Pagae 25, is a continuation of the scene where the doctors are introducing the rats as a team who ” work” together and are capable of assembling a jet engine in 48 hours. These graphics interested me in particular because it is the first place where the reader sees the modification that has occurred. This scene introduces not only the cruelty the modified animals can create, but the cruelty in the eyes of its beholder as well.
Page 25 is divided into four segments. An interesting aspect is that two of the four segments are identical, only magnified. Through magnifying the graphic, the reader is forced to focus on it for more than a glance, forcing the reader to recognize this particular action displayed in the graphic as riveting and memorable. Also by displaying the image at a distance first, makes the reader focus on the main difference between the mirroring rats; the left rat being modified with a mechanical screwdriver as a head, and the opposing rat, simply staring back at him with the same body language. As the graphic is magnified, you can see the facial expression of the opposing rat in comparison to the motion of metal nearing his body. Another interesting aspect of this graphic is the expression of terror in the rat’s face. In this moment, the rat becomes humanized and the reader can relate to it through empathy. The opposing rat also expresses his terror through the action of dropping the screw that was in his possession. In the first graphic, you can barely see the screw, but through the action of the rat dropping it in the second graphic, the reader can infer that the rat is disassociating itself with the world of modification in which his fellow rats are currently immersed in. Also the position of the other rats surrounding them has changed as well. The rat’s tails are in a fleeing direction from the scene rather than surrounding them in the first graphic.
As you continue down the page, the third graphic changes from the view of the human–modified rats to the sleazy smile of a man. The beard alone implies sketchiness, a sense of un-keptness. The dialogue associated with his grin says it all, “say hello to man’s new best friends.” The man couldn’t be any grimier a character.
In this particular frame, and the following two frames, the rats are being humanized while the humans are becoming rats, and furthermore, inhumane.
The very last graphic, after the killing of the rat by his fellow rat, the “doctor” offers the senator a shot at controlling the rats, here a divide between humans exists, where right and wrong is shown through the morals of individuals