Watchmen: Chapter IV - page 2

PAGE 2

Panel 3:  In ancient times, the flight of comets through the sky were seen as bad omens, and the appearance of Halley’s Comet at this time, as it was actually sailing through the sky in 1986, would be yet another symbol of the approaching “end of days” within Watchmen.

Panel 4:  Jon’s fascination with watch repair and, in a broader sense, the workings of the universe has been seen in previous chapters with Dr. Manhattan’s work at Rockefeller Military Research Center.  In Chapter I, Page 23 we see Jon manipulating the various parts of a large machine with his mind (very similar to his watch repair work) and also learn of his interest in discovering a gluino, which would help advance the understanding of the infinitesimal aspects of the universe itself.

The cogs of this watch, and the specific order in which they must be connected in order for the watch to work, also represent the small, yet precisely ordered, decisions in Jon’s life – as in all our lives – that lead to him becoming Dr. Manhattan.  And they could also symbolize the many disparate pieces of the puzzle needed to solve the conspiracy against “masked adventurers” that has been put forth by Rorschach.