Writer: Tom King / Penciller: Jorge Fornés / Colour Artist: Dave Stewart / Letterer: Clayton Cowles / Collects Rorschach #1-#12 (2020-2021) / DC Comics Black Label (HC)
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14th December 2021
The Pitch: It’s been 35 years since Ozymandias dropped a giant interdimensional squid on New York City, killing thousands and destroying the public’s trust in heroes once and for all. And since that time, one figure in a fedora, mask, and trench coat has become a divisive cultural icon. So, what does it mean when Rorschach reappears as a gunman trying to assassinate a candidate running against President Redford? Who is the man behind the mask, and why is he acting this way? Now it’s up to one detective to uncover the identity of this would-be killer and expose a web of conspiracies that will change the world forever.
Watchmen is a work of art that has almost always had controversy attached to it. Largely stemming from co-creator Alan Moore's long-running dispute with publisher DC Comics and latterly, the film and television interpretations of both his book (drawn by Dave Gibbons) and the world that it suggested, as seen in HBO's excellent television series. In addition to these recent works, there have been prequels and sequels (Before Watchmen and Doomsday Clock), all of which have come with their fair share of bad feeling, despite any qualitative merits the audience feels they had. Given that there is always a tide of negativity around more Watchmen-based creative works, it's a wonder DC keep producing spin-offs. But then, of course, you have to remember what a cash-cow Watchmen is. I imagine it's principally that reason DC hasn't given the rights back to Moore and Gibbons. For a lot of readers, Watchmen spin-offs present a moral quandary: On one hand, we all want good comics made by great creators. On the other, we also want those creators to get their due, both in credit and cash. If they don't, do we still buy the books or refuse to in protest? For my part, I'll confess to buying the comics. My hope is that DC will reach a rights-sharing agreement with Moore and Gibbons, but thus far that doesn't seem to be on the cards. There is another reason Watchmen books have troubled many a reviewer and reader... The politics the characters flirt with, especially Rorschach, are difficult and often dangerous. Framing them as right-wing reactionaries, we often see them in a negative light. But honestly, reading Watchmen, would you think we should see them as anything but negatively? None of them are heroes, especially Rorschach. But again it raises the question of whether or not to make stories about these difficult characters. Personally, I'm against not making them. Rorschach is a difficult, challenging book and I'm glad it got made.
Rorschach is book about how ideas can take hold in insidious ways
But what of the book itself? You should know going in that this dispenses with Watchmen's wide-ranging super-hero conspiracy and replaces it with a tighter political one. What's at stake is not the future of the human race, except in the sense that politicians are making decisions that affect our existence in real terms. There are no physics-busting blue supermen re-making the world at their whim. Instead, we have Presidents and would-be Presidents trying to decide our fates. Taking its cue from the Watchmen tv show, Robert Redford is the long-term President, utilising Nixon's abolishment of the two-consecutive term maximum to great effect. His America is a liberal, yet harsh place. His challenger, Turley is shown as a right-wing, America first reactionary. The hero he idolises is not the cool, detached Dr. Manhattan or the all-encompassing intellect of Ozymandias, but the worrying violence of The Comedian's questionable charm. But others who worship Rorschach and his honesty at any cost, take no prisoners attitude are also at hand. Attempting to kill Turley at the book's outset, they are gunned down. The story weaves its web as a lone investigator sets out to prove that Redford's re-election campaign are the ones who hired these killers. What the book becomes is a 'Parallax View' of dangerous ideas and ideologies, seeping into everyday life. Rorschach is a book about how those ideas can take hold in insidious ways. They're an infection that becomes impossible to detect in oneself and even more difficult to fight off.
extremism has always been there, ever since the end of Watchmen and has been growing unchecked
The story is haunted: by Watchmen itself, by its characters, by their absence. It's also haunted by comics and its history. Ditko's moral objectivism (and the dangers therein) and isolation serve as the backbone of the plot. Later, a version of Frank Miller appears, adding a spooky supernatural element. It's interesting that these creators have both been associated with right-wing ideas. Of course, the real difference between them is that whilst many lambast Miller for his supposed right-wing leanings, Ditko's are ignored. Again this speaks to dangerous ideas. Heroes are deeply flawed people and even talented people can be pushed into the everyday extremism that now surrounds our daily lives. As we move deeper into the mystery, and back through the history and sad lives of our would-be assassins, we see that extremism has always been there, ever since the end of Watchmen and has been growing unchecked. It's that extremism that's the most frightening thing about this story. The fact that it's the type of thing we've probably all been seeing in the last five years. In England, it's there in Brexit. For the Americans, simply look at Trump. King has crafted a book that creeps up on you, getting a hold of your neck before you realise its icy touch was even at your top button. He's written a haunted tale, one that stares out with hollow eyes and a full heart. Fornes more than matches him with the art. His fine, detailed pencils are up there with the best. Because this book is stripped of Watchmen's fantastical forces, he has to make the ordinary sinister and threatening. And he does. He finds the expanse of America and makes it a wasteland of ideals. Dave Stewart adds some gorgeously real colours to the story, highlighting the drab ordinariness of awful people. Clayton Cowles gives the ignored and unloved characters a voice, giving the song of accents volume and reach. Rorschach is full of dangerous ideas and speaks to the horrors of letting them in, but also of how marginalising people can cause those ideas to fester and duplicate. A book about how anyone can wear masks in the hope of finding meaning in their lives and just how frightening those meanings can be.
Buy Rorschach at Gosh Comics or online at Bookshop.org.
