Chapters one through three of Watchmen are packed with suspenseful foreshadowing, and contain enough action and subplot to make the history of the characters’ relationships interesting.These chapters use politics, metafiction, and the Watchmen’s familial controversy to build up the comic’s mystery.
The political aspect is used both realistically – in that America was once very wary of the Soviet Union’s political movement – and as a tool to reveal how heavily the United States relies on Doctor Manhattan. When the Soviet Union relizes that Doctor Manhattan has abandoned the U.S., they take advantage of the situation. To demonstrate their worldly power, the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan. It is apparent that Doctor Manhattan is a vital tool in America’s national defense system, but I’m sure there is more to the political reference that the comic has yet to reveal.
There is a subplot in Watchmen: the pirate comic, which acts as both a subplot and a metafictional reminder that Watchmen is a comic. This is driven home by the mention of superhero comics throughout the novel, specifically in the diary of Hollis Mason, and also on page twenty-five of chapter three. The news vendor says, “Y’know, super-heroes are finished. These days, it’s all pirates. Back in ’39, before the real masked men showed up, super-hero comics were enormous. Guess their appeal wore off…” This is a loaded statement. He is describing the popularity of hostile pirate adventures since the super-hero storylines have vanished from the comic scene, but he’s also referring to the rise of crime in society since the “real” superheroes ceased their vigilantism. This is foreshadowing events to come following the abandonment of Doctor Manhattan, but that is the extent of information the reader is given directly.