Author: Brian Azzarello
Publisher: DC Comics
Rating: worthy
Illustrators: J.G. Jones, Lee Bermejo
Before Watchmen: Comedian was issued in six installments, written by Brian Azzarello with art by J. G. Jones. The Comedian is really Edward Morgan Blake, and it's his violent murder which kicks off the Watchmen story. Blake starts out his crime-fighting life at the tender age of 16, and even then he was ruthless and mercenary. He's first depicted, having beaten up an entire bar-room full of trouble-makers, stealing pickled eggs and helping himself to the contents of the cash register in that same bar.
It seems that all-too-many of the Watchmen were subject to abuse as children, and Blake is no different, but this story contradicts the story told in Watchmen - that Blake assassinated John Kennedy from the grassy knoll. The original Watchmen depicted him as a hitman for Richard Nixon, whereas this story portrays him as a friend of the Kennedys, who assasinated Marilyn Monroe on orders from JFK's wife, Jackie Kennedy.
Before Watchmen: Rorschach came out in four comic book issues, written by Brian Azzarello, with art by Lee Bermejo. Walter Joseph Kovacs was the son of a prostitute - and one who really didn’t care much to have him around - especially when she was working. Before his teens, he was removed from his mother's 'care' and placed in a home for problem children where he appeared to flourish. At sixteen he found work in a dress shop, and it was here that he picked up his face mask.
Rorschach's first case was investigating the murder of Kitty Genovese, although the writer here gets his facts wrong about what really happened to her. In the end it's Rorschach's failure to rescue a kidnaped child, and his discovery that she had been killed and fed to a pair of dogs flipped him over to the dark side. This was depicted in Watchmen in a flashback. From that point on, Rorschach simply killed thugs instead of turning them over to the cops, as he had been doing. When vigilantes were rendered outlaws by the passing of the Keene Act, Rorschach made clear his opinion of it by murdering a rapist and dumping his body at police station a with a note attached reading "Never".
