‘Doomsday Clock’ Hints at New Rorschach’s Identity

by Ari Bard
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In Doomsday Clock #1, Rorschach took off his glove to reveal that he was not the original Rorschach and that he was black.  The gesture was meant to show Marionette, newcomer to the Watchmen universe, that he was not the Rorschach that put her and her husband Mime in jail.  This was the only explanation fans received in Doomsday Clock#1, and the fans ran with it.

The most popular speculation is that Malcolm Long, the psychiatrist at Sing Sing who treated Walter Kovacs’s Rorschach while he was in jail, had a son who became the new Rorschach. Here is what fans know so far.

Malcolm Long is one of three major male, black characters in the Watchmen universe which only left a few people to connect to Rorschach.  Malcolm Long never said he was a father, but he did have a “Dad” coffee mug on his desk, which is all the fans need.  In the new series, Rorschach also says, “its good to have family,” further leading fans towards this conclusion.

In Doomsday Clock #2, we finally get a new name for Rorschach: Reggie.  This doesn’t really support or deny the leading fan theory by itself, but the scene in which Ozymandias first utters the name in order to calm Rorschach down may provide fans with the evidence they have been wanting.

The scene takes place after Rorschach and Ozymandias reach the DC Universe via Nite-Owl’s ship.  The journey knocks Rorschach unconscious, and when Ozymandias tries to wake him up, Rorschach instinctively lunges out to attack him.   Ozymandias then reminds Rorschach that the two have an agreement to save the world in order to calm him down.  Many speculate that Rorschach is angry because his father, Malcolm Long, died in Ozymandias’s orchestrated “Alien Invasion” of New York.

This fan-theory seems to be on the right track, but everyone knows how skilled writer Geoff John’s is at the art of misdirection.  Only time will tell.

Doomsday Clock #2 is on sale now in stores and online.

 

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