Rorschach, a new title from DC’s Black Label imprint, launches its first issue this week.
Penned by veteran writer Tom King and illustrated by Jorge Fornés, the first issue starts off with a multiple murder, then reels backward to the circumstances surrounding it. It’s a present day time setting but looks a lot like the ’70s. Men in sideburns and Dave Stewart’s colours are a muted palette of browns and oranges.
The Rorschach character, of course, is from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen series.
When Rorschach appears to reappear as part of a presidential assassination team, things get tense. The anger, the analog tapes, the mixed messages, and mixed up time-space references. Just who is Rorschach??
It’s all fascinating if a bit opaque. Fornés does a creditable job in furthering the look of the original Watchmen, with its multiple panels, carefully rendered stop motion scenes, its cryptic but clear depiction of a mystery in the making, a crime stopped but now under investigation.
DC Black Label, Rorschach #1 (of 12), $4.99 for 22 pages of content. 17+
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