On my most recent re-read of Watchmen, I started wondering what happened after the final panel. The New Frontiersman, a reactionary right-wing newspaper, had to cancel a planned two-page article condemning those damn Commie Russians due to the peace accords signed after the “alien invasion” that Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias orchestrated. The last panel shows the publisher’s assistant reaching for Rorshach’s journal, in which he detailed his investigation into the “mask killer” which subsequently turned into an investigation into what Ozymandias was doing with his multiple cover industries, in the crank file to run as filler in the original column’s place.
It’s clear that they are going to print Rorshach’s journal because it’s the only thing in the pile of crank letters that would fill the requisite two pages. So what happens after that, do you think? Do people just ignore it and everything keeps on keeping on the way Veidt had planned? Do other media outlets pick up on it and run with it? Does Veidt have to answer for anything he’s done?
Me, personally, I think Nova Express, which is the MSNBC to The New Frontiersman’s FOX News (with similar back-and-forths), would pick up the story and publish a few articles on it condemning Rorshach as a reactionary who misinterpreted all the facts. Veidt would hear of the journal being published and use his contacts to make sure that everyone who worked at The New Frontiersman (all two of them) “disappeared” and try to cover it up. But since it was published, the journal would be out in the public record (most likely buried in libraries’ microfilm or equivalent files) and there would be a slight undercurrent of distrust about Veidt with questions coming up every now and again about his involvement in the alien crisis. After Veidt’s death, more information would come out, but thanks to Veidt’s personal crisis management, there wouldn’t be enough to explicitly condemn him, just raise more questions that can’t be answered.
But that’s just me? What do the rest of y’all think?
