Rorschach #1 is an issue of the series Rorschach (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 2020. It was published on October 13, 2020.
Synopsis for "Chapter One"
In 2020, during a political rally hosted by U.S. Presidential Candidate Gavin Turley, who is running against Sitting President Robert Redford, a man dressed as Rorschach and his female accomplice are gunned down from assassinating Turley.
Though Turley is saved, his campaign doesn't trust the Redford government working on investigating the assassins in which they hired a detective to look into the mystery. Furthermore, they have talked to the feds about this and agreed that they do not want to make this incident turn into a scandal, as Turley wasn't given proper security by the Redford administration and the Turley campaign do not want to win the presidency this way by implying that Redford deliberately wanted his political opponent dead.
The detective learns from the Turley campaign manager, an FBI forensic examiner, and a dying security guard of how the events leading to the failed assassination happened. The campaign manager received a tip from an unknown caller warning him about the assassination. He initially dismissed this as some kind of crank call, but he called security to check on the catwalk just as Turley was speaking at his rally. Three security guards went to investigate and were attacked by the man dressed as Rorschach, which led to two men killed and the last one left mortally wounded, as "Rorschach" is forced to flee when the Secret Service were just arriving from the other way after they blown a hole through a wall. The detective is left wondering why the Service didn't back up the security guards from the beginning and how did they know to be there.
After the assassins were killed, their bodies are examined in an autopsy and only the woman is identified via fingerprints. The girl is Laura Cummings, aged nineteen, from Hanna, Wyoming. "Rorschach" is unable to be identified as his face is ravaged from the gunshot and he had no fingerprints in the system. The only thing they know from the medical examiner is that his physique is to be in his eighties or older despite being relatively fit. The FBI forensic examiner also note that one of the gun wounds on Cummings is taken from a week or so ago, and the stitches are irregular and thus suggesting that the two foiled assassins weren't that organized. Their costumes and masks are bought from a costume store. An antique voice tape is found on "Rorschach's" person in which the examiner suspects that it will provide a lead.
Later, the FBI managed to play the tape, which contained some names, and are believed to finally identify "Rorschach" to be William Myerson, a well known, very reclusive comic book writer and artist who created the character Pontius Pirate. A raid on Myerson's New York apartment revealed that he had been making liberal-leaning drawings and anti-Turley pictures. The FBI further confirmed their suspicions that Cummings arrived in the city on the same day Myerson went missing. They concluded that Myerson could not handle the fame and got carried away with Cummings. However, the detective is doubtful Myerson is "Rorschach". He went to a costumed hero collector to acquire the fingerprints of Walter Kovacs, the original Rorschach, from Sing Sing and compare them with the ones on the body. The two sets are matched. The dead man dressed as Rorschach is Rorschach.
Appearing in "Chapter One"
Featured Characters:
- Unnamed detective
Supporting Characters:
- Alan (First appearance; unnamed)
- Federal Bureau of Investigation
- Ron (Flashback and main story) (Single appearance)
Antagonists:
- Laura Cummings (Flashback and main story) (First appearance; dies)
- Rorschach (Wil Myerson) (Flashback and main story) (First appearance; dies)
Other Characters:
- Doctor Manhattan (Statue and mask)
- Nite Owl I (Mask)
- Nite Owl II (Statue only)
- Ozymandias (Mask)
- Rorschach (Walter Kovacs) (Flashback only)
- Ross (Flashback only) (Single appearance)
- Gavin Turley (First appearance)
- Brigham (Mentioned only)
- Dwayne (Mentioned only)
- Dwight (Mentioned only)
- Earl Binder (Mentioned only)
- Frank Miller (Voice)
- Mark Van Doren (Mentioned only)
- Mary Binder (Mentioned only)
- Otto Binder (Voice)
- Randy Cox (Voice)
- Robert Redford (Mentioned only)
- United States Secret Service (Mentioned only)
- Seventh Kavalry (Mentioned only)
Locations:
- China (Mentioned only)
- United States of America
- California
- Los Angeles (Flashback and main story)
- New York (Flashback only)
- Chestertown (Mentioned only)
- New York City (In a photograph only)
- Lewis Tower (First appearance; unnamed)
- Sing Sing (Flashback only)
- Oklahoma (Mentioned only)
- Wyoming (Mentioned only)
- Hanna (Mentioned only)
- Hanna (Mentioned only)
- California
Trivia
- The comic includes the comic writer Otto Binder as one of the radio callers on Myerson's tape. Binder's real-life daughter Mary and brother Earl are also mentioned. Frank Miller is one of the other callers.
- The FBI agent notes that the Rorschach masks are still popular "even after Oklahoma." This is a reference to the HBO series Watchmen, which took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the Seventh Kavalry group from the show.
- There are three billboard signs advertising an upcoming pirate movie "Pontius Pirate", baked beans, and "COME BACK TO NYC"; Pirate media is popular in the Watchmen universe. The baked beans advertisement is a call-back to Rorschach eating canned baked beans in the original series. The "COME BACK TO NYC" billboard also references the HBO series in which New York was struggling in a campaign to convincing people to come back to the city years after the "alien" squid attack.
See Also