Here’s The Deal With Rorschach In Doomsday Clock #1

By now, a good portion of you have probably gotten your hands on a copy of Doomsday Clock #1, whether you’ve made an early trip to your local comic shop or attended one of the release parties at 11:57 pm last night. Either way, DC fans are in for quite the ride, especially when you consider that Superman and some of our other favorite heroes are on a collision course with those originating from the Watchmen universe.

Obviously, there’s the appeal that comes with seeing an eventual showdown between the Man of Steel and Doctor Manhattan, but what of other surviving characters such as Nite Owl, Silk Spectre II, Ozymandias and Rorschach? Well, the first two mentioned have yet to be reintroduced, but it has been made known that Ozymandias’ scheme that was hatched at the end of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ original story was eventually exposed, thus making him the most wanted man in the world.

As for Rorschach, we received confirmation from writer Geoff Johns in advance of the debut issue’s release saying that the uncompromising anti-hero would return. Naturally, we and other geeks cooked up a variety of theories justifying how he could be among the living. After all, he’d been atomized by Manhattan the last time we saw him.

Funny enough, the most obvious solution has proven to be true: he’s not Walter Kovacs.

That’s right, it appears as though someone else has taken up the Rorschach mantle in his stead, and is covertly working with Adrian Veidt. Granted, his true identity has to be revealed to we the readers, but whenever he unmasks in front of other characters, he gets a “you’re not him” reaction. Regardless, it’s been made known that he doesn’t like it when people stare at him, so perhaps his appearance is grotesque.

Still, his dialogue is pitch perfect to that of Kovacs’, so he seems to be a natural successor, whomever he may be. Actually, there’s some supplemental material near the end of the issue that comes in the form of newspaper clippings, dropping hints to his connection and/or admiration of Walter. And while it may be some time before Johns lifts the lid on this one, we’re not ruling out the possibility of the answers already being in front of us.

Doomsday Clock #1 is now available in comic shops. For more, be sure to check out our five-star review.