Walter Kovacs, better known as the legendary anti-hero Rorschach, is undoubtedly the most popular character of “Watchmen,” the seminal 1986 graphic novel considered by many to be the greatest of all time.
But is Rorschach actually a hero? Over the past few weeks, online debates have ensued over that very question.
“Watchmen” writer Alan Moore created the anti-hero as a stand-in for classic noir-detective comic characters with conservative, black-and-white moral codes like Steven Ditko’s Mr. A and the Question. Rorschach ruthlessly kills criminals throughout the story, and towards the end, his moral code is tested.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for “Watchmen”
One last spoiler warning if you’ve never read “Watchmen” — at the book’s end, Rorschach is given a stark choice.
It’s revealed that the story’s villain, Adrian Veidt, orchestrated the deaths of three million people to unite the world in common horror.
Before Veidt took action, tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union were on the verge of reaching nuclear annihilation. With the world instead united against an external threat — like one that could take three million innocent lives — Veidt argues that a nuclear holocaust can be avoided.
And it is avoided as the silver-tongued Veidt, who went by the superhero name Ozymandias, convinced the other heroes to go along with his plan.
Rorschach, however, refuses to do so. He refuses to take part in the lie and refuses to cover up Veidt’s crimes. Rorschach stands by his code even when he knows he’ll be killed for it (and he eventually is).
Do you think Rorschach is the hero?
The Debates Break Out
Though “Watchmen” follows Rorschach’s perspective throughout the book, Moore never intended for readers to consider him a particularly noble or virtuous character. Rather, he was Moore’s attempt at satirizing and criticizing the objectivist, traditional black-and-white moral notions of Ditko and his characters.
“The creation of Rorschach [a masked vigilante who is one of Watchmen’s main characters]—I was thinking, well, everybody will understand that this is satirical. I’m making this guy a mumbling psychopath who clearly smells, who lives on cold baked beans, who has no friends because of his abhorrent personality. I hadn’t realized that so many people in the audience would find such a figure admirable,” Moore told GQ in 2022.
Despite the author’s disdain, many fans naturally gravitated towards Rorschach.
In fact, in recent weeks, many heated debates broke out online as to whether or not he is the true hero of “Watchmen.”
Some fans opt to side with Moore’s take, arguing that Rorschach’s tough-on-crime approach makes him an “alt-right” nut-job. Consequentialists on the same side argue Veidt’s ends justify the costly means and that Rorschach’s decision to stand against those means was immoral.
No shade on YawgGoth, I know this isn’t the point of this post, but why do people keep misreading Watchmen? Rorschach isn’t meant to be seeking justice, or being heroic. Moore painted him as an unhinged villain, who thought he was a hero. https://t.co/B2kb7OOL7U
— Skyshroud James (@FanboySingleton) January 22, 2024
Lot of Watchmen discourse on the TL. My two cents: I think Rorschach is the villain by the end. Anyone trying to prevent or stand up for the deaths of millions of NYers must be evil pic.twitter.com/xDlNuydML8
— E;R (@EsemicolonR) January 15, 2024
Counter to that viewpoint, other fans maintain that Rorschach was a hero in spite of the author’s intention.
He’s the catalyst for the plot of both the comic and the film. He’s a detective solving a murder.
Citing Alan Moore is like citing Paul Verhoeven’s interpretation of his own films. Intent and reality are often very different. https://t.co/HYGrzBJznW
— Drachona (@DrachonaTheWolf) January 25, 2024
Literally Rorschach and Judge Dredd
They got vindicated by time. Brits can’t seem to stop shooting themselves in the foot
How tf do you expect the one guy who says that genocide is wrong not be seen as a hero?
— Golden Gordon (@GoldenGordon13) January 21, 2024
RazörFist Gives His Take – Here’s Why “Watchmen” Readers Disagree with Its Creator
Graphic novel author, YouTuber and cultural commentator RazörFist gave his take on the fan debates in an extensive message to The Western Journal. In his opinion, the disconnect between Moore and many fans has to do largely with Moore’s collectivist view of the world.
“It’s a microcosm of the conflict between the author – a communist and collectivist – and his audience. Moore made clear in an interview years ago that he intended Rorschach to satirize Steve Ditko’s Mr. A an unbending Objectivist vigilante who slaughters (or more often, refuses to save) criminals who violate the Non-Aggression Principle, indulge in moral compromise, or attempt to obfuscate the border between good and evil with professions of ‘gray morality,’” he wrote.
“If you know Alan Moore, you already understand why he has an entire cockroach colony up his a** about that notion.”
RazörFist noted Moore’s long history of antagonism towards Ditko and his values. The key disconnect with many readers is that they share the traditional values that Ditko and his characters embodied — at a base level, the idea that there is an objective “good” and “evil.”
Though Moore does give Rorschach some detestable qualities, at his core, he is meant to have the same values as Mr. A or the Question — i.e. the traditional values of heroism and justice. Typically, the readers of superhero comic books root for objective goods, i.e. superheroes stopping supervillains.
Since many don’t share Moore’s nihilistic, collectivist, relativist worldview, they similarly don’t share his contempt for the archetype Rorschach embodies, even with all of the warts Moore contrives onto him.
WARNING: The following X post contains a description that some readers may find disturbing
Rorschach is Alan Moore’s most popular character because he isn’t an Alan Moore character.
He’s a Steve Ditko character.
And Steve Ditko, not being a urine-sopped Socialist like Moore, actually understood the nature of morality and heroism. https://t.co/lbG63IfSpI pic.twitter.com/UreT7hVrlN— RazörFist (@RAZ0RFIST) January 14, 2024
“The problem is, in this, Alan Moore misunderstands the nature of heroism and morality. Something Steve Ditko mastered. Marxist Moore’s intellectual surrogate in Watchmen advocates the deaths of innocents in the name of pragmatism,” he wrote. “Ditko’s (uncharitably portrayed) intellectual surrogate advocates the sanctity of life and the efficacy of morality.
“Gosh, but I wonder why the audience identified with the character whose ideology doesn’t end in Soviet mass graves?
“As I said a few days ago: Rorschach is popular because he isn’t really an Alan Moore character. He’s a caricature of one of the last great Steve Ditko characters. An unvarnished version of The Question.”
