would imagine so) of the giant superhero?
“The morning sun found me no more wise, no less troubled. Further down the shore, several of the beached corpses had become inflated by gas”. A reference perhaps to the headline of the right-wing
The New Frontiersman which screams defence of Doctor Manhattan and blames the Russians?
“I set about burying the sodden carcasses, matching odd limbs as best I could. With them, I buried all hope for my family's survival.”
“Using driftwood I began to dig a pit, deep and wide. I had never seen nor imagined so many dead people. Noon came and went, by dusk the crater was deep enough and I commenced hauling those cold, maimed, wretched things into the bed I had prepared. Dragging and cursing, I hoped that my wife and daughters might be tucked in by gentler hands when their time came. The freighter was almost upon them. Who would care for them, now I was gone?” Clearly a collorary with the possible thoughts of the departed Doctor Manhattan, who must indeed have looked upon (his fellow) humans as creatures in his care, things to be protected. As the black freighter of the coming armageddon bore down towards them, who would save them now?
“Exhausted, I slept on top of the grave, my dreams ringing with the horribly familiar screams of children, the black freighter bearing down upon all I loved, and I was powerless to stop it.”
Rather hilariously, the kid, who has been reading this magazine (which we now find he took off the newsstand and just began reading) complains that there's no way he's buying this when it has no ending! A) he probably had no intention of paying for it anyway (why would he? He's read it by now) and B) is he unfamiliar with the idea of a story that continues through several issues? Idiot.