And now we come to the symmetrical issue of Watchmen, or the chiasmus issue, if you will. Thankfully it has quite a bit of Rorschach in it to support my thesis. There’s also quite a bit of filler here, too, but the beauty of this series is that even the filler is interesting.
Rorschach shares so many qualities with Batman it’s easy to assume that he’s doing the right thing here, just as the Caped Crusader would. But when we step back and analyze his actions, we realize Rorschach is not a good detective. He’s a paranoid, desperate man, who has exactly one lead and will keep returning to it because he has nothing better to do.
All these theatrics might be useful — or even impressive — when deployed against a real threat. But Rorschach looks childish by pulling these kind of stunts against an elderly cancer patient — especially one that has reformed his ways and has proven he’s more than willing to divulge everything he knows. The problem that Rorschach can’t comprehend is that Moloch simply doesn’t know that much. And no amount of intimidation is going to change that.
However, Rorschach has improved his game here. An unlicensed firearm is a MUCH bigger deal than a banned placebo drug. It’s so much bigger that it makes one wonder why Rorschach didn’t bring it up during his first meeting with Moloch. Was it because Rorschach was sloppy and slow with his investigation? Was it because Moloch illegally purchased that gun after Rorschach broke into his house? Or was it simply because Alan Moore hadn’t thought of it yet?
Of course, Rorschach is not a completely terrible detective — he truly is on to something with that cancer list. But shoving Moloch in a refrigerator is just about as effective as breaking people’s fingers at the bar. Unlike Batman, Rorschach doesn’t have a Commissioner Gordon or an Alfred to confer with. He is tragically, and pathetically, alone.
I am very grateful that Moore slipped in this acknowledgement that a lack of sleep impairs judgment. I absolutely hate those Batman stories where the writer tries to make him look so tough by saying he’s been awake for 72 hours straight or some nonsense like that. A more realistic Batman would understand the value of a good night’s sleep — for both physical and mental reasons.
Now it’s time for some filler. We finally return to our detectives, who have essentially buried the Eddie Blake investigation and are now at the scene of a horrific murder-suicide. Personally, I think Moore is being a bit melodramatic here. It doesn’t take the threat of a nuclear war to cause a man to kill his family and himself — we just had one in a small Utah town called Enoch. Truthfully, Moore only included the detectives here because he wanted to return to them later in this symmetrical issue.
The news vendors’ attitudes toward impending nuclear war is more common — a hopeless panic leading toward a resigned apathy. There’s nowhere to escape to, nothing to be done to prevent the inevitable. So you might as well go about your business and wait for the end.
Speaking of the unavoidable, my page-by-page analysis has forced me to confront the infamous Black Freighter comic. It’s everybody’s least favorite part of Watchmen for a reason. There’s just too much of it. And it gets real repetitive real quick. However, I do enjoy comparing the Black Freighter’s protagonist to Adrian Veidt. Both men make a series of increasingly barbaric decisions in an effort to prevent a tragedy that never was going to happen. Davidstown was never in danger, and the Soviets were never going to attack America. But the paranoia and obsession of the mariner and Adrian turned them into threats almost as bad as what they were trying to prevent.
The Laurie/Dan subplot in this issue is mostly a quick update. But it is interesting that most of their interactions here are reflected in mirrors. That keeps to the theme of this issue but also represents how the two of them aren’t quite ready to address their budding relationship directly.
To illustrate just how desperate Rorschach is getting, he pathetically spends the entire day watching a trash can, hoping that his only lead might leave a message for him. While he waits, his mind ludicrously entertains increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories. A sane individual would realize that Laurie is not capable of orchestrating the vast plot Rorschach has stumbled onto.
Bernard is frustrated by the resigned apathy he sees in others and even himself, but all he can do is impotently complain to the boy reading pirate comics next to him. The characters, the readers and even Moore and Gibbons are all anxiously waiting for the next big thing to happen. But we’re only on page 12, so we have to be patient.
Hey, look! It’s the plot! I absolutely love how Adrian is preparing his annoying secretary for death mere moments before he had her killed by his hired assassin. I’m not sure if he actually believes in this concept of death, or if he’s using it as justification for the murders he has already committed and the many more he has planned. Or maybe he’s just mocking his vain secretary who cares more about MTV than spirituality.
This technically isn’t a two-page spread, but it essentially is. It’s a great work of art, even if the arms don’t line up perfectly in the middle. For the first time this series, Dave Gibbons glorifies the action. It’s still brutally violent, but Adrian’s moves are fluid, efficient and beautiful. Dr. Manhattan is the only super-powered individual in this story, but Adrian is as close as one can get. His lightning-fast reflexes and agility put him in a league of his own. Not to mention his incredible intelligence and vast resources.
Adrian seems genuinely sad here that he doesn’t have any enemies. He’s spent years orchestrating this massive scheme and now that he’s so close to realizing his dream, he’s probably disappointed that nobody has challenged him. He figured out how to conceal his actions from Dr. Manhattan, and the Comedian, who did learn the truth, was ridiculously easy to dispose of. Now all that’s left is the easily manipulated Rorschach, who is nowhere near solving this case. I believe that Adrian staged this assassination attempt because he wanted to be caught. Well, not exactly caught, because he was fully confident nothing could stop his plan by this point, but he did want someone to learn what he was doing. And it would be this hired hit man that would do exactly that.
I am pleased to report that I received a bit of an epiphany with the Black Freighter this time around. If the mariner is Adrian, then the shark is Rorschach. In this panel, Bernie reads about the mariner feeling the shark move beneath him, just as Rorschach walks past the newsstand. There are no coincidences in Watchmen — although I will concede there may be multiple interpretations to this story. But this is the interpretation I like best, and I’m sticking with it.
With the nine-by-nine panel grid, it can be difficult to pick up on all the little details, such as the filthiness of Rorschach’s gloves. It’s mind-boggling that he’d call these — or any piece of his clothing — “spotless.” Does he legitimately not notice how dirty his things are? Or is he engaging in revisionist history for his journal? It really doesn’t seem like he’s making a joke about himself. This is, after all, the man who broke somebody’s finger just because he made fun of his body odor.
A quick return to Dan and Laurie, whose relationship is still largely being played out in mirrors and innuendo. Nothing to say here other than this is the beauty and the curse of the chiasmus. We’re forced to return to the beginning whether we want to or not.
But this is something that I surprisingly do want. Now that I’ve decided Rorschach is the shark, these Black Freighter scenes are quite interesting. The shark tries to kill the mariner, but is instead caught in the tangles of his corrupt raft built on the backs of dead men. The mariner kills the shark and uses its corpse to aid him in his misguided quest. Rorschach barely scratched the surface of Adrian’s plot, but that was more than enough for the world’s smartest man to retaliate. But instead of killing Rorschach, which would have been just as easy as killing the Comedian, Adrian chose to use Rorschach, turning him into one more layer of protection and, ultimately, a witness of his unholy deeds.
The Black Freighter chillingly says the shark did die. Eventually. After being torturously dragged along with the mariner for far too long. The same grim fate awaits Rorschach.
And to really drive home the symbolism here, when Adrian anonymously calls the detectives about Rorschach, he calls him “Raw Shark.” And thus he is entangled in Adrian’s grotesque raft, doomed to be dragged along, witnessing every horror along the way until he eventually dies. All because he wasn’t smart or strong enough to take down his prey.
The biggest difference between Rorschach and the shark is — or rather, should be — intelligence. The shark is a mindless beast that was drawn the corpses on the raft by instinct and hunger. Rorschach also was drawn to the corpses utilized by Adrian. Out of instinct because of his career as a vigilante. Out of hunger because of his desire to prove himself. The shark doesn’t know any better, but Rorschach should. But he’s the kind of man that repeatedly walks directly through puddles and filth, heedless of the cost his quixotic quest demands of him.
Rorschach is so wrapped up in his own conspiracy theory that it takes him an embarrassingly long time to realize he’s talking to a dead man. And look how far away he is from discovering the true mastermind. Why on Earth does he think a random low-level thug like Jimmy the Gimmick could orchestrate this huge conspiracy against Dr. Manhattan?
Rorschach is right. This was a pretty obvious trap. And he dove right into it because he was so hungry and so desperate. He never considered investigating any other leads, instead fixating on the one source he had until he convinced himself that Moloch must have more information.
The police have every opportunity — and justification — to kill Rorschach. But they choose to take him alive. Rorschach, however, fights dirty. He’s vicious and cruel. Lashing out like a cornered beast, brutally injuring several officers who were just doing their job.
This act of savagery is kind of ironic, considering how much Rorschach professes to respect the rule of law and this country. Obviously, Rorschach’s hypocritical moral code does not apply to the institutions that he finds inconvenient. But heaven forbid anyone criticize the government when he’s around!
No, Rorschach, this is your true face. You are a sad, pathetic, deranged little man that wears platform shoes and is in desperate need of a shower. The shark has been caught in the raft. But unlike the shark, who quickly came eye-to-eye with his tormentor, Rorschach is going to have wait a while before he learns the truth. A superficial reader of this story would be tempted to mourn Rorschach’s fate here, but Alan Moore doesn’t want us to do that. He showed us that Rorschach is little more than a mindless beast who fell into a trap because he couldn’t resist the allure of a corpse in the water … or on the sidewalk, in this case.
This issue’s supplemental material is all about the Black Freighter, which, to my surprise, was published by DC … in a story that was also published by DC. It’s not really a big deal, but it does make me wonder if Marvel also exists in the Watchmen world, or if that company never got going because of the real-life costumed heroes and villains that destroyed the fictional careers of Superman, Flash and Batman.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Moore originally intended to use a Blackbeard story instead. The Black Freighter did present Moore with a blank slate, which he could use to draw as many parallels to his main story as he wanted, but maybe a more memorable character like Blackbeard would have prevented the pirate side story from growing stale.
I am slightly shocked that Moore spoiled the ending for the Black Freighter here, long before he revealed it in the main story. Perhaps he wasn’t sure if he’d return to it. Moore undoubtedly had the main plot planned out for 12 issues, but the bulk of his writing was done on the spot, right before his deadline.
This article ends with a casual mention of the disappearance of the Black Freighter’s creator. I think one failure of Watchmen is how little we see of this crucial element of Adrian’s grand plan.
I still don’t enjoy the Black Freighter story very much, but I do appreciate it a bit more when I look at the shark representing Rorschach. The shark swam up to the raft to feast on the dead bodies underneath it, never suspecting that a living man was on top, ready to kill it. Rorschach was similarly drawn to the dead body of Eddie Blake, fully suspecting a murderer to be behind it, but never suspecting how powerful that murderer is.
