OOC
GAME: Crossover
DESCRIPTION:
DATE: October 2008
PB: Justin Chambers
JOURNAL: whatajoke
IC
Comic Character.
Name/Alias: The Comedian (WATCHMEN)
Universe: DC
Powers: A really, really mean left hook. Proficiency with firearms of all sorts, and good accuracy to boot.
Status: Morgan doesn't give a shit about who knows. He probably should, but there you have it.
Character.
Name: Morgan Williams
Age/Birthdate: 33 / May 19, 1976
Sexuality: What, as if he's some fucking fairy — in other words, no, the Comedian is so very heterosexual.
Occupation: Car mechanic. Works at Ludlow Garage, Inc at 151-2 Attorney St.
Location: Soundview, East Bronx.
Appearance: A man's man to the core, Morgan is a tall and well-built man of thirty-three; undeniably muscular, the general impression when meeting him is that he's solid. He looms, a little, and he carries himself with the assurance and confidence only granted to men who hit six feet and carry the intimidating physical presence to match. He generally wears wifebeaters and jeans, formal attire not being a Big Thing at a mechanic's workshop; more often than not, his jeans are stained with grease and his leather jackets smell of cigarette smoke. He has square features and ruddy skin, a clear sign of a man who enjoys being outdoors.
PB: Justin Chambers
Personality: First, let it be said: Morgan is about as blunt as humanly possible. He is immensely comfortable in his own skin, and a little too fond of sacrificing tact in favour of message; it led to a few cracked ribs and shattered noses in his youth, and he isn't growing out of the habit anytime soon. Maybe he should have learnt to keep his mouth shut — but as more and more of the Comedian manifested, the cockier and more self-possessed Morgan got. Despite appearances, though, he doesn't actually think he's hot shit. He just wields the aplomb and ease of someone who knows exactly what sort of niche he inhabits; Morgan (and the loud, angry Comedian renting space in his head) are both fully aware of what they are: assholes with temper problems and drinking problems and even bigger women problems. And hey, he deals with it. And has very little patience for people who piss and moan about their problems without dealing with it.
In fact, "suck it up and cope" has been one of his leading mentalities all these years, with an addendum of "…and punch them back if you can get away with it." He approaches life like a bulldozer, or at least like an out-of-control bull; subtlety is lost on him, and this is both Morgan's strength and his failing. He's an "okay guy" as long as he hasn't done anything to you yet, because what you see is what you get. Whenever he's calm, he has a dry and weathered stability to him, and has a tendency to cut to the chase. He gives no evasive bullshit, and no holier-than-thou pedestals — he's just solid and believable. Gritty, honest, and all-American, though also a foul mouth and a dirty rotten temper with a propensity of barrelling people over. Though nowhere near as extreme as his comics counterpart, Morgan is still a fair bit nihilistic; it takes a lot to stir him out of his self-absorbed lull into caring about something beyond the service of his own interests. It takes a whole lot to make him care about something, and he's far more likely to be found butting headfirst against people who call his bullshit or avoid it. Everyone's just waiting for that moment something splinters and his knee-jerk reaction to laugh it off finally wears thin.
Mostly, he's okay with people brushing him off as just another abrasive jackass; he doesn't burst into erudite philosophising the moment people aren't looking. But the Comedian is blessed with the dubious talent of seeing his big picture more than most other reincarnates — and he turned his back on it. The Comedian saw what the world had become, so he mirrored it: becoming a grotesque parody of the worst of humanity, his entire existence a running joke of bad taste. He looked right into his own inner ugliness, and it looked back. So he sucks it up and copes. He thought people would notice, eventually, how absurd everything had become.
Despite all his flaws, Morgan can be found to be surprisingly likeable — in a sort of gruff, emotionally retarded kind of way. Especially when you just know him as an acquaintance — it has something to do with his honesty and his straightforward nature. He's just best in small doses, particularly with that cripplingly high confidence; his biggest problem is probably how he never takes anything seriously.
History: Morgan Williams' history is one of separation; he was at a young age when his mother and father divorced, and the same age when custody split and his elder brother went off with mom. James was a pensive and well-read young man, and he used to read his little brother children's books before they went away; afterwards, Morgan retreated to Power Rangers and G.I. Joes. His father was a constant presence in his life, larger-than-life and solid, while he grew up without the softening influence of a mother. He stayed with them, occasionally, but the more that time stretched on, the awkwarder those weekends got. Morgan grew to carry a crippling inferiority complex regarding his older brother, and wielding some increasing, never-quite-addressed bitterness over the divorce.
As the gulf with his mother widened, there was more ~male bonding~ with his dad, Rob, particularly over the upkeep of his collection of cars and motorcycles in the backlot. They weren't rich, and instead fell closer on the scale to trailertrash. It wasn't a sign of luxury that Mr. Williams owned so many vehicles; most of them were unuseable and simply scavenged off people who didn't want the scrap metal. But with enough parts culled from others, you could build something workable.
Morgan grew up like this. He was intelligent in his own way — street smarts, mainly — but school and education suffered while he got better with his hands and his instincts. He went to a local career college in New Jersey, riding on James' wallet (thank you, more residual guilt!) and labouring towards a one-year degree in Automotive Technology, fancy as it sounded. He took what his father taught him and forged something even better out of it. Frat parties at another nearby university were the be-all end-all of his college days; he went bingeing with buddies on a regular basis, and the riotous parties were a typical weekend attraction. They were also what made the Comedian kick into full swing, whenever Morgan had a few too many and there were some… drunken mistakes, whenever he'd get a little too intimate with a girl who didn't quite know what she was doing. But it happened too many times to call it 'just the once'.
It wasn't the most glorious and flattering time of his life, and to this day, Morgan doesn't remember much — and when he does, he maintains that they were into it, weren't they? The muddled memories of the Comedian's own misadventures didn't help matters, and after graduation, he started to sink into a more sobering, remorseful mindset. The advantage of living his counterpart's life on fast forward: having done the life of a reckless youth, now he's becoming privy to the wisdom of the older Comedian. After graduation, he was ready to work and do it properly — and he did, for a while, except military service called.
9/11 and serving a couple active terms in Afghanistan brought out Eddie Blake's manifestation in full force. Morgan found himself to be a crack shot and a merciless soldier; it was both exhilarating and, well, honestly: traumatising. His personality darkened even further and while he built up a habit of easy-going male comraderie, he became even more withdrawn and defensive about personal matters. God forbid he ever did any real introspection. His humour took a turn for the darkly twisted and his behaviour eventually merited him a few visits to the therapist, which he hated. He managed to get past Blake's clamouring violent influence, however — a few promotions propelled him up the military ladder, and he managed to keep his reincarnate instincts in check with severe discipline and even more steely repression of his emotions.
A few years later, he finally came home and wanted nothing more than to give a big "screw you" to anything related to ideology or patriotism or big national mind-games; he's had enough, thank you very much, because it's all a load of shit anyway. Morgan is not an optimistic. Whenever life starts taking a turn for the crazy and obscene, he feels the stirrings of the Comedian's instincts in his gut — the innate instinct to thrive in the middle of sheer, incomprehensible shit — but Edward Blake brings a lot of mental baggage. He doesn't like it. Morgan would much rather tinker with cars and have a few drinks than get involved with the end of the world, when it comes.
Unfortunately, reincarnate life hasn't exactly left him alone. He's picked up a few friends within the community — Eddie, Mitch, Lorelai and Margot among them — but Morgan hasn't been able to cut back and forget about his ~identity~ like he wants to. Increasing violence within the city led him to turning vigilante at night with Magneto. When Eddie Blake's personality crossed over for a day, the tired sixty-year-old retiree brought Morgan some peace and acceptance —
— but the earthquake ruined all of that progress. He snapped back into his riot mode, and despite holing up with Margot and Lorelai in a safehouse, ended up wading into the fray to smash some skulls. When Morgan got back, some memories of chaos and anarchy had definitely awoken.
Incidentally, he also has an illegitimate kid kicking around somewhere. He pays child support to the woman every month. And Morgan wasn't a big reader, so he was very, very uncomfortable when he finally read Watchmen for the first time. It… explained a lot.
Trivia:
- Favourite movie: The Big Lebowski.
Soundtrack:
"one more night"; stars
"that's not really funny"; eels
"whiskey lullaby"; brad paisley & alison krauss
"rum brave"; murder by death
"the golden state"; john doe feat. kathleen edwards
QUOTES
— "Once you figure out what a joke everything is, being the Comedian's the only thing that makes sense."
— "Hey, I never said it was a good joke. I'm just playin' along with the gag."
— "Blake, she was pregnant. You gunned her down.
"Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Pregnant woman. Gunned her down. BANG. And y'know what? You watched me. You coulda changed the gun into steam or the bullets into mercury or the bottle into snowflakes! You coulda teleported either of us to goddamn Australia… but you didn't lift a finger!"
— "Lissen, you little punks, you better get back in ya rat holes! I got riot gas, I got rubber bullets…"
— "Until then, we're society's only protection. We keep it up as long as we have to."
— "Well, me, I kinda like it when things get weird, y'know? I like it when all the cards are on the table."
"But the country's disintegrating. What's happened to America? What's happened to the American dream?"
"It came true. You're lookin' at it."
— "The world was tough, you just hadda be tougher, right? Not anymore."
MILITARY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Basic_Training
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present)#September_11.2C_2001_attacks
http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/joiningup/a/?once=true&
Delayed Enlistment Program; Inactive reserve member. No pay, called to active duty. Time up, go out to basic training. Enlisted to active duuuty.
Military College Loan Repayment Program;
http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/joiningup/a/recruiter.htm
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081005093734AAFcdnE
LOGS
February 2008: The Comedian and the Silk Spectre meet
