The best DC comic of 2021 was Watchmen sequel Rorschach

DC’s announcement RorschachMid-2020 saw eyebrows raised by comics lovers: Another spin-off series based on the classic 1980s comics WatchmenHot on the heels the disappointing end Doomsday Clock? Tom King wrote this book, who was known for his Alan Moore influences. It features a 9 panel grid design in all areas. The Omega MenTo his award-winning Mister Miracle?

With the 12-issue comic series illustrated by Jorge Fornes, all was well. The issue, which contained 12 issues, was preemptively written off to make way for an unacceptable piece of comics canon. It turned out that the truth was quite different.

Many of these are actually very useful in practice. RorschachThe crossover of fantasy and reality, presumption with fact is the focus of this book. You will find conspiracy theories, theorists as well as political thinking, actual reality and comic book creators.

The figure at the middle of Rorschach is for all intents and purposes a stand-in for Steve Ditko, the real life creator of the Question — the original inspiration for Moore and Gibbons’ Rorschach. The reclusive, politically rigid Ditko was himself an inspiration for Rorschach, making his analogous adoption of the identity here feel fitting in ways that are difficult to understand, never mind explain; as with the larger narrative, the line between what’s real and what’s imaginary blurs so far as to create an entirely disorienting experience at times. But that’s the point, maybe. How else do people fall prey to cult-like thinking if not by losing track of what’s real?

It may seem a bit confusing. “What is Rorschach actually about?” you might be asking yourself, entirely reasonably. This story centers on an investigation into the assassination attempt against a presidential candidate months before the election. Both of the would-be assassins — one of which was dressed as Rorschach — were killed, and an investigator is hired by the campaign of the target to find out their story. He is specifically to find out whether they were actually hired by the opponent candidate. This happens to be President. RorschachThe investigation leads to him developing a conspiracy theory regarding a fake alien attack. WatchmenIt was part of an ongoing, longer-lasting invasion by real squid aliens. Doctor Manhattan, along with his costumesed associates, plotted to resist. This one requires that ordinary citizens of America awaken to their exceptional destiny.

There’s an argument to be made that what RorschachWhat it really boils down to, however, is how people spread ideas and infect other people. Even the readers. Like the comic that it spins out from, it’s a time capsule of a particular moment in a particular political reality, written and drawn by creators with a point of view.

King and Fornes have written a book. It appearsTo push aside from lifting directly Watchmen. They drop both the nine-panel grid format and any attempt to recreate Gibbons’ line or lettering, while King’s script is unexpectedly un-Moore-like, being more conversational and free-flowing, freed of the need to end each issue with a quotation. However, Rorschach is remarkably faithful to the spirit of the 1980s classic when it tries to address the world in which it’s being created.

Overall, the book is far closer to Damon Lindelof’s HBO Watchmen series than either of DC’s earlier comics spin-offs (2012’s Watchmen before them or 2017’s Doomsday Clock). Like the show, it’s a story taking place inside the same world as the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons comic, in part about the trauma created by the events of the original, but featuring a new cast. It’s actually quite the opposite. Rorschach goes further than the HBO show; while there are “flashbacks” featuring cameos of the Moore/Gibbons characters, none make any proper appearances in the story, especially not as central figures.

And yes, that means that there’s no actual Rorschach in Rorschach. Surprise!

There are, however, multiple “Rorschachs” to be found in the book. Variations on the famous mask are worn by multiple people throughout, even if none of the masks are the original, and none of the people wearing them are the “real” Rorschach. Rorschach is a shared belief among a group already obsessed with the idea of an alien invasion of the planet. This delusion was born out of a decades-old lie.

Intentionally or otherwise — I lean towards the former, but I could be wrong — it reads as a commentary on the QAnon phenomena, dressed up in the language of comic books. It’s something that arguably makes the climax of the story even more disturbing than it already was.

So far, I’ve downplayed the importance of Jorge Fornés to the book’s appeal, which is entirely unfair. Dave Stewart has given his work a great deal of subtlety. His quiet worlds are built around the main character, an unnamed detective who is caught in a tangled web.

Stewart and Fornes grounded the series in a real, familiar reality. Human, making some of their formalist pyrotechnics in the series — that eighth issue in particular is spectacular — even more eye-opening and surprising when they appear. It’s a bravura performance that might fly under the radar, due to its lack of self-conscious, showy moments; it’s also some of the most well-measured, confident art in a comic book series this year, hands down.

RorschachUncompromising, uncompromising and grounded in uncertainty. A book that is similar to the original WatchmenIt feels out of tune with all the surrounding world but is the product of creators that are supremely confident about their choices. DC’s creative revival and renewed focus has been evident in the past year (Hello! Infinite Frontier, Swamp Thing Far SectorA revitalized and healthy lifestyle Batman line-up, not to mention King’s own Strange Adventures with Mitch Gerads and Doc Shaner), it still stands out above the rest of the publisher’s output as something bolder, more ambitious. It’s a book few would have expected, and a book that, surprisingly, stands up under the weight of the work that preceded it. This book is without doubt the best. Rorschach is DC’s best book of 2021.