Notes on this page
Chapter 2, Page 09
Summary
At Edward Blake’s funeral, the minister’s words accompany a close approach to Adrian Veidt’s impassive face; the page then cuts into Veidt’s memory of Nelson Gardner convening the would-be Crimebusters. What begins as a solemn meditation on mortality becomes an awkward superhero committee meeting, with Gardner’s ceremonious welcome already undercut by the Comedian’s conspicuous indifference.
Panels
Three narrow funeral panels progressively tighten from medium view to close-up, slowing the minister’s speech and isolating Veidt from the crowd. The fourth repeats his close-up in costume, allowing one gutter to carry the reader backward several years; beneath it, a single expansive panel reveals the entire Crimebusters gathering like a stage tableau. The following page breaks this provisional order into argument, making this large, poised group portrait retrospectively fragile.
Environment
The rain, umbrellas, and formal black clothing make the cemetery a world of public ritual, while Gardner’s apartment displays the managerial trappings of organized heroism: a presentation chart, modern furnishings, and assembled costumed celebrities. The Comedian’s newspaper, reporting France’s withdrawal from NATO, dates the flashback to 1966 and places this private attempt at cooperation against a larger crisis in international alliances.
Color
Cool funeral violets, blue-gray rain, and black umbrellas give way first to the absolute black surrounding masked Veidt, then to the flashback’s pale green room and brightly differentiated costumes. Veidt’s blond hair, pink-purple mask, and gold uniform preserve visual continuity across the cut, while the large panel’s clean pastel field makes the heroes resemble colorful, isolated pieces arranged for a system that may not hold them together.
Symbols
The crucial motif is the mask as a change of social role without a change of person. Panels 3 and 4 hold Veidt’s face in nearly identical frontal close-up, but replace funeral composure with his purple domino mask; the visual rhyme makes “Adrian Veidt” and “Ozymandias” seem less like separate identities than carefully managed presentations of the same controlled self.
Themes
The page treats organized heroism as a problem of institutions rather than costumes. Gardner imagines that a formal name, meeting, and agenda can turn powerful individuals into a responsible collective, but the Comedian reclines behind current events and punctures the ceremony with a belch. Because the flashback arises at Blake’s funeral, his contempt is framed not merely as rudeness but as evidence in the history of the group’s failure.
Graphic Novel Technique
The page performs a transition that prose would need to announce and film would likely underline: a nearly matched face, separated by a gutter, silently changes the setting, year, and identity. Meanwhile, Gardner’s uninterrupted speech begins off-panel and continues across the large tableau, so the reader can pause over each attendee’s posture while his rhetoric tries to unify them. This tension between verbal organization and visible social disorder is a particularly sophisticated use of comics’ simultaneous space.