Rorschach #1 Review

What Do You See?

Writer: Tom King

Artist: Jorge Fornes

Cover Price: $4.99

Release Date: October 14, 2020

We finally get a Black Label book about a character from the Watchmen universe... or so you would think. Everything about it looks like it's set in the 80's and that it's about Walter Kovacs.

There's really no way to talk about this book without completely spoiling it. It takes place in 2020, decades after Rorschach's death. Redford is up for reelection yet again. During a rally for Redford's opponent, a man dressed up like Rorschach and a woman sneak into the building, kill a few guards, and then are shot dead by security snipers.

It turns out this Rorschach's was named William Myerson. He was a former artist in his eighties who had closed himself off from the world since 1974. The girl was nineteen year old Laura Cummings. One entertaining part of the issue is that Myerson had a cassette tape on him so it's kinda funny that it took so long for the police to find something that could actually play it.

It's up to one detective (I don't even think they mention his name throughout the whole issue) to figure out what the heck is going on. Is it part of a bigger conspiracy? Is it just a crazy loner who convinced a gullible girl to join him? Why did Myerson cut himself off for so long?

I did hear Tom King in an interview talk about William Myerson being the complete opposite of Walter Kovacs, though. That Kovacs was a parody of Ayn Rand's mentality, and that Myerson was supposed to be the left-wing version of that.

With my eyes trying to close throughout most of the issue, there is a quick moment at the end that does make your eyebrow raise and think "okay, now let's see where it goes now."

Bits and Pieces

Tom King goes in a completely different direction with what this story is about and when it happens than you would expect it. The problem is that the idea on its most basic level was done not that long ago with the same character, and it's too soon to really see if he's on to something good here. For positives, I really enjoyed the art style, and the revelation at the very end does make me interested in what it means. However, it did not hold my interest throughout most of the book.

6/10