The story starts with two separate parts. Laurie is visiting her mother the original Silk Spectre, Sally Jupiter. Jon is attending the funeral of Edward Blake. Laurie and her mother discuss when Blake tried to rape her and his antics in life. The man with the sign reading 'The End is Nigh' patrols the cemetery where Blake is being buried.
Things flash back to when the picture in The Comedian's closet was taken. The Minutemen gathered for a publicity picture. The team goes decides to go back the 'The Owl's Nest' for a beer. Sally says she needs to change first and she'll catch up with them later. As she starts to undress, Blake shows up.
He thinks she wanted him there, but she forces him away and scratches his face. This causes Blake to go nuts and beat the crap out of her. As he undoes his pants, Hooded Justice (a fellow costume) shows up. Justice pummels Blake and forces him to leave. Blake questions Justice's sexual preference and leaves.
Laurie and Sally argue about Laurie's relationship with Jon when the story returns to the cemetery.
Adrian Veidt is at the funeral, and remembers the first official meeting of the 'Crimebusters'. This was the second generation of costumes consisting of Veidt, Jon, Blake, Rorschach, Captain Metropolis, Dan, Laurie, and Janey Slater. Blake says that the group is a joke, and a waste of time. Rorschach says the team is too big and unwieldy. Veidt thinks the team just needs to be better organized to which Blake states that Veidt is that smartest man in the world and he should figure it out.
Veidt says intelligence is all they need to overcome their obstacles. Blake says they're wasting time, and burns down Captain Metropolis's display.
Everyone leaves with Metropolis pleading for them to stay. He says "Somebody has to save the world, don't you see?" Veidt looks at what is left of the display.
Now Manhattan remembers his encounter with the Comedian in Vietnam. Blake talks about how messed up the world would be if Manhattan hadn't have crushed the Vietcong, winning the Vietnam War.
A pregnant woman approaches Blake, saying it's his and he must stay with her. He says he is leaving and won't see her again. She busts a bottle and slices his face open, to which he pulls out his gun and kills her. Manhattan states the woman was pregnant. Blake says the Jon could have turned the bullet into a bottle of snowflakes or teleported him away, but he didn't. He says Jon doesn't care about humans or anything else.
Back at the cemetery, Dan remembers clearing the streets with Blake. The streets have filled with rioters against vigilantes. Blake uses riot gas to disperse the mob. It is here that Dan begins to despise Blake as a human being.
Now a man named Edgar Jacobi a.k.a. Moloch enters his home. As he goes to get something from his refrigerator, Rorschach bursts out of it. Rorschach knows that Moloch used to be a villain and questions whether Moloch killed Blake. Edgar says that The Comedian came into his house a week before he died.
The panels then show Blake drunk and upset. Going on and on about this new Joke, a big Gag that someone was planning. Blake saw a list of people that were being used in the Joke: Janey Slater, Moloch, Dr. Manhattan. He says this island has writers, scientists, and artists on it for the big Joke.
Rorschach says Moloch's story is probably true and finds medicine that has been banned. Moloch says its for his terminal cancer.
Rorschach's journal is narrated. Talks about prostitutes, Moloch's story, and ponders the 'island' Moloch was talking about. Rorschach then proceeds to write down a joke he heard once.
Rorschach approaches Blake’s grave, picks a flower, then leaves.