Rorschach (comics)

Rorschach, born Walter Joseph Kovacs, is a fictional comic book character 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 analogue 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 was named the sixteenth greatest comic book character by Empire magazine, the sixth greatest by Wizard magazine. and sixteen again by IGN.

Fictional character biography

Before Watchmen

Rorschach, born Walter Joseph Kovacs, is the son of Sylvia Kovacs, a prostitute, and "Charlie" (surname unknown). His mother was frequently abusive and condescending toward her son. In July 1951, at the age of 10, Kovacs became involved in a violent fight with two older bullies, in which he partly blinded one with a cigarette and took a large bite out of the other's cheek in a blind rage. Once his living conditions were finally looked into he was removed from his mother's care and put in "The Lillian Charleton Home for Problem Children" in New Jersey until 1956, where he rapidly seemed to improve, excelling at scholastics as well as gymnastics and amateur boxing.

After leaving the Home for Problem Children when he was 16, Kovacs took a job as a garment worker in a dress shop, which he found "bearable but unpleasant" partly because he had to handle women's clothing; it was here that he acquired the fabric that he would later fashion into the mask he wears as Rorschach. The fabric, created by Dr. Manhattan, contained two heat and pressure-sensitive viscous fluids between layers of latex, creating a shifting black-on-white color effect without mixing to form gray. Kovacs scavenged the material from a rejected dress that had been special-ordered by a young woman with an Italian name. to blind a police officer and the use of hairspray in combination with a match to set fire to another police officer, during a confrontation at Moloch's house. During the series he is shown to use cooking fat, a toilet bowl, a cigarette, a fork and his jacket all as weapons; he is also shown using a coat hanger as a makeshift measuring device. He owns a gas-powered grappling gun, which he uses to climb buildings (and once as a makeshift harpoon gun against a police officer), as seen in Chapter 1, which was designed and built by Nite Owl II.

Rorschach is well versed in street combat, gymnastics, and boxing.

Despite his mental instability, Rorschach was described as "tactically brilliant, and unpredictable" by Nite Owl, and possesses surprisingly good detective skills, as displayed when he is able to locate the Comedian's costume in his apartment when the police couldn't, and when he evaluates that someone is killing off masks long before anyone takes it seriously.

Personality

During his childhood he was described as bright, and excelled in literature, mathematics, and religious education. Rorschach considers his mask his true "face" and his unmasked persona to be his "disguise". 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, even among other superheroes. He is often described as being mentally ill by other characters in the comic.

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."

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."

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 by Art Adams 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!"

Steve Ditko described the character of Rorschach as Mr. A, only insane.

In other media

Film

as Rorschach in the film adaptation of Watchmen.]] Jackie Earle Haley portrays the character in the 2009 film adaptation, with Eli Snyder, the son of director Zack Snyder, playing the young Rorschach in a flashback. The film differs slightly from the graphic novel, mainly in that Rorschach uses the meat cleaver that killed Blair Roache to kill Grice. Rorschach is also shown to openly disapprove of Dan and Laurie's relationship, mockingly stating "Should have known all it would have taken you to come back was nice pair of legs" and being condescending toward Laurie for "being unfaithful to Jon", asking if she "just got tired of being patriotic or did somebody put you up to it?"

Video games

The 2009 video game and features Rorschach and Nite Owl as partners. The game follows the two during their vigilante acts prior to the Watchmen movie.Part 2 of the game ends with the reason for the end of Nite owl and Rorschach's partnership Jackie Earle Haley provides the voice of his character from the movie.

A Rorschach costume is available as Downloadable content for the PS3 video game LittleBigPlanet and "LittleBigPlanet 2".

References

Category:DC Comics superheroes Category:Fictional diarists Category:Fictional amateur detectives Category:Fictional characters from New York City Category:Fictional orphans Category:Fictional American people of Croatian descent Category:Watchmen characters Category:Fictional vigilantes Category:DC Comics martial artists Category:Fictional killers Category:Comics characters introduced in 1986 Category:Film characters Category:Fictional boxers Category:Characters created by Alan Moore Category:Characters created by Dave Gibbons Category:Fictional murderers