…That awkward moment when you like a comic but don’t necessarily recommend it…

Here’s the thing: Rorschach is easily the most psychologically complex character in the Watchmen mythos, and by extension, also just about everyone’s favorite character in the original book.

There’s also, from a narrative standpoint, nothing more to say about him.

Think about it. His character was extensively psychoanalyzed in Alan Moore’s original graphic novel, most of the book was narrated by him (giving us further insights into his world view), we saw his childhood, the case he worked that drove him to start killing criminals, and we even saw his ultimate fate. What’s left? The best this series could apparently do is give us more of what we’ve already seen. That’s what we get, and I can’t truly say I’m disappointed, because that’s what I was expecting.

And to the credit of “Before Watchmen: Rorschach”, it dutifully meets expectations. Rorschach breaks arms, writes analogy-filled journal entries on the city’s corruption, jumps head-first into seemingly hopeless fights, and ends the issue promising bloody comeuppance for criminals (and the end of the world, of course). I wasn’t disappointed, but that might be because I had my expectations set exactly where they needed to be.

It also doesn’t hurt that I’m a big fan of Lee Bermejo. While his artwork might not be beautiful in the “traditional” sense (it’s actually frequently disgusting and disturbing), I love his extremely realistic “warts and all” way of drawing superhero books. Nothing is romanticized here, everything is grimy and special care is taken to make sure that, if something has imperfections, they’re not just shown but highlighted by the artwork. You almost feel like you have to wash your hands after reading this book, and I mean that in the best possible way! If it were any other artist, I would say they were wasted on a story that mostly takes place in the sewers and a rundown porno theater, but Bermejo’s art thrives in depicting these environments. The character of Rorschach, ugly ginger troll that he is, could not be in the hands of a more suited illustrator.

If you’re the kind of naysayer that has proclaimed from the beginning that “Before Watchmen” will add zilch to these characters, nothing about this book will prove you wrong. That said, for those of us who have no problem with the idea of delving back into this world and will happily settle for more of what we love, this is exactly that. I’m still left wishing there could, somehow, be a new wrinkle added to the character rather than just more noir narration and arm-breaking, but I honestly can’t think of how that would even be possible.

I’ll just settle for more Rorschach. As far as I’m concerned, more Rorschach (in the hands of a capable writer) is good Rorschach.

My old reviews index:
This is mostly for my benefit. I recently had to make a new account because my old username broke ifanboy’s profile system (it was that rascally space in the center), and since then tracking down my old reviews has been a chore. So here are the links to all of them, for convenience sake. If you agreed with this review, check them out. And yes, I’m only doing this once. Don’t hit me.

Swamp Thing 11:

SWAMP THING #11

Batman and Robin 11:

BATMAN AND ROBIN #11

Batman 11

BATMAN #11

Demon Knights 11

DEMON KNIGHTS #11

Saga 5

SAGA #5

Justice League 11

JUSTICE LEAGUE #11

All-Star Western 11

ALL-STAR WESTERN #11

Aquaman 12

AQUAMAN #11

Action Comics 12

ACTION COMICS #12