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Tom King and Jorge Fornés’ long-simmering DC project now has a name: Rorschach.
After previously touching on Watchmen in his Batman run, King will dive head-long into that world with this 12-issue series spinning off the popular character created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
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Set 35 years after the end of the original Watchmen limited series (and Rorschach’s death at the hands of Dr. Manhattan), the 12-issue Rorschach series opens with a world which has distrust in superheroes but celebrate Rorschach as “a cultural icon” due to his actions in the original volume.
“So what does it mean when Rorschach reappears as part of a pair of assassins trying to kill the first candidate to oppose President Robert Redford in decades?,” reads DC’s synopsis for the series. “Follow one determined detective as he walks backward in time, uncovering the identities and motives of the would-be killers, taking him deep into a dark conspiracy of alien invasions, disgraced do-gooders, mystical visions, and yes, comic books.”
Similar to how Rorschach’s actions were re-examined in HBO’s Watchmen sequel, King and Fornés’ Rorschach distinctly frames the character as unheroic – with DC specifically saying so in the announcement of this book.
“Rorschach may have spoken truth, but he wasn’t a hero,” reads DC’s announcement.
Here is a unlettered preview from the Rorschach #1:
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“Like the HBO Watchmen show and very much like the original ‘86 Watchmen, this is a very political work,” King said in that announcement. “It’s an angry work. We’re so angry all the time now. We have to do something with that anger. It’s called Rorschach not because of the character Rorschach, but because what you see in these characters tells you more about yourself than about them.”
Scheduled to launch October 13 as an adults only 17+ title through DC’s Black Label, Rorschach will be colored by Dave Stewart, and lettered by Clayton Cowles. Jae Lee, who drew DC’s Before Watchmen: Ozymandias title, is drawing a variant to the first issue.
