Blake as the Watchman
The Comedian is Edward Morgan Blake, who began his vigilante career in the 1940s as a teenager. Over the years, he became a patriotic hero for the United States.
Already deceased when Watchmen begins, his murder is what sets the plot of the prequel in motion. The character appears throughout the story in flashbacks and aspects of his personality are revealed by other characters. Richard Reynolds described The Comedian as "ruthless, cynical, and nihilistic, and yet capable of deeper insights than the others into the role of the costumed hero". He and Doctor Manhattan are the only two superheroes to be government-sanctioned after the Keene Act is passed. Although he attempted to rape the first Silk Spectre in the 1940s, issue nine reveals that years later he fathered her daughter Laurie (Silk Spectre II).
In WatchmeX, The Comedian returns from the grave thanks to Rorschach's new found powers and his desire to stop Adrian Veidt. However things go to hell as The Comedian when Blake misinterprets familiarity with flirting and attempts to rape Laurie (Silk Spectre II) as Veidt used a memory-wipe ray on him to make him forget Laurie was his own daughter. Following this incident and inadvertently gaining minor telekinetic and psychokinetic powers following exposure to the Manhattan Force, Blake redoubles his efforts to stop Veidt. Becoming the Watchman, he is a man reborn.
- It is hinted that the Dark Spectre is Blake's daughter from the Vietnamese woman he shot in the prequel mini but her identity is never fully revealed.