Rorschach (original) (raw)

Rorschach (real name Walter Kovacs) was a violent and ruthless vigilante driven by moral absolutism. When superheroes were outlawed, he went undercover and continued illegally, where all others folded. He was killed by Doctor Manhattan in order to protect a terrible secret that could end the world, and his legacy lives on in the second Rorschach, Reggie Long.

Walter Joseph Kovacs was born on March 21, 1940. His mother, a prostitute who resented his interference in her business, abused him viciously. His father never knew his son, and nothing is known about him other than he liked President Truman and his name was "Charlie". At age 10, Walter attacked two bullies that had cruelly abused him, partially blinding one with the bully's own lit cigarette. Kovacs became a ward of the state and was sent to the Lillian Charlton Home for Problem Children. In high school, he excelled in religious education and literature, as well as in boxing and gymnastics. He also wrote an essay in which he praised President Truman's decision to use nuclear weapons against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, asserting that the bombs helped save lives by stopping the war.

During those high school years at the age of 16, Walter was informed of his mother's gruesome murder; her pimp force-fed her a bottle of Drano until she died in agony. Walter's reaction consisted of only a single word: "Good."

At about the same time, he found work as an unskilled garment worker; noting later to a prison psychiatrist: "Job bearable but unpleasant. Had to handle female clothing". Working in this capacity, in 1962 he grew fascinated by a new fabric made possible through technologies developed by Doctor Manhattan. Two viscous liquids, one black and one white, between two layers of latex, continually shifted in response to heat and pressure, forming symmetrical patterns like a Rorschach inkblot test while never mixing to produce a grey color. Kovacs learned of the fabric when a young woman chose not to buy a dress which she had ordered made from it; Kovacs subsequently took the dress home and experimented with the fabric. He learned to cut the fabric and maintain the seal using heated scissors.

The real-life 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese (in front of a building full of tenants who did not bother to help her) was made part of the Watchmen universe backstory, providing a trigger for Kovacs's decision to avenge the powerless victims of crime. He decided that Genovese had been the woman who had ordered the dress ("Young. Pretty. Italian name. I'm sure it was her"), cut up the dress, and made it into a mask -- becoming Rorschach (taking his name from the test).

Eventually, in 1965 he teamed up with another superhero, Dan Dreiberg, the second Nite-Owl, whose technical skills and resources complimented Kovacs' skills as an investigator. The two had many adventures together, stopping several serial killings and crimes.

Rorschach on patrol with Nite Owl

In 1975, Rorschach was searching for a kidnapped child and found her captor's vacant hideout. A cursory inspection revealed, to his horror, that the girl had been murdered, butchered, and fed to two German Shepherd dogs. In the face of this atrocity, Kovacs' mind snapped and assumed the mental identity of Rorschach as a separate personality. He killed the dogs with a meat cleaver and waited for the kidnapper. Kovacs later mentioned, "shock of impact ran along my arm. It was Kovacs who said 'mother' then, muffled under Latex. It was Kovacs who closed his eyes. It was Rorschach who opened them again." When the man returned, Rorschach wordlessly chained the man to a pipe, ignoring his claims of innocence (the man telling Rorschach: "Y-you can't prove anything. I mean, wh-where's the evidence", suggesting that he fed the girl to the dogs to get rid of the "evidence"), then placed a hacksaw near him and set the house on fire. Finally speaking, he told the terrified man that he would not have time to cut through his restraints before the fire killed him (implying that he would have to sever his own arm to escape). Kovacs calmly watched the structure burn from across the street; the suspected kidnapper did not emerge. In an interview ten years later with psychologist Malcolm Long, Kovacs explicitly mentioned the incident as the point after which he became "Rorschach, who sometimes pretends to be Kovacs"; before that, he claims, he was only "Kovacs pretending to be Rorschach." He no longer refers to his "mask"; now he only calls the mask his "face".

After the 1977 Keene Act outlawed costumed vigilantes, demanding his retirement, Rorschach grew even more violent. Murdering notorious multiple rapist Harvey Charles Furniss and leaving his corpse in front of a police station with a note pinned to his chest read, "Never!" True to his word, Rorschach remained an active "adventurer" in open defiance of the law.

Rorschach lives in a slum run by a landlady who has had multiple children by multiple fathers; he pointedly comments on his belief that she cheats on welfare. It is never mentioned whether he continued to work in the garment trade or found some other source of income. During the day, he walks around New York as a vagrant with a sign reading "The end is nigh."

During a mid-1980s murder investigation of a man named Eddie Blake, Rorschach discovered that the victim was the alter ego of the Comedian: an amoral government-sponsored "costumed adventurer" and former colleague whom he seemed to admire. Suspecting a plot to eliminate superheroes, he pursued the investigation accordingly while interviewing and warning several former members of the hero community. Although no one took his theory seriously, the sudden public denunciations and subsequent self-exile of Doctor Manhattan and the attempted murder of Adrian Veidt (the former Ozymandias) bolstered his confidence that he was on the right track. Before long, however, he was framed for the murder of Moloch, an ailing former adversary, and was about to be captured by the police. During the takedown, Rorschach fought the heavily-armed officers with improvised methods using ordinary household materials (with surprising effectiveness). But in the end, he was knocked unconscious as he fought to escape.

In prison, Kovacs was examined by a clinical psychologist, Doctor Malcolm Long, while also subjected to numerous death threats and attacks by vengeful prisoners. When taunted by inmates about being trapped inside with them, his only reply was to say that they had it backwards...they were, in fact, trapped inside with him. He prevented an attempt on his life in the prison cafeteria by calmly and wordlessly grabbing a pot full of boiling cooking grease and hurling it into the assailant's face. Doctor Long later described the resultant burns on the attacker as "horrific". A former organized crime head called The Big Figure orchestrated a prison riot as a distraction, while his flunkies attacked Kovacs. He easily, almost leisurely, dispatched the would-be assassins before he escaped his cell to pursue and drown The Big Figure (a diminutive old man) in a prison restroom. During this battle, the current Nite-Owl and Silk Spectre were attempting to break Kovacs out of prison and used the chaos of the prison riot to do so. They sought his help in their own investigation into the murders of the former superheroes.

Investigating jointly, Nite-Owl and Rorschach learned that the mastermind behind the plot was Adrian Veidt, who had been hailed as the smartest person in the world. Rorschach and Nite Owl traveled to his home in Antarctica to confront him; however, they were unable to prevent him from accomplishing his ultimate goal. Before the duo arrived, Veidt teleported an enormous Lovecraftian "alien" that he had manufactured into the heart of New York City, killing millions and psychically traumatizing millions more. Exactly as Veidt had predicted, the hoax forced the nations of the world to halt their mounting hostilities towards one another and unite against the perceived alien threat, thereby preventing the inevitable nuclear showdown.

Shortly after Veidt confessed his plot to Nite Owl and Rorschach, they were joined by Doctor Manhattan and the Silk Spectre, having just returned from Mars. After a brief struggle, the adventurers realized that by exposing Veidt's act they would only manage to return the world to the brink of nuclear catastrophe. The other heroes agreed that they must keep the hoax a secret, but Rorschach flatly refused to comply ("Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon. That's the difference between us, Daniel."). Manhattan told Rorschach that he "cannot allow" him to reveal the truth to the world, but Rorschach maintained his defiance. Enraged and in tears, Walter Kovacs removed his mask and demanded that Manhattan kill him if that is what it took to protect Veidt's utopia. Although reluctant and showing emotions again, Manhattan silently complied with Kovacs' request.

However, Rorschach's legacy may have had greater consequences. Prior to departing for Antarctica, he wrote a lengthy journal detailing his investigation and sent it to a reactionary right-wing newspaper The New Frontiersman. While Veidt was confident Kovacs would not be believed by the public, since his mental illness was well known, the question of whether the journal's contents would be printed and his evidence seriously examined was left unknown.[1]

Legacy

It is eventually revealed that The New Frontiersman found and published Rorschach's journal, but "It was ignored as most things in The New Frontiersman were at the time".[2] The man who found the journal, Seymour David, was beaten to death and a thief named Roger Jackson was convicted of the crime, though no evidence was found that he did it. Malcolm Long's son Reggie was given the journal by Byron Lewis and took up Kovacs' legacy as the new Rorschach.

Powers and Abilities

Abilities

Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced): Rorschach was a brilliant street fighter, and has since honed this skill during his years of crime-fighting and his stint in prison. He easily incapacitated a police officer in the Comedian's apartment. Nite Owl noted him for having once dropped a man named Captain Carnage down an elevator shaft. He easily got the drop on Moloch. His fighting style largely consists of boxing moves along with traditional karate and taekwondo.
Acrobatics: Training himself to become a gifted athlete, Rorschach has been able to jump from roof top to roof top, scale tall buildings and land on his feet without ever making a sound. He acrobatically infiltrated Rockefeller Military Research Center to warn Doctor Manhattan about the potential "mask killer."
Genius Level Intellect: Rorschach has been described by Nite Owl as "tactically brilliant and unpredictable." He has excelled in religious education, political science and literature in his schooling days. He is also able to string weapons out of anything, like a cooking fat spray can and a match.
- Investigation: Rorschach is an accomplished detective, figuring out the "mask killer theory" and eventually Ozymandias' plan with little to no help. He was also able to locate the Comedian's hidden arsenal, whereas the police failed to do so. His zeal for crime-solving has been mentioned multiple times.
- Interrogation: Rorschach has his own special brand of asking questions, mostly involving breaking body parts and otherwise scarring or maiming victims (or suspects) to get answers.
- Espionage: Rorschach has proven himself quite skillful in the act of espionage, spying on his enemies and allies alike just to keep tabs as well as confirm his suspicions.
- Journalism: Rorschach kept a journal of his adventures when it was most necessary. He's proven to be a deep thinker; and ever since he began as a witness to what occurs in the underbelly of the city, Rorschach has at all times cataloged its many nightmares.
Improvisation: Rorschach is blatantly ruthless and overwhelmingly fast, known to be tactically proficient with the use of his surroundings. He possesses great strength as well as brutal skill, and he tends to use otherwise harmless objects as improvised weapons, such as hair spray, pepper, cooking fat, electric wiring, clothing fabric and even a toilet to give himself an advantage in combat.
Intimidation: Rorschach's mental instability is well known; even without his costume or any of his friends about, he is an intimidating man and has made many people flee in his presence.
Gadgetry
Firearms: Rorschach accurately fired his grappling hook to reach the Comedian's apartment.
Indomitable Will: After the events which made him take on the personality of Rorschach, in every aspect of his life, he developed a desire to make sure that all crime is punished. Even after masked adventurers became detested and banned, he continued his vigilante activities. He has also defied odds against a large number of armed police officers that surrounded him at Moloch's home. Veidt described Rorschach as having the "tenacity of a true sociopath." As he stated in his journal's final entry, Rorschach lived his life free of compromise, which was seen when he refused to conceal the truth about Ozymandias' plan because it would interfere with his commitment to punishing evil, an ideal he would refuse to compromise "even in the face of Armageddon" as stated in his fourth journal entry. As foreshadowed by Dreiberg when he spoke with Hollis Mason, Rorschach would only quit when he was dead.
Peak Human Condition: Rorschach's strength, speed, agility, reflexes, durability and endurance are all at the peak for a man his age, size and weight. He has shown himself to be strong enough to overpower much larger opponents, easily break bones, shatter glass and even shatter a toilet bowl with a single kick and is a very talented acrobat and gymnast even in middle age and possesses extremely quick reflexes. He is also extremely good at enduring pain and discomfort as shown when he was able to walk in the South Pole with only his coat for protection.

Other Characteristics

Mental Disorder: Some call Rorschach a sociopath, driven to his nature by the horrid nature of mankind. Whatever the case or cause might be, Rorschach is not a stable individual in modern public society and is only suited for his special brand of justice.
Misogyny: Being abused by his prostitute mother while growing up, Rorschach developed a resentment for women, referring to most women - even his peers - as "whores".

Equipment

Rorschach's Mask
Rorschach's Journal
Writer Alan Moore has said that he based the characters from "Watchmen" on older characters from Charlton Comics. Rorschach is clearly based on The Question (Vic Sage), but also owes some to a similar earlier character known as "Mr. A." Both Mr. A and the Question were created by Steve Ditko.
In The Question #17, Vic Sage actually picks up and reads a copy of Watchmen on a train. Initially, he attempts to emulate Rorschach's attitude, but this just gets him beaten up. In the end he concludes, "Rorschach sucks."
Alan Moore has also stated that the name "Walter Kovacs" is a throwback to Steve Ditko's tendency to give his characters' names prominent _K_s.
Rorschach has a cameo in the DC Comics limited series Kingdom Come by Alex Ross and Mark Waid. He appears in issue two, as a background character standing next to the Question 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: 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 Frank Miller's Batman from the actual "Countdown: Arena" mini-series.
Watchmen (Volume 1)
Before Watchmen: Rorschach (Volume 1)

External Links

Rorschach at the Watchmen Wiki

Footnotes

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