9 panel, 3x3 grid.
Panel 1 - Estsablishing shot: Adrian Veidt's "Karnak" retreat on the Antarctic tundra.
CAPTION (Dr. Manhattan): "Nothing ends, Adrian..."
Panel 2 - Closer in. Adrian's compound takes up most of the panel. Snow blows by a large panel window.
NO COPY
Panel 3 - Closer in. Through the frosted window, we see some of Adrian's historic treasures broken, smashed and destroyed on the floor. A planned advertisement for "Millenium" perfume on a knocked-over easel looks as if it was slashed with a knife. In the middle of the debris is Adrian's cape, half-torn. A copy of New Frontiersman is in view, Rorschach's "face" dominates the cover, the headline: Hero's Journal: Veidt Exposed!
NO COPY
Panel 4 - Closer in. Foreground, we see the heap of Adrian's cape from a different angle. ADRIAN is sitting in front of his giant wall of TV screens. His back is to us, but his head is hung so low that we barely see his hair. The images are unclear, but on a few, "SPECIAL REPORT" and "LIVE VIA SATELLITE" in various languages read across the bottom.
NO COPY
Panel 5 - Closer in. Adrian has turned his chair toward us so that his back is to the screens. He is weeping uncontrollably, slumped forward, head back, and he is holding an automatic pistol in his hand, pressed flat to the side of his face, as if trying to wipe his tears with it. It looks as if he has torn his tunic, rending it apart, his torso exposed. The screens show various reporters in their studios or on-site where there is massive amounts of smoke, ash, and fluttering paper. One screen says "LIVE - NYC"
NO COPY
Panel 6 - Closer in. Foreground, Adrian (head and shoulders) has put the pistol in his mouth, tears running down his face in despair. The TV screens are now in better focus: They show, from various angles, one tower of the World Trade Center smoking from when the first plane hit.
NO COPY
Panel 7 - One TV screen, just before the second plane hits the other tower. The bottom of the screen reads: "Breaking News - September 11, 2001"
NO COPY
Panel 8 - On the same screen, the side of the second tower explodes from the plane crash. Blood spatter splashes the screen. The blood on the screen on top of the televised fireball is a resemblance of the Comedian's smiley-face button.
NO COPY
Panel 9 - Black text on white background:
COPY: And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. - Percy Bysshe Shelley
FDNY-NYPD 9-11-2001: Never forget...
I like the construction of the page and its pace. But I just don't buy the central concept of Veidt topping himself.
ReplyDeleteHe's far too arrogant. To him there'd always be another way out.
Maybe it's just me.
I expected the last few panels to be Veidt seeing the attacks and not going through with it. Pouncing on the opportunity and seeing at as 'another chance'.