Published by DC Comics.
Written by Brian Azzarello. Drawn by Lee Bermejo.
The cover shows Rorschach’s bloody breakfast. A nice touch here is that the cover continues smoothly into the interior pages. When I saw the waitress tending to Rorschach, I thought, “you have got to be kidding me.” So I closed the book.
I reopened Rorschach and continued, as is my personal obligation to finish what I’ve started.
Introducing a potential love interest for Rorschach is problematic because Watchmen devotees already know Rorschach is a sociopath and holds no sexual inclinations. I learned little about the waitress except she helped Rorschach into the hospital later in the issue. Her character is a bigger blank than the Question’s mask.
Also, Rorschach goes on and on in his journal about how the world is a cold place and how humanity copes with that. I expect that to come from the Comedian’s mouth than Rorschach’s typewriter. Rorschach is a bizarro-romantic crusader about the city he chooses to protect.
There are cool action sequences where Rorschach fights thugs and pimps. If Rorschach was a new antihero and there’s no such thing as Watchmen, I’d continue to read this mini-series. I don’t dislike Rorschach as I much as I did with Amazing Spider-Man #692 or Savage Dragon #181. Rorschach’s story just lacks a big, compelling spark worthy of the Watchmen franchise.
I tip my invisible cap to Lee Bermejo whose art gave me an impression that I’m in the midst of corrupt 1970s New York City. While the grid layout isn’t a recall of Dave Gibbons, the full-page canvas approach including, in one page, some slice panels when Rorschach is in action is oddly fitting for the masked antihero.
To summarize: art’s good, story is meh.
Preview this issue at Bleeding Cool.
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