Field "Comment: Comment" - "Display the content of a comment." does not work

Using the following view, there are no comments being set in the data, however the view is being passed thru the correct handler, $data->comments_comment, is always null even tho $data->nid is an integer, when i look up that node in the comment table i can see there are no comments associated

mysql> select count(*) from comments where nid=1500;
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
|        0 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.03 sec)

This is being called 5 times, $data->nid is set but there are no comments

function views_handler_field_comment($fieldinfo, $fielddata, $value, $data) {
  $obj = new stdClass();
  $obj->comment = check_markup($data->comments_comment, $data->comments_format, FALSE);
  comment_invoke_comment($obj, 'view'); 
  return $obj->comment;
}

Here is my view, am i doing something wrong? I'm trying to get the most recent comments that have made (show the comment text not the node title)

  $view = new stdClass();
  $view->name = 'fieldtest';
  $view->description = '';
  $view->access = array (
);
  $view->view_args_php = '';
  $view->page = TRUE;
  $view->page_title = 'rcent comments';
  $view->page_header = '';
  $view->page_header_format = '1';
  $view->page_footer = '';
  $view->page_footer_format = '1';
  $view->page_empty = '';
  $view->page_empty_format = '1';
  $view->page_type = 'list';
  $view->url = 'comment-test';
  $view->use_pager = TRUE;
  $view->nodes_per_page = '5';
  $view->sort = array (
    array (
      'tablename' => 'comments',
      'field' => 'timestamp',
      'sortorder' => 'DESC',
      'options' => 'normal',
    ),
  );
  $view->argument = array (
  );
  $view->field = array (
    array (
      'tablename' => 'comments',
      'field' => 'comment',
      'label' => 'Comment',
    ),
  );
  $view->filter = array (
    array (
      'tablename' => 'node_comment_statistics',
      'field' => 'comment_count',
      'operator' => '>',
      'options' => '',
      'value' => '0',
    ),
  );
  $view->exposed_filter = array (
  );
  $view->requires = array(comments, node_comment_statistics);
  $views[$view->name] = $view;