WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Rorschach #11, available now from DC.
From the get-go, the Black Label series Rorschach has been labeled as a sequel to the original Watchmen by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons and John Higgins set in the present day. But this basic premise was founded on a big question: how could a series set in 2020 be titled Rorschach, when the character had died in Watchmen 35 years earlier? The answer, it turned out, was a complicated mystery.
At the start of the series, a man dressed as Rorschach and his sidekick, The Kid, attempted to assassinate presidential candidate Turley, but they were both killed during the attack. A detective was hired by the Turley administration to solve the mystery of who this man in the Rorschach mask was and, for ten issues, he has been uncovering an intricate tapestry. Now, in Rorschach #11 by Tom King, Jorge Fornés, Dave Stewart and Clayton Cowles, the series' big mystery is resolved, as the investigator puts all of the pieces together to learn what led to the assassination attempt, and everything around it. And, as the detective learns the truth, Rorschach's real purpose seemingly stands revealed.
Rorschach may bear the name of the fan-favorite Watchmen character, but he himself doesn't appear in the series outside of a brief imaginary flashback tale. Still, the Black Label series' mystery centers around the vigilante because, for some reason, Wil Myerson, an aging comic book artist, put on a Rorschach costume when he attempted to kill Governor Turley. As the investigator learned more about Myerson and his sidekick, he came across others who put on the Rorschach mask: a circus strongman named Muscles, and famed comic book creator, Frank Miller.
Laura Cummings, aka The Kid, had managed to convince all of these people that the soul of Rorschach (as well as the other Watchmen superheroes) had been reincarnated in ordinary people as part of Dr. Manhattan's plan to defeat the alien squids. Of course, we readers knew that this story wasn't true, given that the alien squid attack on New York was nothing more than a manmade concoction spearheaded by Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias. Still, the specter of Rorschach loomed large in the series through the people who truly believed that Rorschach had been reborn.
But the real surprise comes in the series' penultimate issue.
In Rorschach #11, the still-unnamed detective finally puts all of the puzzle pieces into place. He learns that he was originally hired by the Turley administration because they were implicated in the assassination attempt from the start. They hoped to pin the attempt on the Governor's life on their rival, President Redford, but they needed a crucial piece of evidence to come to light for that conclusion to be reached. The investigator was essentially hired to find this evidence, and make it public. The investigator, therefore, was used by the Turley administration.
But it turns out that the investigator was also used by Myerson and his sidekick. Indeed, even though the two of them are dead, they left a trail of clues behind with the intent to reveal exactly what they believed in, and what they hoped to achieve by killing Turley. Their goal was to convince whoever would be put in charge of their case that the alien squids had corrupted Turley, and that the only way to defeat them was by killing him.
As everything comes together around him, the detective falls into a type of identity crisis. He knows that he's been used, and he knows that the people he was investigating are insane. But he also begins to see their point of view. The investigator sheds his pieces of clothing, one after the other, symbolizing himself ditching his old identity before he decides to become something else. Reluctantly, he chooses to continue the mission, effectively becoming Rorschach himself.
And therein lies the true purpose of the Black Label series. It was never about Walter Kovacs -- not really. It was about this unnamed investigator, and his eventual descent (or is it rise?) into vigilantism. When he learns both truths, about Myerson and about the Turley administration, the detective is faced with a solved puzzle, a full picture, and it's up to him to decide what he makes of it. The mystery he solves is his very own Rorschach test. And just like Myerson tells him near the end of the issue, all he sees when looking at it is himself -- a reflection of what he is to become.
The mystery was the Rorschach test. And the subject, the investigator, was the future Rorschach all along. The only question that remains is, will he live beyond Rorschach #12 to become the present's new version of the vigilante? Or will the wheel keep turning, the image keep moving, and the ink-blotted mask keep finding a new wearer?
Watchmen, after all, has taught us that nothing ever ends.