COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Watchmen 7 Signature
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Grade:
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9.8
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Page Quality:
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WHITE
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Certification #:
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4232408005
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Owner:
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The Captain
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
March, 1987
"A Brother to Dragons"
Alan Moore - Writer
Dave Gibbons - Penciler
Dave Gibbons - Cover Artist
Dave Gibbons - Inkers
John Higgins - Colorist
Dave Gibbons - Letterer
Len Wein & Barbara Kesel - Editors
Dick Giordano - Executive Editor
Synopsis:
Laurie explores Dan's basement and looks at the Nite Owl equipment. When she enters the Owlship, Laurie accidentally turns on the vessel's flamethrower as she mistakes a button for a cigarette lighter. Dan quickly comes down and puts out the fire. After Laurie apologizes for the incident, Dan gives her a proper tour, showing her collection of crime-fighting gadgets and mementos. Laurie is impressed but Dan often downplays his belongings.
Laurie and Dan then go back up and watches the television, which shows a news report of Rorschach's arrest (in which Dan is worried about Rorschach's stay in prison) and the dire situation in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. As they are watching, a passion sparks between them in which Laurie initiates making love. They fall asleep until Dan later wakes up from a nightmare in which he sees himself and Laurie burned in a nuclear fire.
Dan sulks in the basement where he is eventually found by Laurie. He tells her how frustrated he is that he couldn't do anything when war could inevitably happen between the U.S. and Russia. Furthermore, he is also emotionally churned over Rorschach's mask killer theory which has become more believable with Manhattan's exile, Adrian Veidt's assassination attempt, and Rorschach's capture. But Dan is hesitant about whether he should don the Nite Owl costume to "set [himself] straight." Laurie approves his plan and they suit up in their old costumes and take the Owlship out.
While cruising over the city, they notice that a nearby tenement building is on fire. Dan and Laurie spring into action as they help the trapped residents board the Owlship and safely set them on a nearby rooftop. This act of heroism revitalizes Dan's passion and confidence in which he and Laurie consummate their relationship inside the airship. Afterward, Dan then tells to an incredulous Laurie that they should break Rorschach out of prison.
Notes:
-Signed by: Dave Gibbons on 06/30/2023
-The title of this issue, "A Brother to Dragons," is a passage from the King James Bible version of Job 30:29. The passage appears at the end of the story: "I am a brother to dragons and a companion to owls. My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat." This quote relates directly to a number of aspects within this issue: the Owlship that shoots forth flames from its flamethrower much like a dragon; Dan's nightmare is rife with the foreboding one might have imagined ancient soldiers feeling when going off into a wilderness said to hold dragons.
-Benny Anger reappears and along with Red D'eath of the Pale Horse.
-On page 18, panel 3, Daniel makes a spattered smiley-face image on a window; a streak, two raindrops, and a cloud. And on page 28, panel 9, Archie, with the smoke and the moon behind him, makes another smiley face.
Trivia:
-The "magician's cave" comment by Laurie is symbolic of the wizard Merlin, from the legend of Camelot and King Arthur, who was an inspiration for Dan and, from which legend, Dan got the name for his Owlship, Archimedes – the name of Merlin's pet owl and familiar in some of the tellings of the Arthurian legend.
-Laurie comments Daniel's night-vision goggles as "kinda Devo." Devo is the name of a real-life rock band that began in 1972 and has since maintained a cult following.
-The TV news showing the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp is an actual women's protest encampment established to protest against nuclear weapons being placed at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire, England. The encampment lasted from 1981 through 2000.
-Daniel mentions Hiroshima Week, which was the real-life 40th anniversary of the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in World War II and was only two months before the start of "Watchmen".
-Daniel's joke about Dr. Manhattan's teleportation as the "the old Manhattan Transfer." This is a reference to the real-world music group "The Manhattan Transfer."
-Laurie's comment regarding costumed heroics as "to come out of the closet". This phrase commonly means for revealing one's homosexuality. Other writers have commented that some superhero comics may be seen as a metaphor for the homosexual lifestyle.
Quotes:
"I mean... there I was, hanging out with a real hero, being his friend and everything. Being a crime-fighter, y'know? Like part of a brotherhood or something...That's why I sort of regretted the Crimebusters falling through back in sixty-whenever-it-was. It would have been like joining the Knights of the Round Table; being part of a fellowship of legendary beings... but eventually, I realized the Comedian was right: it's all crap dressed up with a lot of flash and thunder. I mean, who needs all the hardware to catch hookers and purse snatchers? I mean really?" — Dan Dreiberg
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