Rorschach #9: Meaning and Nothingness

One of the reasons people latch onto cults or prominent figures is to find meaning in something greater than themselves and for Laura Cummings that was both her father’s belief in the squid attacks and Rorschach’s ability to stop it.

This issue of Rorschach is eerie for different reasons than the previous ones have been. Tom King is good at leaving red herrings in his mystery books; he’s done it in Batman, Mister Miracle and currently Strange Adventures. These are ways for the audience to feel like they’ve solved the mystery before the late series reveal shows that he’s about to pull the rug from under you, very literally in this issue. The questions we are made to ask are, is Laura actually crazy or is she right? Alternatively, who is the true bad guy of the series – Governor Turley, President Redford or Rorschach and the Kid themselves?

As of right now, we don’t have the answers, but there are a few theories on the table as implied by this issue. King makes a point that Wil Myerson and Laura have dreams of death, whether these are products of their respective traumas or subtle squid mind control are uncertain, but for both of them to have similar dreams is an odd but important thematic detail for King to include. Secondly, the parallels that Laura draws between Myerson and Governor Turley being the reincarnations of Rorschach and The Comedian are very on the nose, especially when this issue shows our Unnamed Detective mirroring Myerson’s path through the assassins compound – could it be something to throw readers off?

Jorge Fornes always does a fantastic job with the art for this series and that doesn’t stop here. While the last issue focused on the individual, yet intertwining, stories of three men, Fornes takes King’s focus on the downtime between Myerson and Laura and parallels Myerson’s actions through the Detective. While the tone of the past scenes with the pair of assassins has a slight feel of optimism and purpose, the present scenes with the detective are more skeptical as he tries to find evidence of how they were able to commit their crime.

While it may or may not be the case, Fornes draws Myerson and The Detective so closely in line that the reader might be able to get the idea that maybe the reincarnation idea isn’t quite so out of the realm of possibility. Their movements almost match perfectly and though Rorschach has the mask on for most of his scenes, you can almost feel that he and the Detective wear the same expression on their faces – questioning, surveying, looking at things from every angle.

There’s also a feeling of emptiness in the scenes with the Detective, the Nothingness as we don’t get his thoughts on the case or anything. He just goes about his business looking for clues, piecing together Myerson and Laura’s last week before the crime. In stark contrast, the scenes with the assassins fill the empty backgrounds with word balloons and their dual presence in the rooms and environments of the compound, they have each other, their Meaning and their mission to fall back on where the Detective only has himself and the investigation.

Dave Stewart’s colors never fail to elicit emotion from me. Every color scheme he uses in the past settings always have some thematic elements to them and for this issue, I believe he chose a tint of purple to show the haze of the mystery at hand, subconscious fears and a sort of dignity. To the reader, it is unknown whether or not the squids mind control really exists, but to Wil and Laura, the mystery is who is under the sway of them and how to stop their invasion. Wil has subconscious fears about their plan and Laura doubts herself and her usefulness altogether in her mind. But overall, they do believe in what they’re doing. Their Meaning, as mentioned earlier, is to stop the invasion of the squids, this gives them dignity and purpose, adding that third layer to why Stewart chose to use purple for these scenes.

In the present, however, all of that is stripped away and replaced by earth tones and mostly browns. The Detective is grounded in his reality and only looks for the facts of the situation, not a convoluted message of trying to save humanity. In his scenes, the veneer of mystery is stripped away and we see that, to him, there are only facts: Wil and Laura were indoctrinated and almost committed a terrible act, but there is still more in the investigation to uncover.

Clayton Cowles lettering also continues to do Fornes art justice with the way they seamlessly weave into each and every panel with dialogue. They’re always inobtrusive to the action of the panels and distinct enough that we always know which character is speaking. Not only that, but the sound effects he uses always pop off of the page with vibrant colors, to a bright red BANG to the alternating blue and green of RRRPPPPs as the Detective rips up the rug to reveal an unexpected blood stain.