Rorschach: The Man Who Became His Alias

Written by: Ambroise Desrosiers

Rorschach, Walter Kovacs

Who is Rorschach?

Rorschach is also known by his real name, Walter Kovacs. He worked as a detective for a long time, and made a name for himself when he continued to work as a superhero in New York City after they were outlawed. He is considered to be a vigilante, even though he was believed to be a cruel and ruthless one, which was driven by the idea of moral absolutism. As a detective, he worked on different interesting cases such as the murder of Edward “Eddie” Blake or the Comedian.

Rorschach’s Background

Rorschach was born in 1940 to a mother who resented him because she felt he was in the way of her ability to run her business. Unfortunately, he did not have a great childhood with her, and he experienced bullying throughout growing up. At the age of 10, he attacked a couple of bullies and blinded one of them. Because of this, he ended up becoming a ward of the state, and was sent away from home. During his youth he became fascinated by a specific piece of fabric, which he ended up making his mask out of. A young woman who came in to buy a dress, but decided against it became the trigger for his adventure into his vigilante identity. He believed she had been murdered, and it made him take the decision to avenge powerless victims of crimes. Just a year after taking up the identity of Rorschach, he teamed up with Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl), and together they worked on many cases, and spent plenty of time together to stop different serial killers and crimes. In 1975 Rorschach snapped. He had been looking for a kidnapped child and found her dead, the victim of a cruel face. This made him snap, and he assumed the identity of Rorschach as a whole separate personality. He waited for the kidnappers, and built their building. Ten years later he was able to confirm to a psychologist that during this he was no longer Kovacs – instead, he had become Rorschach, who sometimes pretended to be Kovacs.

Rorschach and his abilities

Despite being simply a human, and not a metahuman, Rorschach had a large number of different abilities. He was advanced when it came to hand-to-hand combat, having become a great street fighter. He was also considered to be great at acrobatics, and parkour. The Nite Owl considered him brilliant, and it was believed he was extremely intelligent, and also brilliant within topics such as journalism and espionage. He was known for being rather intimidating because of his mental instability, but he was also great at improvisation. On top of this, he owned a grappling hook, which he was incredibly good at using.

The Legacy of Rorschach

After the original Rorschach passed away, a journal was published in The New Frontiersman, but it was ignored. Most of the things the paper published were ignored during that time. Unfortunately, the man who found the journal experienced an unfortunate fate, and a thief was convicted for his murder, even though there was no evidence of it. Reggie, the son of Malcolm Long, eventually came to have the journal, and decided to take of Kovacs’ legacy and become the new Rorschach.

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