Notes on this page
Chapter 2, Page 17
Summary
During the 1977 police strike, the Comedian violently suppresses rioters while Dan Dreiberg, as Nite Owl, watches and questions what they are doing. The scene shifts from tactical crowd control to a crisis of legitimacy: the supposed protectors have become combatants against the public they claim to defend.
Panels
The page adapts the nine-panel grid into two panels across the top, three in the middle, and one broad concluding image. Rapid confrontations progressively give way to conversation, before the final long shot slows the reader over the devastated street. Coming after page 16’s spectacular riot tableau, this withdrawal in scale converts action into moral aftermath and leaves Dan’s question hanging over the ruins.
Environment
The street itself argues against the heroes. Protesters demand “regular cops,” smoke and wreckage fill the city, and the foreground newspaper announces “Cops Say: Let Them Do It,” presenting vigilantism as the consequence of institutional collapse rather than a glamorous alternative. The partially visible “Who Watches the Watchmen?” graffiti turns the urban environment into political commentary.
Color
John Higgins floods the flashback with acidic yellows, hot pinks, and smoky oranges, making the riot feel feverish rather than naturalistic. The Comedian’s dark uniform stands sharply against these luminous fields, giving him graphic authority while also making him resemble a black instrument of coercion moving through a city whose colors seem chemically inflamed.
Symbols
The Comedian’s smiley badge is conspicuous in panel 1, a cheerful commercial symbol pinned to an armored man firing into a crowd; its moral dissonance anticipates the bloodstained badge that frames the novel. Masks likewise cease to signify heroic mystery here and become evidence of alienation: to the citizens, these costumed figures look like an occupying force.
Themes
The page exposes the contradiction inside self-appointed heroism: protection without public consent can become authoritarian violence. The Comedian accepts that contradiction with cynical ease, whereas Dan’s final question—whom they are protecting the people from—recognizes that the boundary between guardian and threat has collapsed. The police strike thus becomes a decisive stage in the social rejection of costumed adventurers.
Graphic Novel Technique
Comics lets slogans, newspaper headlines, spoken claims, and violent images remain simultaneously available for comparison. While the Comedian calls himself society’s protection, the reader can still see the terrified crowd and ruined street beneath that assertion. The final panel’s scale grants time to inspect this contradiction, a sophisticated use of spatial reading to make political judgment part of the page’s form.