The Comedian's Badge, also known as The Button, is a yellow smiley face pin, worn by Edward Blake.

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History Edit

Watchmen Edit

The smiley face image seen throughout the book comes from a badge worn by the Comedian. It is revealed that the Comedian (Eddie Blake) stole the pin from the second Silk Spectre in the Before Watchmen Silk Spectre series. He was sent by the original Silk Spectre to convince her daughter to return to her. He accomplished this by abducting her boyfriend in a hospital and beating him, then forcing him to write a staged letter of rejection and join The Marines. As he drops the letter on Silk Spectre II's dresser he sees a handful of the pins, smiles, and takes one. He then carries the pin as his sign for the rest of his life. In his days as a member of the Minutemen, he wore a different symbol attached to his belt buckle: a purple-red grinning face resembling a comedy mask from ancient Greek theatre. By the time Nelson Gardner attempted to recruit Blake into his new organization, the Crimebusters, Blake was wearing a new uniform without any sort of badge.

The more familiar smiley badge became a part of the Comedian's uniform at least prior to 1971, when he wore it at the V.V.N. Day celebrations that marked the end of the Vietnam War. He wore it consistently from that time until 1985.

In 1985, Blake was wearing the badge on his night robe when he was attacked in his apartment. When Blake was beaten about the face, blood from his nose and mouth stained the badge in its familiar pattern: a single line of blood across the badge's right eye. When Blake was thrown out of the window, the badge flew free of his clothes and was washed into the gutter. It remained there until Rorschach came across it the night after the murder, on October 12th.

Rorschach subsequently gave the badge to Dan Dreiberg when he came to inform Dreiberg about Blake's death. Dreiberg removed the blood and kept the badge with him, even when he went to dinner with Laurie Juspeczyk at the restaurant Rafael's. At Blake's funeral, Dreiberg dropped the badge into Blake's grave, on top of the coffin.

DC Rebirth Edit

After Kid Flash attempted to force his way back inside the DC Universe, Batman noticed a mysterious object glimmering in a dark corner of the Batcave, where an energy bolt from the tear in reality had struck. Inspecting it, he discovered something lodged in the rockface, and chipped it loose. It was revealed as the Comedian's badge.

Later, Flash arrived in the Batcave to speak to Batman on the events that had transpired, and found him running tests on it. Batman revealed that he initially believed it to have been left behind by his arch-nemesis, the Joker, but quickly found it was giving off a unique radiation signature unlike anything they were familiar with. Recognizing that something very big was at work but knowing very little about it, they agreed to keep it to themselves until they knew more.

The Button Edit

Several months later, after forensic testing proved inconclusive, the Button reacted to the Medusa Mask, an artifact belonging to the villain Psycho-Pirate, who was the only holdout from before the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Batman was struck by unusual energy and experienced visions of an alternative version of his father, wearing his own version of the Batman costume. The radiation spiked and he immediately contacted Flash to discuss the situation. Flash, busy protecting his home city from invasion, said he would arrive in one minute.

Unfortunately, Reverse-Flash was also interested in Batman, as the alternative version of his father had slain him in that timeline. After a short battle, Batman was incapacitated with critical injuries. Reverse-Flash inspected the Button and was transported away. When he returned a few seconds later, he was fatally injured, with half of his body disintegrating. He claimed to have seen God before dying.

Noticing the Button had disappeared and knowing that Reverse-Flash was a time traveler, the duo embarked on a mission across the dimension of Hypertime to locate both his place of death and the Button. While they did locate him, they were unable to prevent him from rushing to his demise, and the Button was lost to them. His assailant is revealed as Doctor Manhattan, who picks up the Button before departing. It is next seen floating through space, the dried blood becoming fresh once again, before twisting into the battered shield of Superman.

Doomsday Clock Edit

At some point after this, the Button came into the possession of Lex Luthor.

Symbolism Edit

The Comedian's Badge is one of the most iconic and recognizable images from the Watchmen comic with its yellow smiley face and blood spatter. The symbol appears on the cover of the very first issue, and throughout the series. The blood stain on the Comedian's badge resembles an arrow, pointing from the center of the round smiley face into the upper left quadrant. One interpretation is that the stain represents the minute hand of a clock, pointing at 12 minutes to the hour, particularly in an implied connection to the Doomsday Clock, which represents how close the world is to "catastrophic destruction". Alternatively, or simultaneously, it can symbolize a flaw or taint on superficial appearances that everything is well: in the same way the blood stains the happy smile, the new world order is stained by the uncertain foundation of the blood and falsehood it was built on.

The badge's symbol also appears many other times during the story, often at important junctures. A list of these appearances follows.