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Panel 3: Rorschach, with very little movement, breaks this man’s finger. The nonchalant manner in which he does this, delineated precisely by Dave Gibbons’s articulate linework, makes this violent act a more disturbing reading experience than the typical planetary battles commonly seen in mainstream comics. This is another sign that Watchmen is not a typical superhero comic. It is more real.
Panel 8: From Rorschach’s journal: “First visit of evening fruitless. Nobody knew anything. Feel slightly depressed.”
The emphasis in the above quote is mine, and is used to highlight Rorschach’s personality. He is someone who does not only see violence as a means to an end, but passes it off as just a part of the job. He is depressed because he found nothing out, but couldn’t care less about the man with the two broken fingers.
Panel 9: “Never surrender,” is what Rorschach is all about, and foreshadows his ultimate fate in Watchmen.
“I have business elsewhere with a better class of person,” indicates the next member of the Watchmen we are to meet, Adrian Veidt – Ozymandias.
Another page that told me this was a very different comic book. For years I had casually accepted images of impossibly muscled men punching each other with little obvious effect, and then Rorschach breaks a man's little finger and the effect is shocking.
ReplyDeleteI read an interview with Alan Moore where he criticised portrayals of sociopaths as lovable rogues, and how it would actually be very unpleasant to find yourself in a room with someone like Rorschach. The people in this bar are getting that experience and it is extremely disturbing.