Rorschach #2 is an issue of the series Rorschach (Volume 1) with a cover date of January, 2021. It was published on November 17, 2020.
Synopsis for "Chapter Two"
The detective visit the Lewis Tower, William Myerson's previous residence, to gain more insight into the man and interview the tenants who knew of the man while under the cover of a missing persons case (as the Feds doesn't want to publicly connect Myerson to the attempted Turley assassination yet).
The detective interviews Alma Thompson, nee Adler who once dated Myerson and founded him socially awkward and wasn't interested in him. She eventually married to her late husband Carl Thompson, who would often tease Wil about his awkward date with his wife in jest. After the squid attack in 1985, Myerson became more shy; as everyone did and left New York.
The detective later interviews the building's manager, who recalled one day about hearing a disturbance coming from Myerson's apartment. After failing to call up Myerson, the concerned manager came to check Myerson and founded him lying bloodied on the floor in his room. The manager helped Myerson and suggested of calling the hospital or the police, but Myerson rejected his help and doesn't even tell him of how he was beaten up. Instead Myerson ignored his injuries and started to draw.
The detective goes to Myerson's apartment and goes through the artist's drawers, where he finds sheets for a comic book story about a masked faceless costumed hero called The Citizen who battles his nemesis The Unthinker. The story turns excessively violent and coarse, in clear reflection to Myerson's feelings of the person who injured him. The detective noticed the lettering "14B" on The Unthinker's helmet in which he learns is the address for an apartment.
The detective visits the apartment's tenant to learn what he knows of Myerson. The tenant admits that he doesn't personally know Myerson aside from his reputation for creating Pontius Pirate, and he had only talked to him once more than a year ago. He recalled seeing Myerson standing in front of an opened elevator and was visibly upset. Myerson angrily ranted that "thirty years he tortures. Thirty years he tells me what he has and I don't." Afterward, Myerson just stood there and didn't said anything. The detective curiously noticed moving boxes in the room, in which the tenant explains that he just recently switched in for a larger apartment after the previous tenant, Alma Thompson, wanted a smaller place following the death of her husband, who died from a heart attack, as she didn't need the extra room and that she couldn't be in the same room where Carl died. Just as the detective finished his interview and is about to leave, he then noticed that the door's lock is newly installed which prompt the tenant to reflect that the previous owners had been living there for so long that they never replace anything.
The detective went back to Alma's apartment and shows her a photograph of Laura Cummings's corpse, telling her that he now knows that Cummings and a man wearing a Rorschach mask had came to her apartment a month ago. He pieced together that Myerson had a physical altercation with Carl after the former had enough with the teasing. Alma admits to the detective that Rorschach and Cummings broke into the apartment and causing a distressed Carl to die from a heart attack while Alma is held at gunpoint by Cummings. After dealing with Carl, Rorschach spared Alma and Cummings warned her not to tell anyone about them or she will kill her.
The detective finished his investigation into Myerson and is now planning to head to Wyoming to check on Cummings's background. He gets a call with his employer and learns that the U.S. Department of Justice are planning to make an announcement on the failed assassination, as they will frame it as the work of two crazed individuals without any sort of a "big conspiracy" and no masked men back from the dead. The detective suggest to hold off on an announcement until he finish his investigation.
Appearing in "Chapter Two"
Featured Characters:
- Unnamed detective
Supporting Characters:
- Alma Thompson (Flashback and main story) (First appearance)
- Carl Thompson (Flashback only) (First appearance; dies)
Antagonists:
- Laura Cummings (Flashback and main story)
- Rorschach (Wil Myerson) (Flashback only)
Other Characters:
- Doctor Manhattan (Mentioned only)
- Hubert Humphrey (Mentioned only)
- Lyndon B. Johnson (Mentioned only)
- New York City Police Department (Mentioned only)
- Richard Nixon (Mentioned only)
- Rorschach (Walter Kovacs) (Mentioned only)
- Turley (Mentioned only)
- United States Department of Justice (Mentioned only)
Locations:
- New York City (Flashback and main story)
- Lewis Tower (Flashback and main story)
- Montreal (Mentioned only)
- Vietnam (Mentioned only)
- Wyoming (Mentioned only)
Trivia
- Myerson's creation, The Citizen, is based on Mr. A, who in turn predates Steve Ditko's creation The Question.
See Also