Rorschach
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Rorschach is a comic book vigilante 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 The Question, a character created by Steve Ditko, whose work Moore admired. (Rorschach also incorporates elements of Ditko's later, small-press character Mr. A.) 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. 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". Rorschach was named the sixteenth greatest comic book character by Empire Magazine and the 6th greatest by Wizard Magazine.
Wearing the mask that displays a constantly morphing inkblot, which he considers his "true face", Rorschach has continued his one-man battle against crime long after superheroes have become both detested and illegal. Rorschach’s actions and journal writings display a belief in moral absolutism and moral objectivism, where good and evil are clearly defined and evil must be violently punished. He has alienated himself from the rest of society to achieve these aims. Politically, he is an anti-communist, anti-liberal, and strong nationalist. Rorschach is described by Alan Moore as an extremely right-wing character.
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Character history
Childhood
Rorschach, born Walter Joseph Kovacs, was the son of Sylvia, who worked as a prostitute. He was born March 12, 1940. His mother despised him and once told him that she wished she had aborted him. After defending himself from bullies at age 10 (biting the face of one boy and using a lit cigarette to partially blind the other), child services placed him in a special home. Kovacs never saw his mother again. When informed of her death at the hands of her pimp, his only response was "Good."
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. He is seen as "paranoid" and crazy even by his former vigilante friend Nite Owl. 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 the victim of an attempted assassination.
He questions Moloch, a former villain, only to find few answers. He tells him to notify him if any new information comes up. When Moloch responds and Rorschach pays him a visit, however, he finds Moloch shot through the head. The police soon surround the place and arrest him after a fight. A psychologist named Malcolm Long is assigned to talk to him. He learns that Rorschach took up vigilantism after seeing Kitty Genovese murdered while neighbors looked on. Rorschach only subdued criminals and left them for the police to arrest until 1975, when he investigated the kidnapping of Blair Roche. He began hurting people in bars until he was given an address for a dressmaker's shop. After finding a young child's blanket in the shop and noticing two guard dogs chewing on a human bone, he takes justice into his own hands and murders Gerald Grice, the man who was living there at the time, and his two German shepherds.
The jail is full of criminals who hate Rorschach since he was responsible for putting them behind bars. He is threatened with beatings and death, but Rorschach is never intimidated, answering only that they are more in danger from himself than he is from them. During lunch, Rorschach throws a pot full of hot fat at one prisoner who was going to stab him with a screwdriver. After that man dies, the prison breaks out in a riot. Three men try to kill Rorschach, but he outwits them. Nite Owl and Silk Spectre, two other vigilantes, begin to take him seriously on his mask killer theory and attempt to rescue him from jail.
Doctor Manhattan comes back from his exile to transport Silk Spectre to Mars. Rorschach and Nite Owl retrieve Rorschach's spare costume hidden in his apartment and then go into 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 but finds that he ran the pyramid deliveries company. Rorschach, who has been keeping a journal throughout the duration of the novel, finishes it, stating that "whatever nature of the conspiracy, Adrian Veidt 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 the two heroes are too late to stop his plan, which has already occurred several minutes before they confronted him. Doctor Manhattan and Silk Spectre arrive at the base after viewing the catastrophic damage Veidt's psychic monster has inflicted on New York City. Despite their mutual horror, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre and Dr. Manhattan all agree to keep quiet about the true nature of the alien. Rorschach refuses to cooperate and says "never compromise." Doctor Manhattan follows him outside and vaporizes him after Rorschach yells, "Do it!"
In the final scenes of the comic, Rorschach's journal has made it to the New Frontiersman's (a right-wing newspaper) office. Because of the new accord between the Soviets 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" book. The outcome is left to the reader's imagination.
Abilities and equipment
Like most characters in Watchmen, Rorschach has no "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 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. 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, and traditional boxing. In the course of the limited series he demonstrated the ability to best multiple armed assailants with little difficulty. Rorschach demonstrated that he was relatively indifferent to physical pain and discomfort. Due to his time in juvenile detention facilities and group homes as a child he is as street savvy as any criminal. Rorschach also demonstrated the ability to break into a variety of locked buildings and homes, suggesting the expertise of a master thief.
Rorschach has been described as "tactically brilliant, and unpredictable" by Nite Owl.
References in other comics
- Rorschach appears as a cameo character in the limited DC Comics series Kingdom Come by Alex Ross and Mark Waid. He appears in volume two as a background character in the metahuman bar.
- The Question, on whom Rorschach was partly based, actually read Watchmen in one issue of his own comic book depicting his origin story, and decided that he admired the character of Rorschach. He tried to emulate the character's brutal style of justice, but was beaten up. In the end, he decided that "Rorschach sucks."
- In Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 #6, Rorschach makes a cameo appearance in one of the riot scenes, running across the panel.
Other media
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. 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.
Jackie Earle Haley will portray the character in the upcoming film adaptation. Prior to Haley's casting, Jude Law, who is a fan of the comic, had expressed great interest in portraying Rorschach (or Nite-Owl) if a film version was made. When Paul Greengrass was slated to direct the film in 2001, Simon Pegg and Daniel Craig met with producers about taking the part. Doug Hutchison had also expressed interest in playing the character.
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 later on in the Watchmen novel.
Rorschach is set to appear in the upcoming video game DC Universe Online.