Silk Spectre
Silk Spectre is the name shared by a mother and daughter fictional superheroine pair who are central characters in the classic comic book limited series Watchmen by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons, published by DC Comics. They are often said to be modified versions of the character Nightshade from Charlton Comics; however, Alan Moore has stated that he found Nightshade "boring," and that Silk Spectre was modeled on sexier characters such as the Phantom Lady and Black Canary. (Black Canary is also an alias shared by a mother and daughter.)
Publication information
Publisher DC Comics
First appearance Watchmen #1 (September 1986)
Created by Alan Moore
Dave Gibbons
John Higgins
In story information
Alter ego Sally Jupiter (I)
Laurie Juspeczyk (II)
Team affiliations Minutemen (I)
The Crimebusters (II)
Abilities Athlete-level strength and great fighting prowess.
Fictional character history
Sally Jupiter
The first Silk Spectre was former frizzy haired red head waitress and burlesque dancer Sally Jupiter (her real last name was Juspeczyk, which she changed to hide her Polish ancestry), who entered action sometime around 1938 when she was only 18 years old. In her time, she was a sex symbol whom villains and criminals didn't really mind getting caught by. She was basically an action heroine version of a pin-up girl and, even in her old age, she seemed proud of her sex symbol status, apparently enjoying male attention as indicated by her career as a dancer and her reaction to learning of a Tijuana bible that was based on her, much to her daughter's disapproval.
She was soon invited by Captain Metropolis to join the Minutemen, a group of costumed heroes. On October 2nd, 1940, after a meeting of the Minutemen, she was sexually assaulted by Edward Blake, alias The Comedian. He was stopped by fellow Minuteman Hooded Justice, who gave him a vicious beating. The event would have a profound impact on Sally's life; her agent, Laurence Schexnayder, persuaded her not to press charges against the Comedian for fear of damaging the group's image. More celebrity than vigilante, Silk Spectre provided a cover for Hooded Justice's homosexuality by being his glamorous girlfriend (possibly her way of thanking him for intervening when the Comedian attacked her). In an interview, she admitted that she didn't really like The Silhouette, a.k.a. Ursula Zandt, who was constantly pestering her about her Polish heritage, but later expressed regret that she was expelled from the group simply because she was a lesbian, especially since there were men on the team who were gay (though she did not identify them).
In 1947 Sally retired from crime-fighting and married her agent, Laurence Schexnayder, while keeping in touch with Hollis Mason (Nite Owl) and Nelson Gardner (Captain Metropolis). In 1949 she gave birth to her daughter Laurel Jane, commonly known as Laurie. It was known to both parents that Laurie was not Laurence's child, but the Comedian's, from a second encounter, and this led to conflict in the family, leading the couple to divorce in 1956. While not explicitly stated, it is implied that Sally's second sexual encounter with the Comedian was consensual, and that, despite it all, she did have feelings for him.
Watchmen Movie - Official Trailer
Laurie Juspeczyk
Sally pushed her daughter into the "family business" of crimefighting." Laurie Juspeczyk never held much interest in becoming her mother's successor, but went along with Sally's wishes anyway; growing up, the brunette Laurie knew Laurence Schexnayder was not her real father, and she always believed, incorrectly, that her real father was Hooded Justice. Laurie Juspeczyk is liberal-thinking and a "modern" woman. She is vocal in her feminist and humanitarian concerns and is quite a conditioned fighter, and at the start of the story is shown to have a strained relationship with her mother. Driven by the memories of her own experience, Sally tried to keep Laurie from knowing some of the harsher realities of the crime-fighting life; for example, she didn't allow her to read Hollis Mason (Nite-Owl I)'s autobiography Under the Hood (which included the Comedian's sexual assault on Sally, something Laurie knew nothing of). Sally acted like an agent for her daughter, picking out her revealing costume, bringing her to the meeting of the ill-fated "Crimebusters" in a limousine and waiting outside for her to finish. After the meeting broke up, Laurie met the Comedian outside, who commented and complimented her for being the spitting image of her mother, but their conversation was broken up quickly by an angry Sally Jupiter. Laurie noted that the Comedian looked sad as he watched them drive away, and she felt sorry for him. The following car ride home was when Sally told her daughter of her history with the Comedian (but did not tell her that the Comedian was her father). 
Disgusted and deeply saddened for her mother's pain, Laurie never forgave the Comedian for his actions, though it seems that as time passed, and in a complicated way, Sally was able to come to terms with it, even to the point that she was willing to defend the Comedian from Laurie's derogatory remarks after he was murdered. Shortly after the meeting of the Crimebusters, Laurie met and became involved with Doctor Manhattan, something her mother did not approve of, likening Laurie's relationship with Manhattan to being the equivalent of sleeping with an H-bomb. Drawn to him from the moment she first saw him, Laurie worked with Doctor Manhattan in some of his various domestic assignments, including the suppression of riots during the police strike of 1977. Never exactly happy being a vigilante and not happy with the government taking advantage with her relationship with the superhuman Manhattan, Laurie was more than pleased to quit being a superhero when the Keene Act of 1977 forced all but government-sponsored superheroes to retire.
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