BEFORE WATCHMEN THE FINAL BOOK

COMEDIAN #6: Eddie Blake is back from Viet Nam, apparently trying to protect Booby Kennedy on the night he is assassinated. From there, we flashback to the events that lead up to that night. Based on his actions in Viet Nam, the state department sends him home, where he once again takes up crime fighting. he has a run in with Nite Owl and Rorschach and claims he’s doing the job they couldn’t do. He flies out to California and meets with G. Gordon Liddy. Liddy presents evidence that the C.I.A. has a brainwashed assassin named Sirhan Sirhan who is going to assassinate Bobby Kennedy to allow Richard Nixon, who Liddy is working for, to get elected. Later Kennedy ends up in Blake’s room where they talk of old times and Kennedy promises to publicly reveal that Blake was responsible for the Mai Lai Massacre. Blake asks the Presidential candidate to let him do it himself to save face. That night, following his Primary win, Kennedy is gunned down in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel. Apparently, Eddie Blake is responsible, thus tying up that loose end. The last image we see is the Happy Face button he wears with a blood stain on it.

And thus Brian Azzarello and J. G. Jones bring the series of WATCHMEN prequels to a close, not with a bang but with a thud and several months after all the other series ended. Filled with potential, this title dropped Eddie Blake, a real American Hero, into several important places in Modern American and World history but actually managed to do nothing more than show us what we already knew: Blake had his own agendas in life and, while claiming to be loyal to his country he was truly loyal to himself. As I have stated throughout this series, I love Azzarello’s rhythmic dialogue and Jones beautiful art. But this series comes to a close and really what have we TRULY LEARNED: Eddie Blake was a bastard.