Batman and Rorschach II - Making a Symbol mean something else (April 2020)
This post focuses on an often overlooked or underrated part of Doomsday Clock, the arc between Batman and Rorschach II.
Link to original post on Reddit
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Batman and Rorschach
Last week I made a post discussing Final Crisis and Doomsday Clock, and it had Superman's importance to DC metafictionally at the center. I think it's fitting that I do one on Batman too. Similarly, his role, along with Rorschach II's, in Doomsday Clock is less discussed as well. Rorschach II's own story is actually one of my favorite parts in the book.
This time I am focusing more on Doomsday Clock specifically but I'll also discuss other stories too.
Both Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns are among the best Superman writers and both payed tribute to him in FC and DDC, and they wrote many great Superman books (All Star Superman, Secret Origin, both their Action Comics runs). But while Morrison and Snyder have their own well received Batman runs as I've said, a lot of people aren't fans of how Geoff writes Batman.
To be honest I did agree with that before, but among other things, Doomsday Clock IMO has proved he can write a good Batman and Bruce Wayne and I'm really excited for what he'll do for Three Jokers.
So, first let's look at
Batman
Bats.
In many cultures Bats are symbols of evil, demons, darkness, witchcraft etc.
Of course not all cultures see it that way. It has many possible associations, such as with the Chinese and Native-American cultures. But for the most part, to many Bats = bad.
In universe, Dark Nights Metal even reveals that the bat is the symbol of a dark Bat god that used to devour worlds and now rules a Dark Multiverse.
"my symbol"
Bruce Wayne of all people knew the negative connotation that bats had. He saw it as an omen. The twist? He used that symbol to strike fear into the hearts of evil. He used the symbol of the bat as means to scare the superstitious and cowardly lot that criminals are.
I could stop here, but of course in the past 8 decades of Batman history, Batman himself has changed a lot and so has his symbol.
The Bat symbol
Over the time, the symbol became more. Not only did it strike fear into the hearts of criminals, but it also gave hope to those around him (not unlike Superman). It told people to rise against their own fears and to use the darkness within themselves and turn it into something good like how Batman himself uses the darkness within him as a weapon light.
That's something Frank Miller, Grant Morrison, Scott Snyder, Tom King (yes even him which he shows in I am Gotham) and Geoff Johns all understand. To me that's what the yellow oval signifies. It also coincides with the Bat Signal, which in itself is also used as a signal to show everyone that Batman is here. To criminals this brings fear. To others this brings hope. Which is seen in TDKR and many other stories.
Now a lot of fans might believe that Batman is all about Vengeance. I disagree with that. Frank Miller once said, Batman was more than that, it was also to make sure that no other child ends up like him. Grant Morrison said Batman is inherently for the children (in a good way, not that way). Geoff Johns similarly has his own take for why Batman keeps fighting:
You can't beat down hope, you can't beat down optimism. There's a reason that Batman, who's the darkest of them all, keeps fighting. He believes tomorrow would be better. Otherwise, he would stop. He's certainly had plenty of opportunity to quit.
-Geoff Johns from an interview on Rebirth with Hollywood Reporter
But of course, the past 80 years Batman's had plenty of ups and downs. He's also gotten darker which is why both people IRL and in universe see him in a different light. Whether it's Doomsday Clock, Curse of the White Knight or Tynion's Batman, we can see that the bat symbol isn't seen the same way it was before. Doomsday Clock specifically has the public protesting against him.
"The bat is not the symbol it used to be"
Another thing all those stories have in common is that Batman himself is doing (or has already done in COTWK) his best to fix that. To once again make people see the symbol as something else.
So now let's talk about
Walter Kovacs
Rorschach was Walter Kovacs.
He was not simply a "good" or "bad" man. Clearly he believes himself to be a hero and does seem to have his own code and conscience. However, his methods were extreme and his beliefs were extreme. Like the Comedian, Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias, he also had nihilistic/cynical views.
Rorschach II is Reggie Long,
Reggie Long
son of Walter Kovacs' (Rorschach I) Psychiatrist from Watchmen: Malcom Long.
Malcom Long
He was a victim of Adrian Veidt's teleporting exploding psychic squid monster. He was put in a mental institution where he met Mothman (Byron Lewis). Long story short, Byron taught him to be a hero, how to "see what he wants to see" (one of the recurring themes in DDC)
"I see a moth"
as well as giving him his father's materials leading to him learning about the original Rorschach.
Byron intentionally left out some papers confirming the truth about how Kovacs affected Malcom, leading Reggie to believe they were friends and that his father's treatment was getting through to him. This lead him to take the mask and become Rorschach II. Then he hunted Adrian down but he was deceived into believing Veidt had changed and had remorse.
Kovacs would learn the truth. Not only did he learn Ozymandias not change his stance about his actions, but that Walter took away his father's optimism and destroyed his relationship with his mother.
This broke him. He abandoned both the mask and the hope that he once saw with it.
Which brings us to the big confrontation of the final issue.
First Meeting
Bruce and Reggie's didn't end too well.
Into Arkham
Batman locked him up in Arkham and disguised himself as a psychiatrist to see what makes him tick.
Reggie escaped with Saturn Girl and later found Johnny Thunder. While he went through what I previously recapped, Batman had his own confrontation with Veidt who criticized him in superheroes in general. After being beaten on by the mob, being strolled in a chair by the Joker, getting caught in an explosion in Russia and then taking on some soldiers to stop nuclear war, Bruce finally gets his second meeting with Reggie.
Bruce and Reggie
At the same time Superman and Manhattan meet, so does Batman and Rorschach.
This time, Bruce now believes Reggie having had Alfred read the journal and find him too. He even apologizes for his previous actions. He asks Reggie to be Rorschach again, to help him save Superman and the world. Reggie however can't do that anymore. He sees the mask for what it truly was, and sees no hope for Batman's world, like there was none in his. Most of all he's torn by the fact that his apparent mentor, Byron, lied to him.
So what does Batman do?
Make People See Something Else
He suggests that perhaps Byron did what he did so Reggie could make the mask mean something more. Something better.
"That's what it sounds like your friend Byron was trying to do"
"Right now you have a choice to make."
"Maybe you make that choice"
Superman and Manhattan was to show how not all conflicts are about simple "good" and "evil", and that there could exist a third option apart from either "winning". One best for all that both must see by looking past what they want to see.
Batman and Rorschach is about making something that was perceived as something "bad" or "wrong", and making it mean something else, to transform a symbol into something good. Whether that's the mask of Rorschach, actual rorschach/ink blot tests, or the image of a bat.
Both confrontations parallel each other and are linked with the overall theme of Doomsday Clock which is to look past the blind spots and impaired vision of broken glass (shout to to u/Chance5e for his own great posts).
With that, Reggie dons the mask and helps Batman confront Ozy and chooses justice.
"Rorschach is me."
Before visiting Byron's grave to say:
"Thank You"
IMO the way Geoff and Gary deals with this through both DC and Watchmen characters was done really well. While the idea of the Metaverse and Superman being the center of it all is one of the greater thematic messages of the book that everyone knows, the book also has a lot more than that. In this case, it also portrays Batman really well and shows one of the defining ideas behind him.
Anyway I'm really excited for what Geoff will do with Three Jokers. In interviews he and Jason have said the book will be all about trauma and how people deal with and are affected by it. Which in itself is also fundamentally part of what Batman is all about. Fabok has gone on to say this'll be his best work, a modern classic. So until then, I'll keep faith and stay hyped for what's coming. This is the final piece foreshadowed by Darkseid War. Hopefully, there won't be more delays because of the ongoing crisis but if there are, we've waited for years. I can wait a little longer.
Very late (3 month) Edit: I just realized that the Button might also add context to Bruce's role and theme here. Thomas associated being Batman as tragic and told Bruce to abandon it to be happy. Instead Bruce continued being Batman, adding the yellow oval back, essentially turning something "bad" into something good. Seemed too good for me not to add.
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