Watchmen: Chapter II - Page 23

PAGE 23

Panel 3:  The Comedian drops the bottle of alcohol onto Moloch’s bed, and over the next few panels we watch it pour out of the bottle, pooling on Moloch’s bedsheets the way the Comedian’s blood pooled in the New York gutter as issue #1 opened.

Panel 4:  It won’t be blatant, but the “writers, artists, and scientists” on the island will be discussed or shown later in Watchmen.

Panel 8:  This panel mirrors Chapter I, Page 3, panel 3 where we see the Comedian bloodied by his intruder, just before he is sent through the window to the concrete below.  In this panel, the red from the neon light outside Moloch’s window coupled with Blake’s tears make it look like his face is covered with blood as it was in the scene from issue 1.

And his words, “Somebody explain it to me” mirror this same panel from the previous chapter, as the explanation – in the form of his murderer, Ozymandias – is right before him just before he is killed.

Panel 9:  Another visual transition with the image from the previous panel being laid out in a similar fashion to this one, with Rorschach taking the place of Blake, with both of them holding on to Moloch’s shirt in each of their scenes.

It is also interesting to note that the lighting effect of the neon sign outside of Moloch’s apartment, which creates a checker board effect on these two pages, is also symbolic of the fractured, uneven nature of Blake’s emotional state as he was confessing what he knew to Moloch.  This is the only time I can think of that we see the Comedian in such a state of anxiety.