Before Watchmen: Comedian #3

[cyberghostface]

From Before Watchmen: Comedian #3...

Comments

[cyberghostface]

He's not a nice guy but he's still a fairly tragic and complex character IMO.

[silverzeo]

Yeah, but it hard to actually have sympathy for this guy after remembering what he has done to his actual friends and "love ones". The only redeeming factor to his character that he could have approach Laurie at any time and drop the drama-bomb on her, but he didn't: I haven't exactly read Watchmen so I am sorry if I am dead wrong: but he knows how much bad her life is with her mother and step-dad alone, she REALLY doesn't need to part of the constant horror that is a single NIGHT that is the Comedian's life; so while he is tempted to approach her, he loves the daughter he actually has enough NOT to be in his life... I mean, that's a horror filled "What If" story right there, one that would be worthy of the twist to "Chinatown"....

[cyberghostface]

Well there's also the scene where he appears at Moloch's bedside and breaks down after discovering that Veidt's about to destroy New York (hope that's not a spoiler but I take it you're at least familiar with the basics)

[jlroberson]

As I mentioned elsewhere, this is what makes the Comedian possibly the most fascinating character in WATCHMEN. He is genuinely tragic in the strict sense of the term. He is a very bad man who sees himself as damned. (and therefore able to do the things that others are not damned enough to do--partly so they don't have to, in his view) But there is enough good in him for him to KNOW this. And he knows that he made one good thing in his life: Laurie. And I think he clung to that one thing as the only reason to not put a gun to his head.

And yes, he did kill a woman carrying his baby. And I think that moment haunted him forever(as did his attempt to rape Sally--something he did when he was a stupid kid, but that he was adult enough to not be able to excuse himself for later). And also proved to him life was a joke. Because the closest thing he ever knew to God was standing right there and let him. As he said himself at the time.

[mrstatham]

This. I think the way he basically yells about Manhattan losing his own humanity in that scene in Vietnam serves two purposes; One, it's a warning sign about exactly where Manhattan's going, and two, it's meant to be a sign of how far gone the Comedian actually is. It reads exactly like an argument a real person might make where, irrationally, everyone's to blame but him.

[jlroberson]

And you could even interpret it as a cry for help. "If it's wrong, why won't you STOP ME?" And remember, this all comes after Manhattan has basically taken away a whole country's free will. And probably killed lots and lots of Vietnamese(while American soldiers remained unharmed). So you could say, "Well, you just basically committed genocide but you wouldn't stop me from killing one innocent woman?" Which is a point only someone so far gone to the dark side--and aware of it--like Blake could make. Someone, too, who's more an assassin, a symbol of a tactical, black ops kind of war--kill a few key people to prevent greater slaughter. Manhattan is more representative of wholesale megadeath like the Bomb.