Discussion
The comedian is dead to begin with….
People are very complicated, and Eddie Blake is no exception. He has been murdered, tossed from the plate glass window of his swanky Manhattan Co-Op. The cops investigating his murder are competent but not special. In this chapter we are introduced to a world in twilight. The year is 1985, and it is plain that this is a universe that has seen better days. (One of the first characters introduced is a crazy guy with a sign that says “THE END IS NIGH!)
We find out pretty early in the story that Eddie Blake is the Comedian. He is a world famous, “Masked Adventurer.” He is essentially Batman, and the story opens with a montage of The Comedian’s brutal beating and murder. The cops are surprised that someone could overpower a tough as nails fifty-year-old bodybuilder. The cops want to know who could kill that guy??
That is the central question of this story, and the only person who seems to care is Rorschach, another Masked adventurer. Rorschach is extremely judgemental, and his morality leaves no room for “Gray.” His mask, which has black patterns displayed against a white background looks like the classic inkblot test. In this sort of test, the random blots of ink are designed to function as a “control” allowing the subject to make what they want of them.
Rorschach is a talented detective. He outdoes the police in about five minutes and finds the Comedian’s secret “stash” of weapons and his costume. Rorschach believes that the Comedian’s secret identity had been found out, and that someone, perhaps due to a grudge against all masked adventurers.
He sets out to warn his old compatriots that somebody could be targeting members of their organization. He encounters a litany of heros who have “quit.”
He visits Dan Dreiberg, the second Nite Owl, a man who lives in obscurity in a house above his secret “Owl Cave.” This lair is stuffed to the brim with mementos and gadgets, prototypes and advanced tech, and memories of a prime that has passed him by.
He visits Adrian Veidt, the hero Ozymandias, who claims to be the smartest man in the world. Since his retirement from crime fighting. Ozymandias has amassed a huge fortune, as evidenced by skyscraper that he calls his home. He is removed from the streets, and muses that the murder could have a political motive.
He visits Dr. Manhattan, the only one of them with any sort of “Superpowers.” He tries to warn him that he is in danger. Dr. Manhattan teleports Rorschach out of his home, after Laurie Juczepik, the Second Silk Spectre Objects to… well basically everything about Rorschach.
These visits set into a motion a series of events that could consume the whole world in apocalyptic nuclear destruction.
Who watches the Watchmen? Where did it all go wrong? Does anything matter?
With Rorschach is on the case, is there any doubt that he will get to the bottom of this?