WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Rorschach #5 by Tom King, Jorge Fornés, Dave Stewart, and Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
Rorschach is a sequel to the original Watchmen by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins. The book takes place in the present, decades after the events of its predecessor, and it follows an unnamed investigator as he tries to unravel a mystery that involves the return of Rorschach. An old man named Wil Myerson put on Rorschach's costume and, along with his sidekick The Kid, they attempted to kill presidential candidate Turley. Both were killed in the attempt, and now the investigator has to figure out who they were and what exactly happened on that fateful day.
Rorschach carries on the legacy of its title character through not only the resurgence of the character, but also through its themes. But he may not be the only character the Black Label series is intent on honoring, as issue #5 hints that Rorschach is also carrying the legacy of Nite Owl.
While the main mystery of Rorschach is centered around the confounding return of the vigilante and the circumstances of his death, there is another that is far more subtle and it involves the main character of the Black Label series. Ever since the start of Rorschach, we have followed the inquiries of the investigator, a character who has yet to be named, five issues into the series. This investigator is taking him where the evidence leads and so far, he's already discovered the identities of Rorschach and the Kid, he's unearthed the origin of Laura Cummings and he's figured out that she may be the real villain of this entire story.
Throughout all of his discoveries, the investigator remains a stoic figure. He is trapped in this darkness, but he doesn't appear to let it affect him. Better yet, in Rorschach #5, we get a better sense of his personality when he has an exchange with Governor Turley's security. He shows that he isn't shaken by men who are bigger and more powerful than him. He has the moral high ground, and therefore he has the power. He's challenging, and it looks like he isn't above physically fighting back, should the situation arise. And the case is the same when the investigator meets Turley. The Governor is revealed to be a twisted politician who idolizes the Comedian, which makes him unsettling and potentially dangerous. It's by seeing the investigator react to his discoveries, and seeing him remain steadfast when faced with such troubling developments that the character reveals himself as, potentially, the real hero of this story and it's through him that the legacy of Nite Owl might live on.
In Rorschach #5, before the investigator visits Governor Turley, he meets with his chief of staff at s bar. It's there that the investigator is informed that Turley has called him in so that he may be brought up to speed on his investigation into his assassination attempt. But what is perhaps most intriguing about everything is that the bar the investigator and the chief of staff are meeting in is called the "Hollis Pub."
At first glance, that might not mean much. However, this is actually a reference to the original Watchmen. Hollis Mason was the first Nite Owl in the Watchmen universe, until Dan Dreiberg became his successor and suited up as the second Nite Owl, a superhero who would become as close to a partner as Rorschach would get.
Now, it may be no accident that the investigator bears a passing resemblance to Dan Dreiberg. In fact, in a series set in 2021, his haircut appears to be purposefully a throwback to the '80s. Intriguingly, the character doesn't have a name yet and if that name is ever revealed, will be a name that holds some special significance to the Watchmen mythos? But even if the character isn't some descendant of either Nite Owls, he alone appears to represent what could be described as a dependable hero. Watchmen was a deconstruction of the superhero mythology, and Dan Dreiberg was as close to the comic got at an honest-to-goodness superhero. The investigator, in his resolve, might represent that. He may not be Nite Owl, but he's as close to a partner as Rorschach, or the very idea of him, has now.
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