The Back-Matter
As
noted earlier, the back-matter for this chapter consists of the edition of the New
Frontiersman Hector Godfrey and his assistant, Seymour, were putting
together on page 10. The main piece is
an editorial on patriotism and masked adventurers by Godfrey, meant as a response
to Doug Roth’s piece, “The Spirit of ‘77” in Nova Express, which we can
assume denounced the recent spotlight on masked adventurers. Moore, again, writes this piece in a distinct
voice, one appropriate in its skewed, conservative ideals – even going so far
as to defend the inception of the Ku Klux Klan as a righteous endeavor intended
to avoid the “mongrelization” of society from a “culture far less morally
advanced.”
As
with any extreme article of this nature – regardless of whichever end of the
spectrum the writer may be coming from – this piece, “Honor is Like the Hawk:
Sometimes It Must Go Hooded,” reveals its biases throughout its arguments,
vindicating like-minded ideologues while inviting ridicule from those on the
opposite arc of the pendulum. There is
little new that we can glean from this piece, with two exceptions. First, we get yet another example of how this
world differs from our real world with the mention of the United States’
“justified retaliatory bombing of Beirut in 1979,” an event that never took
place. Second, if we missed it in the
background of Page 11, panel 3 in Chapter V, we get confirmation of
Rorschach’s collection of the New Frontiersman, emphasizing his
conservative principles.
More
important, though it may not be obvious at this point, is the article on page 4
of this edition of the New Frontiersman.
“Missing Writer: Vanished Persons List Grows as Hunt Called Off,” deals
with Max Shea, whose disappearance has been alluded to in the background of the
main narrative a couple of times. The
argument of whether the New Frontiersman possesses any journalistic
integrity cannot refute the fact that, in this instance, they are correct to
put forth the conspiracy theory surrounding Shea’s disappearance – though
tracing it back to Cuban interests is a dead end. The Frontiersman
cites the disappearance of other prominent creative figures around the same
time of Shea’s disappearance as the main evidence for their supposition.
Architect
Norman Leith, painter Hira Manish, science fiction writer James Trafford March,
and composer Linette Paley are all mentioned in the article, as well as a large
number of people from the scientific community, including eugenics specialist
Dr. Whittaker Furnesse. Ms. Manish we
have already seen, as she and Shea were introduced on page 11 of this chapter.
From their conversation, we can surmise they believe themselves part of
a motion picture company working secretly on a new film and, judging from
Manish’s drawing, it would take little effort to conclude that Leith was integral
in the crafting of the beast under the tarp.
Likewise, having a second sci-fi writer, a composer, and a number of
“semi-skilled menial workers” from the scientific community along with Dr.
Furnesse – as a possible consultant – would make sense within this context of a
movie production.
The
most tantalizing bit of information, described as most likely unconnected, is
the disappearance of a corpse’s head in the same week that Max Shea went
missing. The cadaverous head of Robert
Deschaines, a noted psychic and clairvoyant, is indeed connected with the
secret activities on this island. The
reason behind its disappearance, and those of the other notables mentioned
above, will all be made clear with the final chapter of Watchmen.
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