Comedian (comics)

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The Comedian
The Comedian from Watchmen. Art by Dave Gibbons.
Publisher DC Comics First appearance Watchmen #1 (1986) Created by Alan Moore (story) and Dave Gibbons (art), based on The Peacemaker
Characteristics Alter ego Edward Morgan Blake Affiliations United States government, Crimebusters, Minutemen Abilities None, but is an expert in practically any type of weaponry.

The Comedian (Edward Blake) is a fictional character, a superhero featured in the acclaimed 1986 DC Comics series Watchmen.

Contents 1 Character Background 2 Involvement in Watchmen 3 Fictional character history 4 Government-sponsored activity 5 Death & Legacy 6 Powers and abilities 7 Analysis 8 The "Smile"

[edit] Character Background

The Comedian is a cigar-chomping, gun-toting vigilante-turned-paramilitary agent. He has touted some right wing, ultra-patriotic views^{[citation needed]} but, during some of the series' most intense moments, has shown himself to be a nihilist with little regard for morality or human life.^{[citation needed]}

He was created by Watchmen writer Alan Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons, although, like all characters in the series, he was based on a Charlton Comics character, in this case Peacemaker,^{[citation needed]} created by writer Joe Gill and artist Pat Boyette.

Moore also based him on G. Gordon Liddy^{[citation needed]}, although Liddy himself appears a few times in Watchmen as a separate character: at a banquet in Blake's honour he is mentioned in the text and laughs at Blake's reference to the Kennedy Assassination (Chapter 9, page 20); he also appears when still-President Nixon arrives at NORAD (Chapter 10, page 3).

The Comedian's alter-ego of Edward Blake is a play on the name of movie director Blake Edwards,^{[citation needed]} best known for the Pink Panther comedies. His character design is said to have been based on actor Burt Reynolds.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Involvement in Watchmen

The story of Watchmen starts with the aftermath of a murder in 1985: a man named Edward Blake was beaten mercilessly and thrown through the window of his apartment, falling several stories to his death. A "costumed adventurer" named Rorschach begins independently investigating the murder. While searching Blake's apartment, Rorschach discovers a hidden closet containing a costume and other items that indicate that the murdered man was The Comedian. The main plot of Watchmen initially involves Rorschach's suspicion of a plot to kill costumed heroes ("masks"); his continuing investigation into Blake's murder leads to a much larger, more horrifying secret. The Comedian never appears alive in Watchmen (the first issue begins the morning after his death), but is seen several times in memories of other characters shown as flashbacks.

[edit] Fictional character history

The Comedian was born in 1924 as Edward Morgan Blake. When he first became a costumed adventurer in 1939, he dressed in a clownlike costume with a simple domino mask. An effective and brutal vigilante, Blake managed to expunge most organized crime from the New York harbor. He became a member of The Minutemen, a prominent group of heroes, of which he was the youngest member. After a meeting, however, he sexually assaulted fellow Minuteman Silk Spectre (who was about three years older than him and whom he seemed prone to flirting with); she was spared only when another Minuteman, Hooded Justice interrupted the assault and beat Blake, breaking his nose. The Comedian was expelled from the group - but Silk Spectre's agent persuaded her not to press charges against him for fear of what it would do the group's image - and continued to work on his own, although his self-restraint continued to slip. He would later have another encounter with Silk Spectre, and the second time around, he impregnated her with her daughter and successor, Laurie, but it is not entirely clear if he knew she was his daughter or not. While never explicitly talked about, the second sexual encounter between the Comedian and the first Silk Spectre is said to be consensual, and at the end of Watchmen it is implied that, in spite of everything, the first Silk Spectre had feelings for the Comedian.

In the 1940s, Blake updated his Comedian uniform, after being stabbed by a small-time hood. He adopted a leather outfit that served as light body armor, adorned with short star-and-stripe-themed sleeves and a small happy face button. He retained the small domino mask and began carrying a pistol. He fought in World War II, becoming a war hero in the Pacific theater. It is also implied, but not directly stated, that he murdered Hooded Justice in revenge for the beating he suffered. By the late 1960s, Blake had begun working as a covert government operative. Hollis Mason, the original Nite-Owl, had published his autobiography Under the Hood by this point and he disclosed the Comedian's sexual assault on Sally Jupiter/Silk Spectre, but Blake never sued him for it, interestingly enough. In 1966, he was invited to join the Crimebusters by Captain Metropolis, but he quickly ruined the older hero's hope of a new team by mocking him, claiming he was only doing it for vanity and glory, and even set his display on fire while saying that old fashioned crime fighting methods were not useful for saving the world when the threat of nuclear war lay overhead at all times. It was also here that the Comedian met his daughter, Laurie, now the new Silk Spectre, and asked her if her mother ever talked about him while lighting a cigarette for her, but their conversation was quickly broken up by an angry Sally Jupiter; the Comedian seemed genuinely perplexed that Sally was still holding a grudge against him, saying he thought they had settled their differences, and Laurie noted that the Comedian looked sad as he watched them drive away, and felt sorry for him until her mother told her of their past history (but still not telling Laurie that she was his daughter), after which she felt nothing but disgust and hatred towards him. Alongside Doctor Manhattan, The Comedian played a major role in the United States' war with Vietnam. Shortly after Manhattan's godlike powers forced the north Vietnamese into full surrender, Blake was confronted by a woman he had made pregnant. He told her bluntly that he planned to leave the country immediately without her, and in a rage she slashed his face with a broken bottle. Blake shot and killed her. His injury led to a disfiguring scar that ran from his right eye down to the corner of his mouth; after this incident, he wore an enclosing leather gimp-style mask when dressed as The Comedian.

The costumed adventurers faced a massive backlash and rioting in the 1970s; in response, Congress passed the Keene Act, requiring all heroes to register with the government if they wished to remain active. The majority of them "retired" in anonymity; a few, like Ozymandias, publicly revealed their identities and capitalized on the sudden fame, while others, such as Rorschach, continued their activities in open defiance of the law. Doctor Manhattan and The Comedian were two of the few who registered with, and were employed by, the government.

[edit] Government-sponsored activity

It is strongly implied that Blake killed Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein before they could reveal the details of the Watergate scandal. In the series' alternate reality, Richard Nixon enjoyed unprecedented popularity and was able to serve four terms as President after a constitutional amendment. Blake was in Dallas, Texas, nominally as Nixon's bodyguard, on the day that John F. Kennedy was shot; it is also implied, although vaguely, that Blake either was the actual assassin or knew of the assassin's plot beforehand. The Iran hostage crisis in 1980 was resolved when Blake freed the captives after an assault.

[edit] Death & Legacy

While on a plane during a mission in 1985, Blake noticed suspicious activity on an uncharted island. He investigated and discovered that Adrian Veidt, also known as Ozymandias, owned the island; he also learned details of Veidt's plan to end the Cold War and unite humanity through an elaborate and horrific hoax. Unable to bear the burden of knowledge alone, Blake broke into the apartment of Edgar Jacobi, who had fought Blake years earlier as Moloch, and rambled drunkenly about the island. Veidt had bugged Moloch's house earlier and after learning of Blake's newfound knowledge, subsequently killed both Blake and Jacobi to keep his plan secret.

While trying to convince Doctor Manhattan to save the Earth from nuclear war, Laurie came to the shocking realization that the Comedian was her father. This revelation provoked an unexpected emotional response in the superhuman Manhattan, who was stunned that two people as different as the Comedian and Sally Jupiter could come together and produce a child, and that child being Laurie, he realized that such odds of improbability extended to all members of the human race. This revelation encouraged Manhattan that human life was worth saving and, later, gave Laurie a chance to reconcile with her mother.

[edit] Powers and abilities

Edward Blake was a skilled hand-to-hand combatant in excellent physical condition. His simple, street-wise fighting style was very effective. In the "Under the Hood" excerpts it is revealed that the Comedian bested Ozymandias in their first encounter - a slight that Veidt never got over. Never depicted as an "expert" marksman per se, Blake was proficient with a .45 pistol and pump-action shotgun. His participation in World War II and Vietnam suggest that was skilled in military tactics. His government-sanctioned activities suggest that he was very talented in or received training in covert operations and unconventional warfare. It is implied that he was a "Black-Ops/CIA" type agent during the 1960s and 1970s. Blake was fairly slight when he was introduced as a member of the Minutemen, but his physical stature increased over the years, which could be attributed to the fact that he was only a teenager at the time he served with the group. At the time of his death Blake was quite tall and had a very built physique. Although Veidt was able to overpower and kill Blake in an ambush where Blake was thrown out a window, Blake was apparently drunk at the time, while Veidt's physical abilities appear to have dramatically increased over the time since their last fight. Veidt's use of physical force, instead of a weapon, can be seen as revenge for Blake defeating Veidt many years before.

[edit] Analysis

The Comedian was essentially a nihilist. He appears to lack any moral values or clear ethical code, as is evident in his actions in Vietnam, and often appears to be driven by personal whims.

Doctor Manhattan claims that he has "never met anyone so deliberately amoral" as the Comedian, while Ozymandias describes him as "practically a Nazi" and refers to his "practiced cynicism". This would imply that deep down Blake's cynical and comtemptous view of the world and people in general was an act worthy of the best on-stage comedian. He constantly says life is simply a joke, and that he's just playing along because he is the only person who realizes what the joke is.

Rorschach, who seems to admire the Comedian for his ruthless tactics and refusal to back down from the horrors of the world, muses during the course of the story that the Comedian was actually satirising the numerous immoralities of society with his apparently sociopathic behavior.

The Comedian's anti-social attitude is often used to bring to light the hypocrisy of other characters in the series: when he interrupts Captain Metropolis's meeting of the Crimebusters, he accuses the aging superhero of wanting to play "dress up", and sets fire to a map Captain Metropolis had displayed of America's "social ills" (a close up of the burning map reveals such problems as "Student Protests" and "Colored Unrest").

Another example is the incident in Vietnam when the Comedian stumbles away from the body of the woman he has just shot. Doctor Manhattan begins to condemn his action only to be interrupted as Blake points out that the seemingly all-powerful man could have easily prevented anybody from being harmed but "didn't lift a finger". He even accuses Manhattan of having no interest or concern for the human race, including his lovers Janey Slater and the second Silk Spectre. "God help us all!" he exclaims, as if foreseeing Manhattan's casual disregard for the end of the world.

Despite his seeming amorality, the Comedian did react with stunned disbelief and horror when, shortly before his death, he stumbled across a plan for mass murder, which Ozymandias attributed to "professional jealousy". This suggests that even he has his limits, and there are some things even the Comedian doesn't find funny. Some might interpret it as meaning that beneath his sadistic exterior, he may have actually cared for others, and in his own mind his actions in World War II and Vietnam were justified because he was serving his country, thus serving a utilitarian effort. When he breaks down in front of Moloch, he admits that he did horrible things (among them attacking women and shooting at kids in Vietnam) and asks for forgiveness.

In other scenes the Comedian had almost appeared to look forward to the end of the world, such as during the Crimebusters fiasco when he declared that there was no point in doing anything since America would soon be just one big nuclear wasteland. By the end of his life World War Three was on the brink of reality. Blake then discovered a plot to prevent it by destroying half of New York (a bit like destroying Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended World War Two). He faced a dilemma: would he expose and prevent it and save three million New Yorkers, or allow it to proceed and save billions of people worldwide? Killing individuals, even hundreds in wartime, was one thing: mass murder on the scale of millions was another. This led Blake to heavy drinking and maybe even a nervous breakdown, as shown by his behaviour in Moloch's bedroom (in the scenes when he is being beaten in his flat, Gibbons seems to show Blake putting up little resistance and even looking his killer in the eye and apparently welcoming death).

What made the Comedian into the person he was is never revealed, therefore it can only be assumed that his antisocial behavior and deranged sense of humor was his way of coping with the brutal environment he lived in. Human beings are known to use humor as a coping mechanism, which the Comedian takes to a dangerous extent, and learning of Ozymandias's plan may have simply pushed him beyond his limit.

The nature of the Comedian's relationship with Sally Jupiter, the first Silk Spectre, is never clearly defined. He was obviously attracted to Sally for her beauty, and it can only be assumed that, in a strange way, Sally found the Comedian's brutal, action driven personality appealing, and she may have been drawn to him for the powerful physicality he developed years later. When it came to when he impregnated her with Laurie, Sally mentions it was an afternoon in summer when he came by, she tried to be angry with him, but somehow things didn't turn out how she expected. He remains fairly calm when the enraged Sally Jupiter is shouting at him after he was talking to Laurie, and Laurie's recount that he looked saddened by Sally's outburst could be interpretted that he may have actually harbored feelings for her, just as the ending of Watchmen implies that Sally had feelings for him (she even kisses him on her copy of the Minutemen group photo).

Laurie's flashback of overhearing Sally arguing with her first husband, Laurence Schexnayder, she hears bits and pieces of Sally revealing what happened when she had her second sexually charged encounter with the Comedian, she says that she "shouted at him, he looked surprised, couldn't imagine why I'd bear a grudge. See, it's different for him..." and when she recalled the consummation, she says "First off, he was there, right? Plus, he was gentle. You know what gentleness means in a guy like that? Even a glimmer of it? It means you reached something. It means you reached some of that magical romance and bullshit they promise you when you're a kid..." When Laurie confronts the Comedian a second time in 1973 at a dinner held in his honor, the drunken Laurie brings up his attempted rape in front of men who are congratulating him, demanding to know what kind of man he is, forcing a woman, any woman, to have sex against her will, the Comedian blankly replies "Only once."

It seems very likely that the Comedian knew that Laurie was his daughter, though he was careful not to mention the fact, as is shown by his meeting her after the Crimebusters break-up when he hesitantly describes her as the daughter of an old friend rather than his own. Blake was no father material and he knew it, as is clear from the scene where he dumps and then kills an impregnated Vietnamese woman.

[edit] The "Smile"

Throughout the work, the Comedian is typically seen wearing or in close proximity to the "smiley-face" button which is closely associated with him. However, the smile is constantly appearing when Blake is not present, possibly at important junctures in the story. Some examples of the button's appearance are as follows.

• The story begins with an extreme close-up of the stained button. The same button physically appears in Dreiberg's house, as well as atop a prominent restaurant and at the Comedian's funeral.
• While Dr. Manhattan is reminiscing of Blake's activities in Vietnam, the smile makes its first chronological appearance. When Blake is slashed by the broken bottle brandished by the mother of his unborn, illegitimate child, blood falls upon the button and simulates the pattern.
• When the murder of two children by their war-obsessed father is investigated by the recurring "detective" characters, the religious poster on the back of the door is spattered with blood. The colours and shapes reference the Comedian's button.
• After rescuing innocent victims from a tenement fire, the Owlship occupied by Nite Owl and the second Silk Spectre is shown flying against the yellow moon, with smoke rising up on one side. The ship's portholes are the eyes, while the smoke is the blood spatter.
• When Hollis Mason is killed, the blood smeared across his face in his Minutemen photo is similar to the stain on the button.
• When Dr. Manhattan's "flying clockwork" is destroyed on Mars, the pattern of debris on the large crater is reminiscent of the smile.
• While not an appearance per se, there is a clear patch on the side of Veidt's Vivarium, shown on the cover of one issue. This clear patch is a perfect replica of the shape of the button's blood spatter.
• After Veidt teleports his creature into New York, the stained socket on a half-destroyed spark hydrant in front of the Institute for Extraspatial Studies references the smile.
• While Adrian Veidt explains his role in the death of Blake, his face shortly before killing the man is shown splattered with blood on one side. Since his face appears yellow at the time, this is a clear reference.
• Following Rorschach's disintegration by Dr. Manhattan, the vaporous blood rising from his remains intersects with icicles hanging from a circular entrance to Veidt's fortress, resembling the smiley face.
• In the very last panel, the New Frontiersman employee known as Seymour, who habitually wears a green T-shirt with a yellow smiley face, drips ketchup on his stomach from a burger he is eating. This mimicks the smile almost perfectly, and brings the story to a circle.