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Elise Truchan

Dr. Ezra Claverie

Perspectives on Humanities: American Superheroes

5 November 2020

To Die as One’s Self

To live a normal life while having superhuman abilities seems impossible until one dons

an alter-ego. A mask, costume, or even glasses helps one conceal what others may find godly.

The use of an alter-ego is not to hide this person’s good nature but to magnify it. It is not that

they do not want to be their human-like self. It is that they choose to put their abilities in the

shadows for the greater good. However, not all people who choose to have an alter-ego have this

agenda. In the comic Watchmen, the character Walter Kovacs has an alter-ego called Rorschach,

or one could say that Rorschach used to be Walter Korvacs. While in prison, Rorschach told his

psychiatrist that when he first put on the mask, he was just “Kovacs pretending to be Rorschach”

(Moore 192). When he became Rorschach, his agenda changed. He was not a person trying to

help people with his alter-ego. He tried to use his alter-ego to hide his broken, angry self, but

instead he did the opposite. His broken, angry nature was magnified when he put on the mask.

The differences between Walter Kovacs and Rorschach are extensive, yet were not fully

developed until the very last panel that Walter is seen in. On the third panel of page 406 in

Watchmen, Walter finally pulls off the mask of Rorschach and shows his true self for the last

time. Therefore, the central claim of this essay is that the function of this panel is to show that

Walter was never fully Rorschach as he claimed to be and will be explained through the color

usage, the speech bubble lines, and the combination of words and the picture in the panel.
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To begin, the color usage in the third panel on page 406 of Watchmen shows that Walter

was never fully Rorschach. In this comic, the audience did not see Rorschach without his mask

until chapter five when the police caught him after being framed for a murder. The first thing that

stood out about Walter’s appearance was his bright, orange hair. This stood out first because this

color of hair is rare, so if the artist did not want to bring attention to this feature then he would

have chosen a more typical and neutral color like brown or black. Instead, the color that was

chosen was a stark orange. Whenever Walter takes off Rorschach’s mask, his hair is the last thing

to be shown. This means it is the most prominent thing he is trying to hide under the mask. On

page 406 this is the same thing that happens when he removes his mask for the last time. His face

is the first thing to come out from under the mask and then follows his hair. In Understanding

Comics, McCloud explains how colors come to symbolize characters. He said that colors “were

fixed with a new iconic power. Because costume colors remained exactly the same, panel after

panel, they came to symbolize characters in the mind of the reader” (188). This means that one

could say the outstanding colors that symbolize the Walter/Rorschach character in readers’ minds

is not the simple black and white of the Rorschach mask at all. Readers may think that the

Rorschach mask is unforgettable, but compared to the bright orange of Walter’s hair, the black

and white are unremarkable. One may say that the orange cannot symbolize this character

because it is not orange that is shown “panel after panel” as McCloud describes it must (188).

Despite orange not being shown every single time when Rorschach is in a scene unlike his ever

present mask, the color sticks in readers’ minds. Since his hair was first seen the audience

remembered that aspect about Walter. It doesn’t have to be shown in every panel for the audience

to be reminded of the broken, orange haired man beneath the hard exterior of a black and white

mask. Due to this being the case one can conclude that it was Walter’s red hair that was the
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symbol and, therefore, Walter himself that was always Rorschach. Rorschach never truly got rid

of Walter as he thought he did. The third panel on page 406 emphasizes this fact. As soon as

Walter’s face is fully shown there, the reader finally realizes that Walter was always the anti-hero

under the mask of Rorschach.

Continuing on, the line of the speech bubble on the third panel of page 406 emphasizes

how Rorschach was the unstable and untrue personality of Walter. Since the beginning of

Watchmen, Rorschach’s speech bubbles have been made up of jagged, scraggly lines. Everytime

he speaks this is what the speech bubble’s lines look like until the mask of Rorschach comes off.

Chapter five is when the police catch him and as the mask is being pulled off he yells “No! No

no no no no!” with the speech bubble being jagged, but when the mask is completely off he

screams “No! My face! Give it back!” with the speech bubble being rounded like everyone else’s

(Moore 172). McCloud’s chapter called “Living in Line” delves into the meaning behind how

lines in comics are drawn. He describes how jagged, unkempt lines can look “weak and

unstable” (McCloud 125), which can be applied to Rorschach’s speech bubbles. Yet, a smooth,

stable line is “honest and direct” (McCloud 125) which relates to Walter’s speech bubbles. This

leads to how Rorschach was the unstable personality of Walter, and how Walter was never fully

Rorschach. When Walter dons Rorschach’s mask he becomes unsteady because that is not who

he truly is. He is trying to force himself to be Rorschach even though Walter is his honest self.

Right before Walter dies on page 406, he pulls off his mask of being Rorschach so that he can die

his true self. The Rorschach personality breaks apart, leaving Walter in his own face. The lines

were jagged because Walter never really fit into being Rorschach and only felt sane as himself.

Rorschach’s personality was weak and unstable which hinted toward his underlying self.
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Walter’s last words were “do it!” with a rounded speech bubble because he was ready to die as

himself, not as the false personality of Rorschach.

Next, the combination of words and the picture on the third panel of page 406 further

shows how Walter was never fully Rorschach as he claimed to be. With the tears streaming down

Walter’s face in this panel and with his last words, he is sure of what he wants. He knows what

Dr. Manhattan is about to do to him and he does not shy away from it. Walter squeezes

Rorschach’s face in his hand as his face shows all of the determination he feels inside. His face is

showing the audience the exact same message as he tells Dr. Manhattan, “do it!” he screams

(Moore 406). McCloud describes this phenomenon as “duo-specific panels in which both words

and pictures send essentially the same message” (153). Before Walter took off the mask, his

speech was often unsure and focusing on other people instead of himself. When Walter realizes

what is coming he is no longer unsure and talking about the crimes of other people. He is ready

to take off the mask and show his own face because Rorschach’s face could not give the same

assured message. This panel of Walter’s last moment was duo-specific because the audience has

to see Walter’s eyes to know how real he knows this moment is. The eye-less face of Rorschach

could never be this sure about his decision to stare Dr. Manhattan in the face and tell him to end

his life. Otherwise, Walter would never have stopped to make sure the world knew the truth.

With the mask pulled off, Walter knew that Rorschach could no longer protect him, and he

accepted his fate. However, Walter made sure he was the one to get the last word in as his true

self.

Thus, like many who live their lives pretending to be someone else, Walter was never as

fully Rorschach as he claimed to be. The third panel on page 406 had the function to reveal that

Walter’s claim was false. He never stopped being Walter, so never was completely Rorschach.
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He was hiding behind a face that he hoped would make him stronger and less impervious to the

outside world. One of the defining factors of this was how memorable the color chosen for his

hair was. This color became his symbol instead of the black and white of the mask. Trying to

hide his broken character with a more damaged character also revealed this in the end. Donning

the mask made his speech bubbles more unsteady, and only when he removed the mask did he

become honest with himself. Without the mask on in his last moment he was able to convey what

he, as Walter, truly wanted with his eyes and his words. A mask and a different personality

covering his face would not have been able to convey the same message. Walter tried to hide his

entire life, but never really succeeded. His alter-ego failed him, but maybe it was for the best. He

was able to die as himself. Just like Walter in Watchmen there are characters in every story that

tend to fall too far. Take Hawkeye who becomes Ronin after his family is taken away from him,

or even Dr. Harleen Quinzel who becomes Harley Quinn after her obsession with the Joker goes

too far. Sometimes they cannot draw a line from where their true selves end and where their

alter-egos begin.
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Works Cited:

McCloud, S. (1994). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York:

HarperPerennial.

Moore, Alan. Watchmen. DC Comics, 1986.