Rorschach #4
The investigator meets Laura's first Rorschach in Rorschach #4, by writer Tom King, artist Jorge Fornes, colorist Dave Stewart, and letterer Clayton Cowles. Rorschach remains a very slow book, but that's perfectly okay with the story King is telling.
The investigator talks to a circus performer that Laura used to work with. She used her marksman skills to shoot beer bottles in a magic show, and he was a strongman. He had fallen in love with her, but she wasn't like that with him, bonding with him as a friend over comic books and the fact that he gave her a shoulder to cry on. At a party for the performers, one of the roadies' drunkenly confessed to beating his wife to death, and the strongman ended up killing him later in the night, in a way that appeared like a drunken accident. Laura left him alone for a time until she confronted him about the murder and told him her theory about what happened with Dr. Manhattan and the heroes- that Manhattan made new bodies for them so they could continue fighting the squids, who were mind-controlling people. Laura thought he was Rorschach in a new body, and he went on a killing spree, killing those that she thought were under the squid's control until he was caught. When the investigator tells him the truth about her: how she found someone else to be Rorschach and they're dead now, but the strongman doesn't believe it and says she's still out there… as is Rorschach.
This issue is wonderful. King is laying out a great story with this one, using the characters' testimony to lay out the story of the crime. Laura's a deeply disturbed person, and that comes from her upbringing, but the fact that she was able to rope others into her delusion says a lot about the world she lives in. The post-Watchmen world feels so very real, and a big reason for that is the way King is presenting everything. It's all so matter of fact that it feels like this sort of thing could be happening in the world the readers live in. In a world of Qanon, people believing that their heroes are fighting a secret war against alien squids in new bodies isn't exactly far fetched.
There's something altogether chilling about the end of the issue, the way the strongman is so sure in his belief that Laura is right and that Rorschach is still out there. It's a certainty that only the true believer has; he was already a comic fan before he met her, a person who was invested in fiction. For him to be taken in by her is very easy to believe. In a world where everyone thinks that an alien squid killed millions of people and there's a man who can do anything with a thought, it's not a stretch to believe in the things Laura was talking about.
Fornes' art is just perfect for the kind of story King is telling. His pencils are expressive and detailed, but most importantly, there's something authentic about them. It's not that they're hyper-realistic, but they're grounded in such a way that it all feels real. Dave Stewart's color palette helps this a lot as well.
Rorschach #4 is a great comic. It shows that Laura has been looking for a hero to help her fight the squids and just how far people will go for what they believe in. It feels like King is using this book to say a lot about the real world, and it's very prescient, especially with the events of the last month. There's nothing so dangerous as true believers. Fornes' art is the perfect accompaniment to the whole thing, making it all feel more real. This is a better book than it gets credit for.
