A newsvendor comments on heightening tensions with the Soviet Union, while a boy reads a comic called “Tales of the Black Freighter” (see “Symbols and Motifs” in this guide for a detailed overview of this recurring story-within-the-story). Without his mask and holding a sign proclaiming, “The End is Nigh” (79), Rorschach asks for a newspaper and tells the newsvendor that the world will end today, but he still asks the vendor to keep his newspaper for tomorrow.

At Dr. Manhattan’s lab, Manhattan and Laurie are having sex until she realizes that he has multiplied himself to be with her and prepare for an upcoming news interview. While Laurie seeks comfort with Dan, complaining about “the way he looks at things, like he can’t remember what they are and doesn’t particularly care” (85), Manhattan’s ex-girlfriend Janey Slater announces to the media that she has cancer and believes that her time with Dr. Manhattan exposed her to radiation. Dan and Laurie decide to walk from the apartment to the studio where Dr. Manhattan is beginning his interview, and along the way, muggers accost them. As reporters ask questions, first about tensions with the Soviet Union and then about the alarming number of Dr.