Edward Blake
Weapons	M1911A1, Duel D&L Sports Professional Model Longslides, Carcano M91/38, Ithaca 37
Origin	Watchmen (Graphic Novel)
Activities	Vigilante and Mercenary
Service	1939-1985
Battle Status	Victorious over The Joker (The Dark Knight) and Two-Face. Will face Frank Castle.

The Comedian was born in 1924 as Edward Morgan Blake. Nothing was ever mentioned about his life prior to his crime fighting career, but when he first became a costumed adventurer in 1939, Hollis Mason had described him as a 'particularly vicious and brutal young man' who was an effective vigilante, managing to expunge most organized crime from the New York harbor. During the 1950s, Blake was the only masked adventurer left still making headlines due to his government connections which were transforming him into a sort of patriotic symbol of American justice. During the Senate Subcommittee hearings detailed in Under the Hood, Chapter V, Blake was the only vigilante not forced to testify, likely also because of his involvement with the government. In 1963 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. Alongside Dr. 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 Vietnamese woman he had apparently impregnated. 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, giving his face the impression that he was constantly sneering; after this incident, he wore an enclosing leather gimp-style mask when dressed as the Comedian. He was court martialled for the incident but the charges were dropped for lack of evidence. The costumed adventurers faced 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, while one other, Rorschach, continued his activities in open defiance of the law. Doctor Manhattan and the Comedian were the only two who registered with, and were employed by, the government. While on a plane during a mission in 1985, Blake noticed suspicious activity on an uncharted island. He infiltrated the island and learned of its purpose, the realization of which was severely traumatizing. Unable to bear the burden of knowledge alone, Blake broke into the apartment of Edgar Jacobi, who had fought Blake years earlier as Moloch the Mystic, and rambled drunkenly about the island. Adrian Veidt, who was controlling the island's activity and had bugged Moloch's apartment for his own reasons, responded by personally murdering Blake, beating him and then throwing him through Blake's apartment window so Blake would fall to his death. The investigation of this incident by both the New York City police and Rorschach opens the graphic novel.