Rorschach (comics)

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Rorschach
Rorschach. Art by Dave Gibbons.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Watchmen #1 (1986)
Created by	Alan Moore (story) and Dave Gibbons (art), based on The Question and Mr. A created by Steve Ditko
In-story information
Alter ego	Walter Joseph Kovacs
Abilities	Excellent athlete; highly skilled boxer, gymnast, and streetfighter; ruthless, intuitive detective

Rorschach (pronounced /ˈrɔrʃɑːk/ ROR-shahk  ) is a fictional comic book superhero featured in the acclaimed 1986 DC Comics miniseries Watchmen. Rorschach was created by Watchmen writer Alan Moore with artist Dave Gibbons, but as with most of the central characters in the series, he was an analog for a Charlton Comics character, in this case Steve Ditko's The Question, and Ditko's small press character Mr A.

His mask displays a constantly morphing inkblot that is based on the ambiguous designs used in Rorschach inkblot tests. Rorschach considers the mask his true "face." He continues his one-man battle against crime long after superheroes have become both detested and illegal. Moore depicted Rorschach as being extremely right-wing, and morally uncompromising, a viewpoint that has alienated him from the rest of society. Politically, he is both anti-communist and anti-liberal.^[1]

Moore has said that the character's real name, Walter Kovacs, was inspired by Ditko's tendency to give his characters names beginning with the letter K.^[1] In an interview for the BBC's Comics Britannia, Moore stated that Rorschach was created as a way of exploring how an archetypical Batman-type character—a driven, vengeance-fueled vigilante—would be like in the real world. He concluded that the short answer was "a nutcase."^[2] Rorschach was named the sixteenth greatest comic book character by Empire magazine^[3] and the sixth greatest by Wizard magazine.^[4]

Contents 1 Fictional character history 1.1 Before Watchmen 1.2 Events of Watchmen 2 Abilities and equipment 3 References in other comics 4 Other media 4.1 Film 4.2 Video games 5 Notes

[edit] Fictional character history

[edit] Before Watchmen

Rorschach, born Walter Joseph Kovacs, is the son of Sylvia Kovacs, a prostitute, and "Charlie" (surname unknown). His mother was abusive and did not care for him. At the age of 10, after a fight with some bullies, during which he bit off one's ear and partially blinded another, Child Services investigated his home life and put him in a special home.^[5]

After finishing school, Kovacs took a job as an unskilled tailor, where he would pick up the fabric that he would wear as Rorschach. The fabric, a new material created by Dr. Manhattan, contains heat-sensitive liquids between layers of latex to create black-on-white shifting color. Kovacs recovered the material from a rejected dress that had been a special order by a young woman named Kitty Genovese. A short time later she was murdered, and when Kovacs read about the unresponsiveness of her neighbors, he became disgusted not only with crime but the underlying selfishness inherent in all people. He fashioned a mask from the dress, and began fighting crime as the vigilante Rorschach. Initially, Kovacs let the criminals live and left them for the police to arrest.

In 1975, he investigated the kidnapping of a young girl named Blair Roche. He was given the name of an abandoned dressmaker shop, where he finds a little girl's underwear in the stove and two dogs gnawing on a human bone. Believing that its occupant, a man named Gerald Grice, raped and killed Roche, Kovacs kills the dogs and waits for his arrival. When Grice comes back, Kovacs handcuffs him to a stove and pours kerosene around him. He then hands Grice a hacksaw, implying that he will have to cut off his own hand to escape, before setting the building on fire, killing Grice.^[5]

After killing Grice he quit his job and eventually became known around the area for carrying a sign reading "The End Is Nigh". He is seen in this guise at several points throughout the story before his unmasking, often with an allusion to his identity present.

[edit] Events of Watchmen

In the beginning of the graphic novel, Rorschach is characterized as the only vigilante who remains active after the passage of the Keene Act outlawed them. Rorschach investigates the murder of a man named Edward Blake, discovering that he is the Comedian, one of only two government-sponsored heroes. He believes that someone is picking off costumed superheroes, a view that strengthens when Doctor Manhattan is forced into exile and when Adrian Veidt, the former vigilante Ozymandias, is targeted with an assassination attempt.

Rorschach questions Moloch, a former supervillain, who tells him what little he knows. Later, after reading a note written by Moloch telling him to come over for more information, Rorschach visits him again, only to find him dead, shot through the head. The police, tipped off anonymously over the phone, surround the house and arrest Rorschach after a fight.

Rorschach is sent to a prison populated by the criminals he put away. One day during lunch, one of the inmates attempts to stab him, and Rorschach throws a pot full of hot fat at him in self-defense. After the man dies, the prison breaks out in a riot. Three men try to kill Rorschach, but he outwits and kills them. Nite Owl and Silk Spectre II, two other vigilantes, begin to take his 'mask killer' theory seriously and break him out of jail.

Doctor Manhattan comes back from his exile to transport Silk Spectre II to Mars. Rorschach and Nite Owl enter underworld bars to find out who ordered the assassination attempt on Veidt. They obtain a name, a company called Pyramid Deliveries, and then break into Veidt's office. Nite Owl correctly deduces Veidt's password and finds that he ran Pyramid Deliveries. Rorschach, who has been keeping a journal throughout the duration of the novel, finishes it, stating that "whatever nature of the conspiracy, Adrian Veidt is responsible," before dropping it into a mailbox.

Nite Owl and Rorschach fly out to Antarctica. There they learn the true nature of the conspiracy and Veidt's motivations – to unite the world against a perceived alien threat and stop the possibility of a nuclear holocaust. Veidt then reveals that he set his plan into motion before they arrived. Doctor Manhattan and Silk Spectre II arrive at the base after viewing the carnage Veidt's false alien has wrought on New York City. Despite their mutual horror, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre II and Doctor Manhattan all agree to keep quiet about the true nature of the events. Rorschach, however, refuses to cooperate and intends to fly back to America to have Ozymandias exposed. Dr. Manhattan follows and vaporizes Rorschach at Rorschach's request.

In the final scenes of the comic, Rorschach's journal has made it to the offices of the New Frontiersman, a right-wing newspaper. Outraged by the new accord between the Soviet Union and the United States, the editor pulls a two-page column. He leaves it to his assistant to decide how to fill that space, and the assistant is seen reaching for the 'Crank File', which contains the journal. The outcome is left to the reader's imagination.

[edit] Abilities and equipment

Like most characters in Watchmen, Rorschach has no obvious "super powers." He merely has his will and technical abilities. Rorschach uses any and all weapons that are available at the time, such as pepper^[6] to blind a police officer and the use of hairspray in combination with a match to set fire to another police officer, as well as Moloch's house. During the series he uses cooking fat, a toilet bowl, a cigarette, a fork and his jacket all as weapons. He owns a gas-powered grappling gun, which he uses to climb buildings, as seen in Chapter 1, which was designed and built by Nite Owl II.

Rorschach is well versed in street combat, gymnastics, and boxing. In the course of the limited series he shows the ability to best multiple armed assailants with little difficulty. Rorschach is also relatively indifferent to physical pain and discomfort, shown when he walks through Antarctica in only a trench coat. Due to his time in juvenile detention facilities and group homes as a child he is as street savvy as any criminal. Rorschach also demonstrates the ability to break into a variety of locked buildings and homes, suggesting the expertise of a master thief. He is also shown to be extremely strong. This is demonstrated when he shatters a toilet bowl by kicking it once, and easily breaking through a lock that gave an entire team of police officers more trouble.

Despite his mental instability, Rorschach was described as "tactically brilliant, and unpredictable" by Nite Owl, and possesses surprisingly good detective skills. During his childhood he was described as bright, and excelled in literature and religious education.

[edit] References in other comics

• The Question, on whom Rorschach was partly based, actually read a copy of the Watchmen trade paperback in Question #17 (1988). Question is briefly inspired by the comic and the character of Rorschach, leading him to take a more physically aggressive style of crime fighting. At the end of the issue, having been overpowered in hand-to-hand combat by a pair of villains, he is asked if he has any final words, and Question remarks "Rorschach sucks."^[7]
• In issue #2 of the 1996 DC Comics miniseries Kingdom Come by Alex Ross and Mark Waid, Rorschach appears as a background character breaking Brother Power's fingers. He is also seen standing between the Question and Obsidian, during a scene in which Superman visits a metahuman bar.
• In Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 #6, Rorschach makes another cameo appearance in one of the riot scenes, running across the panel.
• Rorschach was featured in promo artwork for the Countdown to Final Crisis: Arena mini-series, where he is being beaten by Batman from Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. However, DC opted to omit Rorschach and the "Dark Knight Returns" Batman from the actual Countdown to the Final Crisis: Arena miniseries.
• In the four-part "Deadpool" miniseries written by Mark Waid in 1994, Deadpool's mask is removed, at which point the character parrots Rorschach by saying, "My face! Give me back my face!"

[edit] Other media

[edit] Film

In the 1989 Sam Hamm film draft script, Rorschach emits a trademark hiss. Blair Roche is called a "little Franco girl" and Rorschach kills the kidnapper using a different method; he stuffs raw meat in the kidnapper's mouth, douses him with steer blood, and cajoles the dogs into eating him. Rorschach kills the kidnapper's dogs afterwards. In Hamm's script Rorschach does not die.^[8] In the 2003 David Hayter film draft script, Rorschach is described as a "homeless man" who has greasy hair that obscures his face. In the script, the movie is set in 2005, with the Blair Roche incident occurring in 1995.^[9]

Jackie Earle Haley portrays the character in the 2009 film adaptation.^[10]

[edit] Video games

The 2009 video game Watchmen: The End is Nigh features Rorschach and Nite Owl as partners. The game follows the two during their vigilante acts prior to the Watchmen movie.

[edit] Notes

v • d • e Watchmen Works Comic book · Film · Video game · Soundtrack · Score · Motion comic Creators Alan Moore · Dave Gibbons Characters Characters of Watchmen · Rorschach See also Film development · Saturday Morning Watchmen · Watchmensch