Chapter 2 Absent Friends Summary

Chapter 2 begins with Laurie traveling to her mother's retirement community for a visit. Laurie tells Sally about the Comedian's funeral, and comments that the Comedian was a brutal thug. Sally tells Laurie that the attempted happened in the distant past - 45 years ago - and that she has put it all behind her and holds no grudge. Laurie is flabbergasted at her mother's attitude. Sally then remembers, in a flashback sequence, a photo session from 1940 where the Minutemen, the original group of costumed heroes, assembled. Sally, then known as the Silk Spectre, was changing clothes after the photograph was taken, when the Comedian assaulted her, attempting rape. When Sally resisted the Comedian severely beat her and only stopped when Hooded Justice intervened, in turn beating the Comedian.

Meanwhile Blake's funeral takes place. Outside the cemetery, a haggard-looking vagrant walks...