the late 1960s, Blake had begun working as a covert government operative. Hollis Mason, the original Nite Owl, had published his autobiography Under the Hood by this point and in it disclosed the Comedian's sexual assault on Sally Jupiter/Silk Spectre. In 1966, he was invited to join the Crimebusters by Captain Metropolis, but he quickly ruined the older hero's hopes of a new team by mocking him, and pointing out that old fashioned crime fighting methods would not save the world from nuclear war. Alongside Doctor Manhattan, the Comedian played a major role in the United States' war with Vietnam. Shortly after Manhattan's godlike powers forced the North Vietnamese to surrender, Blake was confronted by his lover, a pregnant Vietnamese woman. He told her bluntly that he planned to leave the country immediately without her, and in a rage she slashed his face with a broken bottle. Blake shot and killed her, but the attack left his face permanently disfigured with a scar running from his right eye to the corner of his mouth. After this incident, he began wearing a leather gimp-style mask when dressed as the Comedian. The costumed adventurers faced massive backlash and rioting in 1977; in response, Congress passed the Keene Act, requiring all heroes to register with the government if they wished to remain active. The majority of them "retired" in anonymity; while others, such as Rorschach, continued their activities in open defiance of the law. Doctor Manhattan and the Comedian were two of the few who registered and were employed by the government. Blake enjoyed his new role in the government and the protection it offered, even going so far as to suggest to members of President Nixon's staff that he had killed Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein before they could reveal the details of the Watergate scandal, as well as being behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy (on Nixon's orders). The Iran hostage crisis in 1980 was resolved when Blake freed the captives after an assault. It was during his return from a government mission in 1984 that Blake discovered the island where Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias) was conducting his experiments that would ultimately destroy New York City. Shocked and appalled by what he finds, Blake realizes that no one will believe him if he reveals Veidt's plan. He drunkenly breaks into Edgar Jacobi's house and cryptically describes the plan, knowing Jacobi will