Rorschach (Walter Joseph Kovacs) is a fictional antihero and one of the protagonists in the graphic novel limited series Watchmen, published by DC Comics in 1986.

[2][3][4] In the beginning of the story, he is introduced as the only masked vigilante to remain active on his own terms and initiative, a criminal outlaw as opposed to other former superheroes now covertly employed by the U.S. government.

His brutal perception of black-and-white morality reflected writer Alan Moore's critical deconstruction of the whole notion of heroes—a popular theme recurring in comic books since the 1980s.

[9] Moore also stated that the tone of Rorschach's diary was inspired by the Son of Sam letters David Berkowitz sent to the newspapers, and that his speech patterns were based on Herbie the Fat Fury.

"[13] Moore added that Rorschach had a "king-sized" deathwish due to his psychologically troubled life, and actively wanted to die but in his own dignified and honorable way, no matter how "twisted" it might have been.

His mother was brutally murdered by her pimp, George Paterson, who forced her to drink Drano cleaning fluid and dumped her body in the back alleyway.

Though Kovacs learned how to cut and fashion the material successfully with heated implements, he soon grew bored with it, as it served him no real purpose at the time.

[14] Two years later when buying a newspaper on his way to work in March 1964, Kovacs read about the rape and murder of Kitty Genovese, who he believed was the Italian woman who had rejected the dress.

Inspired by Genovese's fate, Kovacs returned home, made "a face [he] could bear to look at in the mirror" from the dress's fabric, and began fighting crime as the vigilante Rorschach.

Initially, Kovacs left criminals alive, but bloodied, for the police to arrest, leaving a calling card in the form of a Rorschach test at every crime scene.

[14] In 1975, an investigation into the kidnapping of a young girl named Blair Roche led to the transformation of the "soft" Kovacs into the ruthlessly uncompromising Rorschach.

When the Keene Act was passed in 1977 to outlaw vigilantes, Rorschach responded by killing a wanted serial rapist and leaving his body outside a police station with a note bearing one word: "never!

He believes that someone is picking off costumed superheroes,[16] a view that strengthens when Doctor Manhattan is forced into exile[17] and when Adrian Veidt, the former vigilante known as Ozymandias, is targeted in an assassination attempt.

After the unmasking, Rorschach is revealed to be the red-haired man who, in addition to being the first character to appear in the series, was shown several times in the early chapters carrying a sign reading "THE END IS NIGH".

[21] After acquiring a spare costume from his apartment, Rorschach, along with Nite Owl, enters underworld bars to find out who ordered the assassination attempt on Veidt.

[22] There they learn the true nature of the conspiracy and Veidt's motivations: to unite the world against a perceived alien threat and stop the possibility of a nuclear holocaust.

[23] Doctor Manhattan and Silk Spectre II arrive at the base after viewing the carnage Veidt's false alien has wrought on New York City.

Despite their mutual horror, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre II and Doctor Manhattan all agree to keep quiet about the true nature of the events when the United States surprisingly does enter into a peace accord with the Soviet Union.

[25][26][27][28][29][30][31] The events of Doomsday Clock begin with Robert Redford winning the 1992 election by using the details of Kovacs' journal, which he gained from the New Frontiersman, leading the citizens of New York to rally against Ozymandias, while the United States faces an inevitable nuclear war.

[37] Rorschach is 5'6" tall and weighs 140 pounds, and, as Walter Kovacs (his "disguise"), he appears as a red-haired, expressionless man[14] who always carries with him a sign that reads "THE END IS NIGH".

During Rorschach's nighttime patrols, he wears a striped purple business suit, similarly colored leather gloves, a grayed scarf, and heavily unpolished elevator shoes.

Rorschach's mask, which he considers his true "face", is a piece of fabric made from a material derived from the technologies of Dr. Manhattan, and it is blank except on the front, where two viscous liquids, one black and one white, are between two layers of latex.

Rorschach considers his mask his true "face" and his unmasked persona to be his "disguise", refusing to answer to his birth name during his trial and psychiatric sessions.

Rorschach presents his views on right and wrong as starkly black and white with no room for compromise, with the exception of his respect for the Comedian, whose attempted rape of the first Silk Spectre he dismisses as a "moral lapse".

He holds deep contempt for behavior he considers immoral and is openly derogatory toward heroes who do not share his unwavering views, deriding them as "soft".

Rorschach displays a discomfort with female sexuality as a result of his early childhood, although the crimes that most affected him spiritually were against women: the murders of Kitty Genovese and Blair Roche.

Despite his mental instability, Rorschach is extremely intelligent and was described as "tactically brilliant and unpredictable" by Nite Owl, and shows a marked affinity for detective work, as evidenced by his ability to locate the Comedian's costume in his apartment when the police could not.

"[42] TopTenz placed Rorschach 3rd on their 2010 list of the "Top 10 Comic Book Anti-Heroes (Marvel & DC)" where he was described as "just one of many outstanding characters introduced during the landmark Watchmen series, but he is far and away the most popular and fascinating.

The Los Angeles Times further added on Snyder's statement, claiming "The filmmaker said [Rorschach] 'is easily one of the greatest comic book characters ever' and that's a view shared by many fans and the press that serves them.

"[55] Richard Corliss of Time praised Haley, "who does right by his grizzled role" and named him and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Comedian) as the standout actors of the film.