Chapter 2

Summary

A s Chapter two begins the panels are switching between Laurie visiting her mother,Silk Spectre I, and the Comedian's funeral, where the weather being displayed is gloomy. Laurie does not have very strong feelings toward her mother because she feels that her mother pushed her into becoming a superhero. Laurie cannot seem to let the fact that the Comedian tried to rape her mother and shows great disgust towards the Comedian, while Laurie's mother tries to defend the Comedian saying the people do change. The rest of Chapter two contains flashbacks portraying how the Comedian acted and his views on the world.

The first flashback is from Laurie's mother, Sally of the time that the Comedian tried to rape her. The flashback begins with the Minutemen taking a prevalent picture that occurs throughout the novel. After the picture all the Minutemen are going back to the Owl's nest for a beer, but Sally says she needs to change first. However, while beginning to change the Comedian comes in and through graphic images shows the Comedian trying to rape Sally, but the Hooded Vigilante rescues Sally from the Comedian and teaches him a lesson.

The next flashback is from Adrian Veidt, Ozymandias, where a meeting of the Crimebusters is taking place. The Comedian tells Veidt that even though America has problems it will take a "moron to thing they're small enough" for people to handle. This causes the group to disband and causes the people to leave and go their separate ways.

Next is Dr. Manhattan's flashback, where the US has just won the Vietnam War because of Dr. Manhattan and the Comedian. This is a very powerful scene in the novel where a pregnant women, with his child comes to speak with the Comedian, but he doesn't want anything to do with her. So she breaks a bottle and cuts the Comedians face rather deep. Due to this he pulls out a gun and shoots the pregnant women, without any regards for the child. Dr. Manhattan just looks on and really didn't try to do anything about it. The Comedian tells him that he could have stopped him if he wanted to, and the Comedian accuses him of not caring about any human really.

The final flashback is from Nite Owl, Dan Drieberg, where he and the Comedian are trying to break up a protest. In the flashback we are able to see what a wreak the world has turned into and no matter what they do, they have little effect in changing anything. The Comedian tells Dan that all of the other superheroes are all nut except for himself because he "keeps things in proportion an' try ta see the funny side…"

After the funeral, the focus goes to an old man going home and once home, he opens his fridge with Rorschach jumping out and tackling him. This man is Moloch and he was an enemy of the Comedian's for forty years. Moloch tells a story of when the comedian broke into his house a week ago, drunk, babbling on, not making any sense. The Comedian talks about how he thought that he understood, but he doesn't know why someone would do something like this. He also admits of doing bad things like killing kids in Vietnam, but nothing ever as bad as what he is babbling on about. After the story of the Comedian is finished, Rorschach tells Moloch that he found some illegal drugs in his house, but Moloch says that they are for the cancer that he has. When Rorschach laves Moloch's house, the chapter concludes by Rorschach visiting the Comedian's grave and several images of the Comedian from the flashbacks that happened earlier in the chapter.

Chapter 2