Reading Watchmen in the past I’ve always had a hard time of the castaway story cutaways. Not conceptually, the juxtopositions Are wonderful, but the words of the captions themselves never seemed to sink in.

Picking up the unfinished book now, on the resuming page is this:

What new torture was this? I stood upon the calm sea, a charnel Messiah unable to sink beneath it to the oblivion I craved.

I lifted my eyes up to the heavens…

…and saw instead the earth.

Suddenly, an entire substory clicked into place with poetic clarity.