Year-long maxi-series are demanding. You have to hold onto the reveals and clues for quite a long time and try not to lose the excitement you had a month ago. I would highly recommend if you have the time, before you read Rorschach #12, go and get your back issues of the rest of the series and re-read them. Revisit the previous eleven months and watch what our Detective does. Ask yourself who would you side with more, Laura “the Kid” Cummings or Presidential Candidate Turley. If you do side with one of them, then ask yourself, “why?”
With those questions in mind, let’s get into the final issue of Rorschach. If I look at the issue by itself, I am pleased with the art by Jorge Fornes and Dave Stewart. They have been fantastic and consistent throughout this series. I appreciated hiding more information in the background for you to seek to enjoy a scene truly. Making that connection, I also really appreciate Tom King for adding details like history and real-world links to the story and getting that extra dose of realism added to the appeal of this story for me. Now the book, since the start, has been political, so be ready for that.
Jorge and Dave use their panels to foreshadow what is coming up, and if you’re lucky to catch it at the start, it will accelerate the page. Even if you don’t, you can always go back to the panel and see the moment build up with those clues.
I’m going to SPOIL some, but I’ll keep to a minimum as best as I can:
When our Detective gets into Turley’s office, there is an exchange, and the Detective asks to take off his coat. At that moment, I knew things would get bloody, and sure enough, they did. I appreciate that, and it reinforces that nothing drawn or shown is wasted in the art.
Tom King even had me wondering about the recording device and the tape within. I like that he chose that device for a comic book as it is something we can’t experience. Sure, there could be speech bubbles about what is said, but with previous issues, something about the recording might make it “supernatural” or give it a tropey comic book twist. I wondered if the tape had a hold on our Detective, but instead, it is a valuable device to help our Detective with his escape. In the end, with the Detective going to the theater, you’ll appreciate that piece of history connection once you see what he has done.
Looking at this comic and the series, I found an exciting journey of a Detective tasked with investigating an assassination attempt on Turley, an “evil” politician. I missed this until recently, but does Turley represent Fox News’ Jonathan Turley? Upon his investigation, the Detective gets in deep and starts to see what our assassins are about; the assassins being Laura “the Kid” Cummings and Wil “Rorschach” Myerson. The maxi-series is a wild character study, and it does take place in the world of Watchmen, but it is not Watchmen. I enjoyed getting to know this Detective in the series and seeing the result of his journey. His choice let me down. I think it could’ve gone a different route, but to Tom King’s credit, he created a story that captured my attention and entertained me.
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