Rorschach #1 Review (Tom King, Jorge Fornes)

A US Presidential election. An assassin: Rorschach. But Walter Kovacs is dead... isn’t he?

Rorschach was one of my least favourite characters in the Watchmen sequel, Doomsday Clock - the new guy was mopey, whiny and generally a wet blanket. So I’m kinda glad that this Rorschach series isn’t the expected spinoff/sequel to Doomsday Clock (which was set roughly 7 years after Watchmen; this series is set nearly 35 years later) as it seems like DC have dropped that version of the character too and gone with someone new for Tom King’s latest 12 issue series. On the other hand, this first issue is really boring unfortunately!

I suppose the opening scene is attention-grabbing - Rorschach being shot dead in the rafters of the presidential rally - even though you know that that just means someone else is the “real” Rorschach to be introduced later on. In a sense that approach suits the character - like a rorschach test, the character can be whoever you want so it doesn’t really matter who’s behind the mask. That said, it doesn’t explain why this Rorschach was apparently attempting to assassinate the likely next prez, which is narratively unsatisfying.

The bulk of the issue is a very dreary police procedural as cops talk about the incident and talk and... talk… zzz… wow, was this tedious to read! There’s a gunfight towards the end to wake you up but it doesn’t really add much to what we already know happens to ol’ Rors (or someone dressed up as him at least).

It’s good to see Jorge Fornes reuniting with King after drawing a number of excellent issues from King’s Batman run. I like that his style is similar to the legendary David Mazzucchelli’s, and he drew some awesome-looking pages - the opening scene, the gunfight, the full page look at Rorschach - when the script allowed him to do something fun as opposed to just drawing different angles of two guys in ties standing in a room yammering on.

I don’t really know what the overarching story is for this 12 issue series and I don’t think Tom King did a good job in establishing this or drawing the reader in, or doing much of anything to impress anyone, in Rorschach #1. But, as a fan of King’s, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and, in a sense, I’m glad he didn’t give us something predictable. Still, I hope that he’s going somewhere vastly more interesting than what we’ve seen with this damp squib of an opening chapter.