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For other versions of Laurie, see Silk Spectre (disambiguation).
For other versions of the Comedian, see Comedian.

Laurel Jane "Laurie" Juspeczyk is a former masked vigilante once known as Silk Spectre II, taking up the mantle from Sally Jupiter, her mother and the original Silk Spectre.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Laurel Jane "Laurie" Juspeczyk was born on December 1, 1949 and was raised by her mother, Sally Jupiter, and her husband, Laurence Schexnayder; It was also around this time that problems in the couple's marriage began to occur soon after their daughter's birth and their relationship started to crumble as a result.[1]

Snowglobe

Breaking the snowstorm ball

Laurie's first memory was when she was around 5 years old during one night in 1954, when she caught her mother and Laurence, arguing and fighting over their lives and how they ended up together. In reality, Laurence scolded Sally for having another affair with the Comedian. Growing up, the auburn-haired Laurie knew Laurence was not her biological father, and always suspected (later proven incorrectly) that her real dad was Hooded Justice, likely because her mother and he were, Laurie believed, dating during the 1940s.

Since when she was little, Laurie wanted to work with animals, however, Sally pushed her into the "family business" of costumed crimefighting. She had bought her GI Joe with spare uniforms.[2] Laurie never held much interest in becoming her mother's successor but went along with Sally's wishes anyway.[3][2] She spent much of her childhood by working out in the gym, alone.[2]

By 1962 Laurie was living with her mother in a Los Angeles villa where Sally's former Minutemen teammates such as Nelson Gardner, Byron Lewis, and Hollis Mason would pay them a visit, like when the Mason came to discuss the book he was writing. This ignited Sally's motivations for Laurie's future. In 1966, she acted like an agent for her daughter, picking out her revealing costume.

Crimebusters[]

Sally Jupiter decided that it was time to leave California and moved herself and Laurie back to New York City, just in time for Laurie to make her official debut as the youngest member of the Crimebusters. Laurie entered the home of Captain Metropolis while Sally waited outside in a limousine for her to finish. During the meeting, young Laurie exchanged awkward smiles with the Nite Owl II and long glances with the godlike Doctor Manhattan, causing anger to his companion, Janey Slater.[4] [5]

After the meeting broke up, Laurie met the Comedian outside, who commented and complimented her for being the spitting image of her mother, but their conversation was broken up quickly by an angry Sally. Laurie noted that the Comedian looked sad as he watched them drive away, and she felt sorry for him. The following car ride home was when Sally told her daughter of her history with the Comedian (but did not tell her that the Comedian was her father). Disgusted and deeply saddened for her mother's pain, Laurie never forgave the Comedian for his actions, though it seems that as time passed, and in a complicated way, Sally was able to come to terms with it, even to the point that she was willing to defend the Comedian from Laurie's derogatory remarks after he was murdered.

Shortly after the meeting of the Crimebusters, Laurie met and became involved with Jon Osterman aka Doctor Manhattan. Drawn to him from the moment she first saw him, Laurie worked with Manhattan in some of his various domestic assignments, such as patrolling that May near the Chrysler building. The relationship brought the anger of Slater who left him.[6][5] Her mother did not approve of it, likening Laurie's relationship with Manhattan to being the equivalent of sleeping with an H-bomb.[4] On Laurie's 20th birthday they moved to their own apartment in Washington.

Later costumed adventurer career[]

Sometime before or around 1973, Laurie eventually read Hollis Mason's memoir Under The Hood, where she learned about Blake's sexual assault of her mother when they were in the Minutemen.In 1975, Manhattan took Laurie to Adrian Veidt's Antarctica estate of Karnak where she met and played with Adrian's genetically-engineered lynx, Bubastis, surprised at how technology had advanced.[5]

Retirement[]

In 1977, Juspeczyk and Jon Osterman were together to suppress the riots during the police strike of 1977.[4] She tried to hold off the ringleaders outside the White House but she was too slow, and so Osterman teleported everyone back to their homes.[5]

Never exactly happy being a vigilante and not happy with the government taking advantage of her relationship with the superhuman Doctor Manhattan, Laurie was more than pleased to quit being a costumed adventurer when the Keene Act of 1977 forced all but government-sponsored superheroes to retire. However, she kept some contact with Dan Dreiberg.[5][3]

In 1981, Osterman was transferred to Rockefeller Military Research Center and she went with him in order to keep him company in the Special Talents Quarters. As the place was guarded, Laurie felt they were isolated but without the benefits of privacy, being observed but having nobody to talk to.[5][2] During that time she tried twice to quit smoking but life there was so unbearable that she failed. As years passed, their relationship became strained, owing to Osterman's growing disconnection with humanity.[2]

In August 1985, Juspeczyk and Osterman went to Grand Central Station and bought an issue of Time commemorating Hiroshima week.[5]

Events of Watchmen[]

When Dr. Manhattan was informed that the Comedian was dead, Laurie was restless all morning.[5] That evening Rorschach came to warn them, but he made her feel uneasy and Jon teleported him away. That night she arranged a meeting with Dan Dreiberg at Rafael's.[3]

During the Comedian's funeral, Jon teleported her to Nepenthe Gardens to visit her mother. At first, she avoided mentioned what happened, but Sally had already read it in the papers. Laurie criticized her mother's stance saying that her laziness is "not a terminal condition" and was also was disgusted seeing an antique Tijuana bible featuring her mother.[5][4]

Laurie eventually left Manhattan and visited Dan. On their way to visit Hollis Mason, they were ambushed by Knot Tops but they fended them off. Laurie opted to spend the night in a hotel and think about her relationship with Jon over.

Leaving Doctor Manhattan[]

Laurie-Jon-Sex

Laurie being startled by Jon's doppelgangers while making love.

After Jon teleported to Mars, she had no role in the military center so after giving her a cancer scan,[6] they expelled her and suspended her expense account. Dan bought her a meal at Gunga Diner (not knowing that they were spied by Rorschach posing as a vagrant) and invited her to stay with him.[7]

The two soon became romantically involved but their first encounter was unsuccessful. After midnight, and anticipating World War III, Dreiberg and Laurie decided to don their old costumes and take the airship, Archie, out. During their flight, they found an apartment building on fire and rescued the inhabitants.[2]

Soon after, Laurie and Dan mount the successful escape of Rorschach from Sing Sing penitentiary, Laurie was brought to Mars by Manhattan, where she attempted to convince him to save humanity from impending nuclear war. During their conversation, Laurie finally came to the realization that, to her horror, her father was really the Comedian. Moved by the sheer unlikelihood of two people as different as Sally Jupiter and the Eddie Blake producing a child, and the child being Laurie, Dr. Manhattan realized the miracle and value of human life and agreed to save the planet. The pair returned to Earth, only to find half of New York City destroyed by Adrian Veidt's creature. They teleported to Karnak in Antarctica, where Laurie attempted to shoot Veidt, only to be thwarted by his newfound, and untried, ability to catch bullets. After realizing that Veidt's plan had worked, and that, despite the loss of several million lives, nuclear war had been averted while also uniting the nations of the world, the heroes (with the exception of Rorschach) decided that the plot should be kept secret to serve the greater good. She and Dreiberg found a private room in Veidt's stronghold to reflect on their decision and they settled down to make love. Manhattan later finds them asleep together and smiles at Laurie's newfound love and happiness and walks out of the room to confront Veidt.

Shortly after these events, Laurie and Dan Dreiberg adopted new appearances and identities, now calling themselves Sam and Sandra Hollis, and sporting blonde hair. They visited Sally Jupiter - now living in a retirement home - and Laurie told her mother that she had realized the truth about her father. The issue was put to rest for Laurie, who accepted that the situation between her mother and the Comedian was too complicated, and forgave her. "Sam and Sandra" left soon afterward, indicating that they would continue to adventure, although Laurie expressed the wish for a better superhero identity, a more protective leather outfit, a mask, and a firearm. This parallels the Comedian's change from a gaudy yellow clown suit to paramilitary gear, even the aforementioned firearm.

Physical appearance[]

Laurie has long brown hair with bangs, brown eyes, fair skin, full lips, and a beauty mark below her right eye. She is 5,8. Laurie is said to look a lot like her mother, although she has brown hair while her mother has auburn hair. Laurie is also noted to be just as beautiful as her mother, if not more. People say that she has a very beautiful smile. She has long graceful legs and quite an athletic figure, due years of martial arts and gymnastics training. Laurie's Silk Spectre costume in the graphic novel is a black bra and thong, covered by a see-through yellow dress. She also has black high heels and a choker necklace with her costume. Her movie outfit lacks the choker and is more revealing, although it sports the same basic colors.

Abilities[]

  • Master Martial Artist: Juspeczyk is an master martial artist. She has trained ever since she was five years old by her mother and several other teachers. She is able to hold her own against several muggers and other foes without being injured.
  • Master Acrobat: Juspeczyk is also a incredible gymnast after training all her life. From practicing gymnastics, Laurie has excellent balance. She is able to perform flips and kicks while wearing high heels.
  • Master Marksman: Juspeczyk is able to use firearms, as she shot a bullet at Adrian, which would have hit his chest had he not moved his hand in the bullet's path and had it lodged into his palm.

Just like many characters in Watchmen, especially in the film, Laurie is portrayed as having superhuman physical abilities, as she could break bone effortlessly with one strike and send people flying through the air. Laurie easily maneuvered in between multiple knife strikes and defeated several muggers at once. She was unfazed by the strength of opponents much larger than her and could overpower them with little effort. She could jump from a distance of over a dozen feet and perform a combat roll without any harm or weakness. Nite Owl II matched her in strength and fighting abilities, and both of them were surpassed by Adrian Veidt. These extreme physical abilities likely come from unlocking hidden human potential through a lifetime of strict training, as implied by Adrian Veidt who was researching this along with other theoretical sciences.

Personality[]

Laurie Blake is liberal-thinking and said to be a modern woman. Laurie appears to be quite proud of her Polish heritage, which could account partly for her insistence to be called by her real last name and use of Polish sayings in everyday conversation, but she was not inclined towards crimefighting initially and she seems to have bitterness for the 'Miss Jupiter' christening. She is vocal in her feminist and humanitarian concerns and is quite a conditioned fighter, and at the start of the story is shown to have a strained relationship with her mother, another reason for her to not like the Jupiter name. Driven by the memories of her own experience, Sally tried to keep Laurie from knowing some of the harsher realities of the crime-fighting life; for example, she didn't allow her to read Hollis Mason's autobiography Under the Hood, which included the Comedian's sexual assault on Sally, something Laurie knew nothing of at the time.

Trivia[]

  • Silk Spectre II is very loosely based on Nightshade, one of the many Charlton superhero characters that writer Alan Moore adapted into the Watchmen universe.
  • According to Moore, Silk Spectre II is also heavily modeled after DC's Dinah Laurel Lance, the second Black Canary, in terms of fishnet costume, martial arts skills, and backstory as being a legacy hero title passed down from her mother, as well as the Golden Age heroine Phantom Lady from Quality Comics, which was later sold to DC Comics.
    • Her first name "Laurel" is a refence to Lance's middle name.

Gallery[]

References[]

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