The Assassination of Eddie Blake was a successful mission planned and carried out by billionaire genius and retired costumed adventurer Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias) to assassinate fellow crimefighter Eddie Blake (the Comedian) soon after his chance discovery of the private island where Veidt housed the genetically engineered psychic squid monster and the unsettling conspiracy surrounding the creature, on the night of October 11, 1985. It is the inciting incident for the events of the limited comic series Watchmen.
Background[]
The Comedian's drunken confession to Jacobi
Sometime earlier in 1985, while returning by air over the Pacific Ocean from covert activities in Nicaragua for the U.S. government, the Comedian spotted a ship docking on an uncharted island. Believing it to be bases for the Sandinistas, Blake instead comes across by accident a shocking secret—an island where Adrian Veidt had created (along with the help of several scientists and artists that he hired for the project) a genetically engineered creature whose purpose and events surrounding its creation was so horrifying to Blake that (according to Veidt) "his practiced cynicism cracked".[1]
Upon returning to New York, a drunk Comedian broke into the apartment of former supervillain and Minutemen archenemy Edgar W. Jacobi (also known as "Moloch the Mystic") one night and went on sob-filled rant to a terrified Jacobi in his bedroom, detailing all his life's regrets and the sins he's committed as a "superhero" (such as shooting children in Vietnam and brutalizing women) before Blake incoherently tries to explain certain aspects of the alien hoax conspiracy to him; wishing he never set on that island to investigate that night.[2] He cryptically tells Jacobi that he, along with Janey Slater, are "a part of this too" because Blake saw his "name was on the list". Blake, being too intoxicated from drinking and traumatized by what he's learned, only manages to scare and confuse Jacobi before taking off. Unbeknownst to both of them, however, Adrian Veidt had secretly bugged the apartment and heard Blake's confession to Jacobi.
Faced with the possibility of Eddie Blake revealing the existence of the creature, as well as its purpose, to the public and exposing his intricate manipulation, Adrian Veidt concluded that drastic measures were necessary in order to safeguard his complex conspiracy from collapsing.
Veidt throwing Blake out of the window
Assassination[]
Aftermath[]
The assassination of Eddie Blake becomes a pivotal turning point that draws the attention of Rorschach, a masked vigilante who continues to operate outside the law. Fueled by his belief that there was a conspiracy targeting former and current costumed adventurers, Rorschach embarked on an investigation to uncover the truth behind the deaths and to warn his former Crimebuster teammates. Rorschach's investigation into Blake's murder sets in motion a chain of events that ultimately exposes the layers of deception and manipulation orchestrated by Adrian Veidt.