The second chapter of Watchmen, which is ‘Absent friends’ elaborates on the nuances of personalities, events and drama that encapsulates the works of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. In the third chapter such as events are contrasted against the progressive darker picture of the current day, history was one more detail helping to deal with the characters and their surroundings that is to say their world.
Synopsis
Edward Morgan Blake was a former hero who went by the name of The Comedian until his untimely death. This chapter then shifts its attention to The Comedian’s funeral which was attended by many ex heroes from both the Minutemen and the Watchmen. In this manner, the plot reconstructs through flashbacks important epochs of Blake’s life and his interactions with his colleagues.
The funeral acts as a plot device and sets off memory images that define Blake’s ethical character in more complex dimensions. Each character ponders over their encounters with him and observes how he impacted the decision-making in their lives:
- Dr. Manhattan’s Flashback
Blake’s pessimism is different from the godlike worldview of Dr. Manhattan. Their joint phase in the Vietnam War era points at The Comedian’s very practical and very amoral side when he shoots a pregnant woman who tells him that he is responsible for her pregnancy. The fact that Manhattan remains passive during the episode further accentuates his increasing detachment from mankind. - Laurie Juspeczyk (Silk Spectre II)
Laurie recalls how the Minutemen had only recently come into being and Blake had attacked her mother, Sally Jupiter, who was the original Silk Spectre. This serves to emphasise the horrible acts of Blake. This, combined with Sally’s add later ambivalence makes the moral of the story quite complicated. - Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl II)
Dan remembers a more somber experience from the earlier collaboration when him and Blake were again costumed heroes and something during the course of this event made Blake use overwhelming force to quell a riot. This memory gives insight into The Comedian’s mind as he has a hatred of all human’s attempts of providing reasonable structures to the world. - Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt)
This illustrates the complex aspects of The Comedian, his brutality aside, being intelligent and insightful enough to appreciate Veidt’s grand plan.
The conclusion of the funeral has also introduced the extremely famous picture of Blake’s burial along with a smiley button’s design bearing a grinning face imprinted in blood, as the stunning representation of the essence of the book.
Themes
- Moral Ambiguity: Blake’s character serves as a lens for examining the grey areas between heroism and villainy.
- The Impact of History: Through flashbacks, readers see how past traumas and events influence the present.
- Cynicism vs. Idealism: The Comedian’s nihilistic worldview clashes with the other characters’ differing ideals, exposing cracks in their heroic personas.
Art Style and Visuals
It is in this chapter that Gibbons’ artistry is once again most evident, especially in the movement between the contemporary funeral and the striking recollections. The nine-panel grid format enhances the storytelling by providing a visual alternation of the past and now in a rhythmic structure. The funeral scenes, utilizing such a color scheme, juxtapose with such bright colors in flashback images, indicating the dullness of the present in comparison to the vividness of the past feelings.
Cultural Significance
In this chapter, there is an expansion of the criticisms directed toward the superhero figure as deeply, rositive and humane characters who fail and are in dilemmas are exposed. A constructed image of The Comedian as both a monster and a victim accomplishes the task of resolving certain contradictions in the hero of the story due to his actions throughout the novel.
What scene, character or concept from this chapter do you find most enjoyable? Alternatively, would you want to be pointed towards stories with a similar theme?
