Why was Rorschach the only one that cared that he died? Granted, no one else seemed convinced by his mask killer theory...

Why was Rorschach the only one that cared that he died? Granted, no one else seemed convinced by his mask killer theory, but given that Comedian was a government agent murdered in his own home, shouldn't Nixon or some high up officials been all over the case?

Been like 10 years since I read the comic, so maybe this was addressed and I just forgot about it.

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He'd retired to obscurity and Nixon and co. were a bit more preoccupied with the imminent outbreak of World War 3. It probably mattered to some of them but he got up to a lot of nasty shit; most of the people who considered themselves his friends were probably glad he died without ever letting slip the truth about his involvement in the Kennedy Assassination among other things.

Ozymanidas was the smartest man in the world and his plan to save the world was to teleport a giant squid to NY and killna bunch of people.

Watchmen U people aren't smart.

>He'd retired to obscurity

I thought he was still doing black ops shit for the government, and that's how he found the squid and kicked off the plot.If he just got back from a top secret black ops mission, started acting weird and then was murdered days later you'd think that would raise some flags.

>a book about turning comic book conventions on their head is dumb for taking a comic book convention and turning it on its head
Just a thought, but perhaps you are the dumb one here.

it was top secret

>I thought he was still doing black ops shit for the government,
Right-O

He was a dick

He was. And yeah it does seem strange they weren't asking questions.

In the comics he didn't kill Kennedy. He is seen mourning his death in his Before Watchmen series.

It was implied.

The scripst from Moore are extremely detailed he described the underlaying situation so it could be reflected in the art.

Moore didn't write it, I don't care.

>Why was Rorschach the only one that cared that he died?
Depends how you mean. At least 3 of the others who could attend did show up to his funeral, they just didn't get involved in the cause because they were outside the loop, unauthorized or behind it

> but given that Comedian was a government agent murdered in his own home, shouldn't Nixon or some high up officials been all over the case?
As another user pointed out they put two shitty detectives on it who dragged their feet on the matter while chasing other cases because the top brass were more concerned about saving their own skin come what may than what befell old muscle.
It's like with Manhattan. He's the closest thing to omnipotence in their world and instead of trying to really learn anything from him the people in power were more concerned the acceptable oscillation they could wave him around as their big blue dildo in front of everyone else's faces. What he thought, what he said or wanted to do didn't interest them in the slightest.
They only got concerned with what could be bothering him when he decided he could and should leave.

Shitty figureheads and public basically.

This

Stay mad Moorefags.

>As another user pointed out they put two shitty detectives on it

That doesn't address my point though. as far as the New York police are concerned it was just some old fuck who got murdered in a robbery. There has to be some government spook out there who knew who the Comedian was, and realized he died, which would lead to some other top secret government agency conducting their own investigation.

And it doesn't matter if they don't care about him personally. You think they wouldn't want to know who did it so they can cover up any potential leaks or reveal potential threats? It's not just about one guy dying, it's about the fact that someone out there knew who he was and was able to track him down and kill him. Someone in some kind of agency should give a shit about that.

>You think they wouldn't want to know who did it so they can cover up any potential leaks or reveal potential threats
Ed being dead was the best way to achieve that. He was already leaking things to Moloch in a drunken stupor.

..But they didn't know who killed him. and they didn't know what the person who killed him knew, or why they killed him or anything. Why would they just leave that thread hanging?

In Before Watchmen he was even more of an ass and got Hooded Justice killed for nothing.

>..But they didn't know who killed him
As Blake and the Comedian he had a laundry list of enemies.
>they didn't know what the person who killed him knew
If it were relevant to them it would make itself known. Nothing came of it.

I remember reading somewhere in an ex-spy's biography that due to be the line of work death is the equivalent of retiring. It's unfortunate but business goes on.
And business is meant to be quiet and neat, so no one's going to come making a loud mess over something personal like in the movies, not until it gets professional. It risks more leaks and losses otherwise.

Specific follow up is very situational. The only constant is someone gets replaced.
>Why would they just leave that thread hanging?
What would unraveling it gain them if it isn't fraying?
If the killer was Ed's next door neighbor tired of hearing him bring home whores to beat why send anyone for that?

You're an omniscient reader, the characters don't know it's Veidt or in any way related to them. In fact Ed's death was precisely because he chose to investigate something he wasn't asked to off the clock and record.

Nothing about his fate implies it was a threat from outside or an inside job, nothing indicates any leaks, he was killed very violently and money was stolen indicating it was not a professional hit which would be done far less visibly so alarms aren't raised.

>If it were relevant to them it would make itself known. Nothing came of it.

What makes you say this? What if some Russian spy found him, killed him and stole some kind of info somehow? How does it make sense to just leave it alone if something like that is a possibility? By the time it"makes itself known" irreparable damage could be done.

>What would unraveling it gain them if it isn't fraying?

How do they know it's not fraying? They don't know who killed him or why. They don't know what information this person has or how they plan to use it. They don't know how this person tracked him down, which could mean other agents are in danger. It makes no sense to just leave it as-is.

>If the killer was Ed's next door neighbor tired of hearing him bring home whores to beat why send anyone for that?

They don't know that it was.

>You're an omniscient reader, the characters don't know it's Veidt or in any way related to them.

I'm not even bringing up the possibility of it being Veidt. Of course they wouldn't have guessed that. I'm saying, he's a government agent into some top secret shit, and suddenly he dies, you don't think they might want to make sure there isn't some enemy agent behind it?

>Nothing about his fate implies it was a threat from outside or an inside job, nothing indicates any leaks, he was killed very violently and money was stolen indicating

The cops even muse over how he looks like he could handle himself in a fight, and somehow he was thrown out the window rather than shot, and that seems odd for a home robbery. If it occurred to them, thinking he's just some random guy, you think it wouldn't occur to whatever agents know about him?

do we know the relationship Comedian had as a black ops dude? he might've just got a suitcase in a dead drop with info and money for his jobs. yeah you would think Nixon would have like a crazy team of Plumbers in the Watchmen world that would ransack the place.

Maybe because he was an asshole?

This is an insanely important life-lesson for all the trolls and shills on Sup Forums to deeply internalize :

> Nobody, and I do mean nobody, will care about your life or your death if you are an asshole.
Because even though everyone dies, and so by default deserves it, only assholes like him deserve to be forgotten.
And FYI: even Rorschach didn't really care, he was just being obsessive.

>What if
What ifs aren't cause
>By the time it"makes itself known" irreparable damage could be done.
They're not rookies, they have contingencies.
>How do they know it's not fraying?
Operations showing signs of compromise linked to Blake? No? No fraying.
>They don't know who killed him or why.
Exactly, so it's not relevant to them. It's Blake's problem.
>They don't know what information this person has
No evidence they have any information.
>They don't know how this person tracked him down
Ed Blake has an address. The only "secret" is that he's the Comedian, which several vigilantes he worked with already knew.
>It makes no sense to just leave it as-is.
It makes perfect sense not to play your hand before knowing the game
>I'm saying, he's a government agent into some top secret shit
He was not involved in any operations at the time. That's precisely why he had time to go for a swim to an uncharted island and back.
>and suddenly he dies
Everyone dies.
>you don't think they might want to make sure there isn't some enemy agent behind it?
"Make sure", you make it sound like there's some discrete omniscient 8 ball they can ask for clarification.
No, from what I've had the displeasure of reading on their operation if there is a risk of a leak they can't probe aimlessly without informing others of what they don't know and want to know. They bunker down. One man down is part of a statistic, two men is a pattern.
>The cops even muse over how he looks like he could handle himself in a fight, and somehow he was thrown out the window rather than shot
They suspect he had two assailants who were unarmed but doping, violent and not pleased with resistance.
>you think it wouldn't occur to whatever agents know about him?
The agents know more about their people than the two strangers speculating.

>What ifs aren't cause

the fact that a black ops agent was killed in his own home in an unusual manner for a robbery isn't any sort of cause?

>They're not rookies, they have contingencies.

Contingencies like "just let them get away, even if they might have classified info, and let it sort itself out"? That makes no fucking sense.

>Operations showing signs of compromise linked to Blake? No? No fraying.

What if the first sign that shows its head is another operation being completely compromised? There's no way they can just rule this out a priori.

>Exactly, so it's not relevant to them.

Repeat after me: If they don't know who killed him or why, they also don't know if it's relevant to them or not.

>No evidence they have any information.

They killed an agent that undoubtedly knows classified shit.That's weak evidence, but it's not no evidence. Typically when top secret shit is on the line people are cautious enough that even weak evidence is looked into.

>Ed Blake has an address. The only "secret" is that he's the Comedian, which several vigilantes he worked with already knew.

Given this, you can only rule out someone tracking him down, if you know the person who killed him is someone who either killed him randomly or because of something he did as Edward Blake, or if you know the person who killed him is a former super villain enemy. They don't know this, so they can't rule out some foreign agent tracking him down.

i mean, they all went to his funeral. And they eventually figured out that Ozy was behind it.

It's hard to really get the gears grinding when the guy pushing you to do it is Rosharch

Because considering his age, his drinking, and being a little out there, his associates probably assumed he committed suicide.

>It makes perfect sense not to play your hand before knowing the game

You can't just make up random analogies and hope they stick. I'm not saying announce on the news that a black ops agent was killed, I'm saying have someone look into it. Let's consider one possibility for a second. Say someone managed to find out he had a hand in Kennedy's assassination, and then killed him so he couldn't warn anyone. Then no one investigates, because they assume it was a robbery. Then next thing they know, the New York Times is printing proof that Kennedy's death was an inside job. Too late to care at that point.

>He was not involved in any operations at the time

He didn't have to be involved in operations at that exact moment. It could be about something he did years ago. See above.

>Everyone dies.

Not everyone gets murdered though. That alone should arouse some suspicion, then there's the fact that a 200pund man was thrown out of a window during what appeared to be a robbery.

>you make it sound like there's some discrete omniscient 8 ball they can ask for clarification.

No, I make it sound like someone could bother looking into it. It could be as simple as the right pair of eyes. Maybe some clue the cops passed over because it never occurred to them that he might have been killed for state secrets or something.

>They suspect he had two assailants who were unarmed but doping, violent and not pleased with resistance.

That's not how it works. You don't just stop considering possibilities the minute you manage to visualize one plausible scenario. They had one possible explanation, but clearly not the only one.

>The agents know more about their people than the two strangers speculating.

So they should have known, even more than the cops did, there's no way some drugged up rando would have beat the Comedian.

I'm not talking about the other heroes; I'm talking about someone from the government looking into the possibility of some enemy agents killing him.

Consider what the cops say about the window he went through.Also shit was stolen. Did he rob himself before his suicide?

I don't remember if the book explicitly addresses your concerns at any point. From a narrative point of view, an investigation isn't shown in order to make us think that maybe the goverment was behind the hit for that very reason.
I think it should also be considered that The Comedian's civilian identity was a secret, so a bunch of men in black showing up and making some special investigation for the death of just some random dude that dies would call for much unwanted attention.

They could just say they're from the FBI and it looks like the same pattern as some other killings that happened elsewhere in America or some shit.

Also, if whoever killed him got their hands on some top secret info, the damage they could cause with it might be way more catastrophic than the extra attention of a few agents looking into a murder case.

>Also shit was stolen. Did he rob himself before his suicide?
clearly his neighbors heard him commit suicide and immediately scarpered with his goods

Come to think of it do you suppose Nixon and the others suspect something is going on when Comedian isn't killed by one of their own men, and Manhattan suddenly goes off to Mars?

Yeah that's kind of the idea behind this thread, if he does we never see it. We have Rorschach thinking it's a mask killer, and then we have the reveal that it was Veidt all along, but we never see anyone else speculating that it's the Russians behind it or some shit

Ozzy has fucking dark money going into the government and got them to look the other way

>"just let them get away, even if they might have classified info, and let it sort itself out"? Who is "them"? What is this "classified info" you think they have? Protocol involves altering case and code name designations, passwords, times, locations, restricting access to any and all disclosure and discussion of information, internal sweeps and observing any sign of a pattern of infiltration not aimless speculation or asking around if anyone happens to know who killed resident rapist Mr.Blake and if it's related to any national security matters.
>What if the first sign that shows its head is another operation being completely compromised?
You've got more What If... than a Marvel collector.
>they also don't know if it's relevant to them or not.
EXACTLY.
>They killed an agent that undoubtedly knows classified shit.That's weak evidence, but it's not no evidence.
WAT
>They don't know this, so they can't rule out some foreign agent tracking him down.
They can't mark it either.

Espionage is a business older than anyone here. The conduct it's performed with is as such with reason.
>You can't just make up random analogies
It's not an analogy, it's from a retired agent on the conduct of SIS and CIA. Even if your man comes floating down the river and you suss the cunt rowing in the boat is responsible you do dick until given the go ahead. They don't go on a manhunt until they have a man to hunt. Here's more analogy though, if someone sees you flying into the woods guns akimbo you've well and fucked your cover.

>Say someone managed to find out he had a hand in Kennedy's assassination
He didn't, Adrian tells us Blake was with Nixon.

You have the time for all this speculation because you're not paying attention.

But something like that would have put the cold war on hold.

smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/reagan-and-gorbachev-agreed-pause-cold-war-case-alien-invasion-180957402/

Shultz was talking about the Lake Geneva summit and mentioned the two leaders ducked out of a meeting to take a walk to a nearby cabin.

"I wasn't there...," Shultz said before Gorbachev cut him off.

"From the fireside house, President Reagan suddenly said to me, 'What would you do if the United States were suddenly attacked by someone from outer space? Would you help us?'

"I said, 'No doubt about it.'"

"He said, 'We too.'"

"So that's interesting," Gorbachev said to much laughter.

>You've got more What If... than a Marvel collector.

What if... is all it takes for someone to care. If there's a 5% chance that someone has classified info they shouldn't, that's worth looking into at least.

>Even if your man comes floating down the river and you suss the cunt rowing in the boat is responsible you do dick until given the go ahead.

Yeah, sure. I'm not asking why some rogue agent never took it into his own hands with no go-ahead though. I'm asking why no go-ahead was given.

>They don't go on a manhunt until they have a man to hunt.

How are they ever going to have a man to hunt if no one even takes a minute to look at clues?

>if someone sees you flying into the woods guns akimbo

I'm not suggesting anyone go into anything guns akimbo. I'm suggesting someone look into it.

The way you paint things, the CIA isn't ever going to do anything, just sit on their hands, until the information that someone else is moving against America just happens to fall into their laps. Why even have an intelligence agency at all then?

>He didn't, Adrian tells us Blake was with Nixon.

Did you read his dialogue carefully? He said Blake was with Nixon IN DALLAS the day Kennedy was shot. Moore deliberately left it open about whether or not Comedian was the assassin. In that "Taking Out the Trash" Watchmen RPG that Moore actually helped contributed they outright said "rumor has it that Blake was directly involved in the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy." So Moore didn't confirm or deny if he did. It was up to the reader to decide that.

Unless you counted Before Watchmen, which I don't think many people did.

I'm digging through dozens of videos trying to find that ex-agent to explain the remorseless work conditions to you simply but I know I won't find it now that I need it.
>The way you paint things, the CIA isn't ever going to do anything.
The CIA isn't ever going to do anything it doesn't need to.
You interpret it otherwise because your approach of looking around every corner is how you imagine things should and would work "just to be sure".

That whatever unsubstantiated theory pops into someone's mind in the agency should be looked into with resources like some google search engine, even if it turns up no valuable results.
>Why even have an intelligence agency at all then?
The intelligence part of the name chiefly. It's not a Easter Egg Hunt agency.

I've even had it explained to me loosely how browser and search history is used to filter their work better. You don't get on a list just from a few sketchy searches, you have to show a consistent pattern of interest in certain information, then you're on a list. If your background matches a potential threat profile or you start making concerning purchases you're under investigation.

They don't have real time or people for imaginary matters. A nice fat file they can slap down in interrogation needs to float up, not be dug for. Blake's death and killer shaking nothing loose is reason not to budge.

I'm hard pressed to take it Blake would make himself publicly present if he was really going to assassinate a high profile target.

Blake operates with discretion when going and doing things he shouldn't be elsewhere. Like with Veidt's island and Moloch's residence. Adrian only even learned he'd infiltrated both because he happened to have Moloch's place bugged while intending to use him as psychological warfare on Manhattan.

Unless we're under the assumption he chose to be there as some sort of double bluff if he were caught with the smoking gun. Which just seems comical even for the Comedian.

If one of your agents dies under mysterious circumstances it's not exactly a huge leap in logic to think an enemy agent might have killed him. What the fuck is wrong with you that you compare this to an easter egg hunt? It's just being reasonable.

>You don't get on a list just from a few sketchy searches

This isn't even applicable to what I'm talking about at all, m8. I'm talking about looking into a mysterious death to verify it was just a coincidence. As long as the killer remains a question mark there's the potential that Russia gained some valuable intel and you don't even know what they have. That's a big fucking deal.

>That whatever unsubstantiated theory pops into someone's mind in the agency should be looked into with resources like some google search engine, even if it turns up no valuable results

First, it's not unsubstantiated when you know whoever killed the Comedian had to be damn strong and well trained, not just a random mugger. Second, I don't know what you mean by google search. I'm talking about sending someone to look into his death. Google didn't even exist when Watchmen was written.

Anyway, it's pretty obvious that you read some book and now you think you know how classified information works. In the real world, even a potential leak is a big fucking deal. And a potential leak is exactly what this is.

>If one of your agents dies under mysterious circumstances it's not exactly a huge leap in logic to think an enemy agent might have killed him.
That's exactly what that is, you're working under red scare paranoia. Blake is not someone without enemies aside from Russia.
>What the fuck is wrong with you
I should be asking you.
>It's just being reasonable.
Under what reason?! If no one other than Blake was compromised why are the Russians at fault?
>I'm talking about looking into a mysterious death to verify it was just a coincidence.
That is basically an Easter Egg Hunt, aimlessly looking into Blake's death hoping there's a prize at the end even though no leads suggest that.
>As long as the killer remains a question mark there's the potential that Russia gained some valuable intel and you don't even know what they have.
They have a few hundred bucks. There's a potential every prostitute he ever cut short broke in with their handlers who threw him out the window and took their pay.
>First, it's not unsubstantiated when you know whoever killed the Comedian had to be damn strong and well trained
"Who"? The number of assailants is unconfirmed.
>Second, I don't know what you mean by google search. Google didn't even exist when Watchmen was written.
Jesus wept
>In the real world, even a potential leak is a big fucking deal.
Leaks happen all the damn time, what are you saying.
>And a potential leak is exactly what this is.
No.
If you like you can live in this reality where The Russian hopped over from 616 and paid Blake a visit to get some ambiguous information, but the current reality is that didn't happen so there was no investigation of such a thing by his government associates who were focused on how deep Russia had its arm up Afghanistan and when and where the bombs would drop so they could get clear.

> not someone without enemies aside from Russia

So? Russians aren't the only people who could cause damage if they get their hands on classified information. If it was someone else that could still be a huge problem worth investigating to. But the point here is, you can't just rule out the worst case scenario just because you want to. It could have been some random people on drugs, it could have been an old enemy, it could have been some kind of agent that tracked him down. Until you know which one it was, you can't just assume it's nothing.

>If no one other than Blake was compromised

How would they know only Blake was compromised? They don't know who killed him or why. He could have just been the first person on a long list. That's the thing, they don't know.

>hoping there's a prize at the end even though no leads suggest that.

There's no leads to suggest anything. Here's what they know: he was killed. Yeah, there's the robbery, but making it look like a robbery when you kill someone is the oldest trick in the book. I know you're supposed to do that and I've never killed anyone. I'm sure the government agents would think of this. "Yeah, it looks like a robbery, but of course if an enemy agent killed him they'd make it look like a robbery too."

>"Who"? The number of assailants is unconfirmed.

How many prostitute handlers would be needed to beat up the Comedian unarmed? Five? Remember those guys in the alley who get rekt by fat, flabby Nite Owl and Spectre? They had weapons. How many unarmed men would it take to beat the Comedian, really? and why would they bring that many people instead of sending one with a gun?

>Leaks happen all the damn time

And every single one is treated like a big deal.

Alright next topic:

what if Rorschach lied and told Dr. Manhattan he wouldn't tell anyone about what Veidt did, but then right after they left he started telling everyone? Would anyone even believe him? Would there be a practical way for Rorschach to expose everything?

I think he would still just mail the copy of the journal to the New Frontiersman. If he's still alive, he'd probably talk to them.

No one would believe him.

Also, his notebook is a red herring. It literally means nothing.

so what was the point of killing him?

There was no point to killing Rorschach. Because there's no point to Rorschach. It was pretty much a mercy-kill.

I'm not mad. I don't care. Same as reading I don't know, Hellcat? Insert some other capeshit.

He was an asshole and he had no friends. I'm sure Rorschach saw himself in him.