Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: J. G. Jones
Publisher: DC

The Comedian dies at the start of Watchmen so he appears only in flashbacks but those are quick to establish him as one of the more psychotic of the superheroes: he clearly enjoys killing people and is a rapist, to boot. So, the miniseries isn’t all rainbows and puppies.

Right from the start we’re shown that the Comedian is a very good buddy of the Kennedy family and even though it isn’t spelled out, it’s strongly hinted that the blonde woman he kills right at the start, was Marilyn Monroe. The start of the Watchmen movie strongly hinted that the Comedian had shot JFK but in this series, that’s clearly not so. In fact, the Comedian is attacking a hideout where one of his enemies, Mooloch, is hiding and when they see from the TV that the president has been shot, they’re both clearly devastated. Then the Comedian is off to the Vietnam war.

Pretty much everyone who has power is corrupt. The Kennedys engineer murders and the US generals in Vietnam finance their war with drug sale. In the US, there are race riots on the streets and the Comedian is just making it worse.

However, the series has some lighter moments, too, which makes Eddie Blake almost human, such as when he’s playing rugby with the Kennedys or when he adopted two little Vietnamese kids (then again, we never see them again, so I have no idea what actually happened to them…). It seems that JFK’s murder pushed him over the edge from an aggressive violent man to a maniac. There’s also some contrast with the first Captain America movie because here the Comedian is initially sent to the war as a way to boost the morale and then things go wrong. However, he doesn’t bring dancing girls with him and of course ends up being a killer.

I don’t think this story brings anything new to the character which is a bit surprising because we didn’t really see the Comedian that much in the original series.