Three issues into this Comedian series, and I'm still trying to figure out what Brian Azzarello and J.G. Jones are trying to say. Jones delivers a competent cover once again, but a rather dull one — an unfortunate followup to his rather innovative artwork for issue #2. I feel like it's a bit of a cheat to use a newspaper to tell the readers what's happening at the moment. At first I was a little sad to see the Comedian's left Vietnam for Los Angeles, but then I remembered how lackluster Azzarello's generic Vietnam story was. So I'm not exactly sure how I feel. It certainly isn't excitement.
I was, however, excited by the variant cover. It was drawn by one of my favorite artists of all time, John Paul Leon, who tragically passed away in 2021 at the age of 49 after a lengthy battle with cancer. Leon's brutally realistic style is perfect for the Watchmen universe, especially the Comedian. It was a real missed opportunity for DC that they didn't involve Leon more on this project. One detail I absolutely love on this cover — but can't fully explain why — is the solid yellow dot representing the Comedian's smiley face button. It's the only bit on the cover that isn't a shade of red and it looks so much more haunting with the smiley face removed.
This issue tells the story of Eddie Blake returning to America after spending more than a year in Vietnam. He's genuinely surprised to see a crowd of protesters at the airport. One of the protesters looks remarkably like Eddie's daughter, Laurie, and he makes an honest effort to explain his actions to her. But he's interrupted when someone throws a tomato at the girl, hitting her in the back of the head. A group of pro-war protesters has shown up to beat back the anti-war protesters and make room for the Comedian, whom they decree a "super patriot." Seeing the mistreatment of that innocent girl filled Eddie with more rage than he'd felt in his life up to that point. But instead of giving in to his violent instincts, Eddie walked away and took some time to reflect.
Eddie realized he had let the Army lead him from being who he really was. When he heard about rioting in Los Angeles, he felt like the city was crying out for his nihilistic messaging. The Comedian showed up at the riots, wearing his usual costume, but now with his face painted like his bright yellow smiley face. He boldly walks past the police and converses with a few of the Black activists leading the protests. Eddie tells them they should be laughing, since it is a riot, after all. And to demonstrate that the world will see what it wants to see, he opens fire on several stores. The activist leaders cry out in vain to prevent the ensuing looting, but too many of their fellow rioters couldn't resist the temptation of free electronics and jewelry.
When the police chief scolds the Comedian for making the situation worse, Eddie responds by throwing dog poop in his face. Later, Eddie's old friend, Robert Kennedy, tells him he needs to apologize to the chief. Eddie refuses, pointing out how nobody seems concerned with the 34 people who were killed in the riot. They were more concerned with the symbol of authority being disrespected.
I'm glad that Azzarello didn't rehash the police strike riots from the main Watchmen series. I'm sure the temptation was high, but this generic riot served the story better. It doesn't matter how the riot started or what its goals were. Its purpose was to provide the Comedian a vehicle to demonstrate how human nature can undermine any cause. I'm sure many of the rioters initially joined the fray for righteous, noble reasons. But the second Eddie opened up the stores to them, the need for instant gratification overrode any lofty ideals such as racial equality, which wasn't ever going to be solved through the riot anyway.
It was also rather interesting seeing Eddie become disgusted by the very people who praised him as a hero. Those pro-war protesters weren't necessarily advocating for more violence in Vietnam, they were more concerned with upholding the symbol of authority. The Comedian represents the government of the United States of America, and in these people's eyes, this automatically means all his actions are just and righteous. It's interesting to think if Eddie would have been inclined to agree with them, had he not seen a vision of his daughter in the anti-war crowd. I think he would have eventually arrived at the same conclusion — he never was one to deify authority, but merely exploit it to pursue his own violent passions. But it was nice to have the contrast between the two groups help set up the finale of this issue.
While working for the people in power, Eddie is free to destroy as many businesses as he pleases and anybody he kills gets chalked up to "self defense." But throwing a piece of poop at the chief of police is crossing a line. It's all a joke, as Eddie tells Robert Kennedy. But that won't stop him from enjoying his Hawaiian vacation.
I started this by saying I didn't know what Azzarello was trying to say with this series. I now think I do.
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