PAGE 8
Panel 1: Veidt’s
remark that one “…need not delve quite so deeply into antiquity…” to discover
the reason for his celebration is emphasized by the shallow pool he stands at,
a pool that one would not have to reach too far into, in order to find the
bottom.
This image
is also a call-back to Chapter V –
which was laid out as a reflection of itself, and within which Veidt played a
major role.
Panel 2: 1939 is an important year, as that is when
Batman debuted in Detective Comics #27 (a year after Superman’s auspicious
debut in Action Comics #1), and is a point when comics – and superhero comics,
in particular – begin their ascendance in America.
Visually,
note that Veidt is only seen in shadow in this panel – which is also the case
for subsequent panels exhibiting this past he is recounting. This symbolizes the fact that the man who
became Ozymandias was only a shadow of himself before the epiphany that led to
his physically and intellectually superior alter-ego.
Panel 3: Note that Veidt’s wine glass is still untouched.
Panel 5: The butterfly in the background – the same
one seen on the cover of this chapter – will play a minor role later.
Panel 6: The large painting of Alexander of Macedonia
looks very much like Adrian Veidt and transitions directly to
Panel 7: and the close-up of Adrian – his blond locks
and chiseled features mirroring his role model.
The
significance of Veidt’s remark – “...true, people died…perhaps unnecessarily…” –
as stated with his servants visible in the background will become evident two
pages hence.
Panel 9: Veidt’s remark that he “…wanted to have
something to say to [Alexander], should [they] meet in the hall of legends…” is
made over an image where we look up through the pool at Veidt. This emphasizes the fact that he aspired to
these objectives in order to impress a dead man, whose point of view would be
similar to Gibbons’s point of view in this panel.
And
this image transitions directly to
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