Rorschach may be the protagonist of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ original work, but that certainly doesn’t make him a good guy. Having inspired the extremist right-wing group, the Seventh Calvary, is only one of the many less-than-heroic things that Rorschach accomplished both before and after his death at the hands of Doctor Manhattan. Even to his fellow Watchmen, Rorschach is a bit of an enigma, a man with many secrets. The Seventh Calvary may think they have a solid idea of the man whose face they wear but in reality, they don’t know jack.
11 The Seventh Cavalry Aren't The Only Ones To Follow In His Footsteps
While fans of Rorschach and HBO’s new Watchmen series may be glad to see more than a few familiar faces painting the scenes of the series, the extremist group found in the series, The Seventh Calvary, are not the only ones to have taken on the mantle of Rorschach. In the comics, specifically during the events of Doomsday Clock, a man named Reggie Long has taken on the mantle of Rorschach. Fans of the original comics may recognize the last name as one shared by the original Rorschach’s psychiatrist, Doctor Malcolm Long. After his parents are murdered during Veidt’s squidpacolypse, Reggie loses his mind due to the trauma and eventually adopts the mantle after reading his father’s notes on Walter Kovacs.
10 He Was A Victim Of Abuse
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While it’s no secret that Rorschach has a whole plethora of mental issues that infect every aspect of his life, and while some of his behavior certainly has no excuse, his disease is one that was planted in him, not one he sought to grow himself. Born to a prostitute in march of 1940, Walter Kovacs was constantly neglected, abused both mentally and physically and often told by his mother and others around her that he should’ve been aborted. While his upbringing was certainly enough to send anyone into a dark place filled with lasting damage, Walter Kovacs somehow managed to stay above it all. For a while, at least.
8 Inspired By Charlton Comics And Housed In Their Home For Problem Children
Many Comics fans are aware that when Alan Moore originally pitched the Watchmen story it was titled “Who Killed The Peacemaker?” and it featured DC’s new acquired Charlton line of heroes. Well, as an homage to the story’s origins, when a young Walter Kovacs is taken from his abusive home after assaulting a couple of young boys who had bullied him, Walter finds himself in the Lillian Charlton Home For Troubled Children. Where he remains until for five years, being released in 1956.
7 He Did Very Well In School
While his early life may have been a problem area, a time better left forgotten, after he was removed from his abusive mother’s presence, Walter actually managed to improve rather significantly. During his time in the Charlton home Walter would really blossom into the young man he was meant to become.
Walter Kovacs did an incredible job in school, performing very well when it came to literature and religious education. He was also shown to very intelligent and mentally stable. While he participated in dialogues in class and with his peers, Walter was noted to be rather shy, especially when it came to women.
6 He Was Unaffected By The Death Of His Mother
Throughout his time in the Charlton home and his schooling, Walter’s mother never once tried to make contact or amends with the son that she had forsaken. So, it may not come as a surprise that in 1956, when Walter learned that his mother had been found dead in an alleyway after being forced to drink Draino, he didn’t have much of a reaction. Walter had come to terms with the horrible person that had birthed him, and upon learning of her death he only had one thing to say, “Good.”
5 Finding His Face
After leaving the Charlton home for troubled children, Walter found work at a garment factory, which is where he would spend much of his time over the next few years. One day, however, after creating a special order dress with latex and two liquids that had been designed by Doctor Manhattan himself-- a dress that the woman decided was better left alone— Walter found something in that material that he had not seen possibly ever in his life, a face he could stand looking at in the mirror.
4 1964: Putting A Name To A Face
While Walter had taken the fabric home and had found a way to shape the material into a mask, a face that would truly display his emotions, he had yet to find any real purpose for it. At this point in time, his face was merely something the remained at home, left in a trunk. However, two years later, in 1964, at the age of 24, Walter would find a real purpose for his face. After the real-life murder of Kitty Genovese, who was murdered in front of her building while witnesses and onlooker did absolutely nothing to help, Walter decided that humanity is much more disgusting than he had imagined. He also decided that would be the last day that he did nothing about the corrosive scum that eroded the world around him. He had become Rorschach.
3 Niteowl Was His Partner In Justice
After a year of working on his own Rorschach decided that it was possibly time for him to find a partner whose skillset complimented his own. While Rorschach possessed admirable investigation and combat skills, he needed someone who had the technical skills and knowhow to back him up. Enter: Niteowl. Niteowl was a natural fit for Rorschach as he was both well-equipped and technically very savvy. In fact, while they were partnered up Niteowl would craft Rorschach’s grappling hook and the pair would find success against the city gangs and villains like Underboss and Big Figure.
2 Blaire Roche: Soft On Scum No More
For a long time, Rorschach had described himself as, “Soft on Scum. Too young to know any better. Molly-coddled them. Let them live.” but all of that changed in 1975 when he stumbled upon the case of Blair Roche. Blair was six years old when she was kidnapped by Gerald Anthony Grice. Rorschach, being the hero that he was promised her parents that he would return her home, unharmed. Little did Rorschach know, however, that Gerald Grice would change all of their lives irrevocably. Realizing that Grice had already murdered the young girl and fed her to his dogs, Rorschach took a clever and savaged the dogs, before handcuffing Grice to the furnace with a hacksaw nearby and pouring kerosene throughout the building. Blaire Roche, Gerald Grice and Walter Kovacs would never leave that building. Only Rorschach would survive.
1 A Moral Absolutist To The End
After his experience with Grice, Rorschach’s mental health began to steadily decline from the trauma he had both been witness too and suffered through himself. Much like his mask, Rorschach’s world becomes a world of only black and white. This fact may explain why Rorschach is the only one who is unwilling to let Adrian Veidt’s villainous plot to save the world remain a secret. In Rorschach’s world, there are only good people and bad people, nothing in between. And a good person certainly would not spend years plotting to kill millions in order to save the rest. Evil must be punished. Simple as that.