Watchmen: Chapter III - page 5

PAGE 5

The body language with which Dave Gibbons is able to infuse these characters adds so much to the story.  On this page, he imbues Dr. Manhattan – nicely complemented by the cold blue of his body and word balloons – with an unemotional personality.  In my mind, all of Dr. Manhattan’s sound rehearsed with little inflection and even less emotion.

Panel 8:  It will come to light that before Dr. Manhattan – whose real name was Jon Osterman – was changed into this god-like being, he aspired to be a watchmaker.  He uses that same facility, enhanced by his quantum powers, to reconfigure the beaker and its contents on this and the next panel.

“I’m prepared to discuss [my attitude]” is something that men are “taught” to say to their significant others, but the joke goes that we never truly mean it and only say it to appease our lovers.  With the note on Gibbons’s artwork above, this is how that comes across – rehearsed and meaningless.

Panel 9:  Again, the words comment on the imagery as the caption box at the bottom of this panel says, in regards to Dr. Manhattan, “. . . you know how every damn thing in this world fits together except people!”  This is a comment on the scene just witnessed by us over these previous two pages, and punctuated by the reconstituted beaker in Dr. Manhattan’s hand.