Rorschach: One of the Watchmen

A Brief History of Rorschach

Only about two blogs ago, we discussed DC’s Watchmen. Here, we only touched the mere surface of who these characters are. Today, we shall discuss one of them more in-depth: Rorschach (yes, I had to check several times to see if I spelt that correctly). This guy is quite the violent vigilante type and has a long history. So, we’ll only be going into the most interesting points!

Not Rorschach, but Walter Kovacs

Born on the 21st of March in 1940, Walter grew up not having the best youth. We shall not get into the detail of it, but he basically did not know his father and his mother was not the nicest woman. That all resulted in him becoming the rebellious type in his youth. As Walter - just like all Watchmen - grew up in a different time than we did, it meant this also outed in a different way. He supported things he maybe shouldn’t have and ended up in prison due to this.

Rorschach in the Fashion Industry

When he basically had no job and no education to get a proper job, Rorschach (still Walter at this point) ended up in the fashion industry (even if he did not know anything about all of it). It was in 1962 when a new fabric hit the market. One that was made through technology. The new fabric was like a Rorschach inkblot test where black and white were used. When there was a woman who ordered a dress made from this fabric but decided not to buy it - Walter took it home, where he started experimenting with the fabric that later on his super suit would be made out of.

Ssh, no one is allowed to know Rorschach is a Superhero

It was in 1965 that Rorschach teamed up with another superhero, the second Nite-Owl of the DC Universe. They could combine their skills to form quite the team. In fact, they stopped a row of murders and crimes. Even when superheroes became illegal, and no one was supposed to know, Rorschach still fought crime, he continued. But even if, before that, Rorschach had a long list of crimes he fought, it wasn’t until 1975 that he actually took the name of our DC’s Rorschach after solving the kidnapping of a young girl. In fact, he became kind of crazy after that. Rorschad kind of became his second personality.

A mask… or a Face

In theory, Rorschach was really a second personality to Walter. You never knew who would have opened his eyes that morning. Was it the one fighting crime saving you? Or the dangerous vigilante you had to run away from? According to Rorschach, they eventually became one. He saw that Walter was only preptending to be Rorschach and that he didn’t wear a mask but a face. Rorschach only became worse and worse after each of his ‘crime-solvings’. He was much more moving away from the superhero he used to be and instead becoming more villain-like.

DC Characters and Their Abilities

Do you really need me to say it again? Because as mentioned in basically all blogs regarding DC characters - they all have their own special abilities and superpowers. Rorschach might not have any special superpowers, but he still knew how to catch all those terrible people, which he could do due to his list of skills.

Rorschach’s Abilities

As someone who got into a lot of fights, it is not strange that Rorshach was one of the absolute best in hand-to-hand combat. In fact, he was so good that the ability is stated as Advanced hand-to-hand combat. Rorschach also trained incredibly hard to become a gifted athlete - jumping from rooftop to rooftop to get somewhere. Rorschach is also one of those crazy guys with a genius-level intellect - especially on the topics of investigation, interrogation, espionage, and journalism (yes, he kept his own journal). Some of these also led to him being good at improving, extremely intimidating, being good with gadgets and weapons, and him having an indomitable will. Oh, and don’t forget that he was always in peak human condition! Yes, the list of his skills is quite impressive.

Which of Rorschach’s skills did you think was the most impressive? Or which would you like to have within the DC Universe? Or maybe you have something else to say about this Walter guy? Let us know in the comments, and receive a small gift.