They're both men with square faces and short brown hair...
#411 shows us a strip club owner, unnamed, who just acquired a chemical form of mind control. And #491/492 shows us Vik, the current dealer of that chemical form of mind control, concluding a business deal with an unnamed man who is apparently buying attractive mind-controlled women. If #411 is not Van Winkle then we have no setup for #464. And if #491/492 is not about the same man as #411 then Vik has a new business partner appearing out of thin air. Either one would be poor narrative design. But if the man in #411 is Van Winkle then the narrative thread holds together.
They both have green eyes too.
The trouble with 411 showing us a strip club owner, unnamed, is that we've already seen a strip club owner who bears more than a passing resemblance to him. Put panel 3 of 209 alongside panel 3 of 411: if we're supposed to think they're two different people then one of them should have had an eye patch, or something. As for style, the guy in 411 appears to be wearing a naff shirt, something Sawyer could presumably achieve by stripping off his naff outer layers. Which he may very well do in his back office, which we've never seen, and which may look very much like the one in 411.
Plus, as I say, we know Sawyer has been involved with Pink Clouds before. So the conversation in 411 ("This is still on their radar") makes sense, given that that was still a fairly fresh revelation. I made it clear at the time that I took the guy in 411 to be Sawyer (because he looks like Sawyer) and got no clarification. Which is why I assumed in 464 that Van Winkle's is connected to Sawyer's - because I'd suggest the guy in 411 is talking to someone with a shared business interest.
For what it's worth, I don't think the invisible guy here is Sawyer, and I'm not saying it's not the boss of Van Winkle's. But 491 gave us the impression that this transaction is taking place in the vicinity of Princess Pink. And we haven't had an establishing scene to tell us there's anyone based
there but Yves.
The plan with Alex and Katie makes no sense with Vik acting for his own ends. Vik wanted Amy. And he got Amy by walking up to her and spraying her with Pink Clouds. If he needed to test the stuff he could have done that on anyone; he didn't have to steal a Princess Pink van and do all the rest of that. For all we know, he'd already proved it worked on Laura in the lab.
And there
is a connection between Vik and Julian that is yet to be explained. (More scenes for which we've had no set up.)
There'd be some point in Van Winkle's wanting to get hold of Katie. But I don't get the sense from 411 that
that guy commissioned Vik to get her; he wouldn't need to test Pink Clouds in that case. And from a logical narrative point of view, as I say, you wouldn't buy women from someone selling you Pink Clouds. You just wouldn't. Anyone agreeing to take the women on would only do so to
reduce the price he's paying for the drug.
EDIT: I thought I'd said this but I didn't:-
We're not shown the character Vik's dealing with. We've only seen the guy from 411 once (apparently). And if we were to list the things we think we know about him, one of the very few would be that he was interested in buying Pink Clouds from Vik. So, where's the suspense? Why not show us his face here? Whoever he is, he's the obvious candidate. But on the other hand, page 500 is approaching and maybe some revelations are too.
