Rorschach #9
The plot thickens in Rorschach #9 by writer Tom King, artist Jorge Fornes, colorist Dave Stewart, and letterer Clayton Cowles. This issue is yet another slow burn, and it ends on a rather large revelation.
The investigator takes a look at the house that Myerson and Laura stayed at, retracing their steps there and making a discovery- a large bloodstain under a badly carpeted floor. This leads him to trying to figure out where the body is buried, and once he finds it, he makes a discovery that changes everything he thought he knew about the case.
This book has a unique feel to it; for every issue that uses the story inside for a metaphor for real-world happenings, there's an issue like this one. It doesn't really say much about the reader's world other than one part that shows the strange bedfellows that extremism makes that ties into the issue's big reveal. However, it makes some interesting points about the way Myerson and Laura see Rorschach as opposed to the Comedian- that Rorschach is a being invested with meaning, and the Comedian is ultimate nihilism. It's nothing legions of people haven't said about the Comedian. Still, it's also a gross misrepresentation of Rorschach, one that many extremists have for the character- they see him as a massively meaningful character when he's just as nihilistic and terrible as the Comedian. However, they can invest themselves in his quest for "purity" or whatever lies they see in him.
It's an interesting little delusion that King makes sure to drag up, and there's no way he didn't mean it to point out the way that certain people see Rorschach. The fact that Rorschach and the Comedian are pretty much exactly the same in a lot of very important ways- men who see a black and white world and have simplistic ways of solving the problems of that world- is all subtext. It's used in the book to illustrate the difference between the Myerson and Laura and Turley, but the difference is probably far less than either side is willing to admit.
Fornes' art is perfect for this book. There's really no other way to describe it. His pencils have a realistic quality that makes the whole issue work that much better, using repeating image motifs to show the difference between past and future. There are scenes between Myerson and Laura that have a stark intimacy to them, and any penciler might not have been able to capture that. Johnson's colors also tell a subtle story- in the flashback sequences, the pages are overlaid with blue, giving them a cool, dreamlike quality- an ideal past. The present is colored with more stark yellows and oranges, giving those pages a harsher quality and anchoring them in reality.
On the surface, Rorschach #9 isn't as insightful as some of the other issues of this book, but King does a great job of investing it with meeting under the surface. It's extremely effective and subtle. Beyond that, this is just another chapter in a stellar mystery, one that ups the stakes that have been set up wonderfully and change everything. Fornes and Johnson's art makes the whole thing work. Rorschach is an impressive book that keeps trucking along towards a hard to foresee end, but if it's anything like what's come before, it will be great.
