Rorschach #6
The investigator gets a new lead in Rorschach #6 by writer Tom King, artist Jorge Fornes, colorist Dave Stewart, and letterer Clayton Cowles. This issue gives even more background to the relationship between Wil and Laura and sets the investigator on a path that takes him somewhere very surprising.
The investigator gets a package at his hotel on the night of presidential debates. The package contains letters that Laura and Wil wrote each other, as each poured out their soul to the other about their lives. The investigator is able to find out who sent the package and goes to find them.
This issue is yet another slow-burn issue, really getting in-depth into the minds of Wil and Laura. Both of them are lost souls for different reasons- Laura’s life was poisoned by her father, always hearing his voice in her head, never getting to have an internal life of her own, except for the one supplied by the Citizen and the Unthinker, Wil’s superhero creations. Wil, for his part, has had to deal with a life of disappointment, one where he could never really tell the stories he wanted to tell, and when he did, they were eventually changed.
The Kitty Genovese murder, referenced in Watchmen, is brought up again in this issue, as Wil was living at home when it happened, and his father ignored it. His creation of Pontius Pirate was a part of his rebelling against his father’s lesson of the day- to mind one’s own business. King lays this out nicely because artists often use their art as a way to cope with the real world. Part of this issue is about the that- the struggle of an artist with the horrors and limitations of the real world. The other part is about a person’s struggle with the horrors and limitations of the real world, one who has no other outlet except eventual violence. Finally, King throws in a little political commentary with asides from the presidential debates, ones that resonate with what’s been happening in the real world. The thing about this issue is that it’s a deep dive character study, and while it is extremely effective, it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. However, most people who aren’t into the book’s particular storytelling style have probably already left.
Fornes’ art is great as usual. Each letter takes up a page, and his pencils personally invoke the feeling of each one. Laura’s letters are mostly in stark desert settings, reflecting the emptiness of her soul. The most effective page of hers is a full-page spread of her sitting on a folding chair, beautiful in a bikini, sitting over an empty pool with trash strewn all over the bottom, a picture which perfectly mirrors her letter. Wil’s pages can be quite claustrophobic, sparse, and bleak, mirroring how he feels about the world.
Rorshach #6 is yet another triumph of the comic storytelling form. King uses this issue to tell a multi-faceted story about how various types of people deal with the world and ends it all on a nice cliffhanger that will have readers questioning what comes next. Fornes is perfect for King in this story, his expressive pencils bringing the whole thing to laugh. This series is at the halfway point, and there are still so many questions left unanswered, and that’s a wonderful thing.
