Someone tries to assassinate a presidential candidate… and it’s Rorschach… and it’s 2020 in Rorschach #1, by writer Tom King, artist Jorge Fornes, colorist Dave Stewart, and letterer Clayton Cowles. Even though all the ads for the book screamed retro, this is a modern tale, set post-Watchmen on HBO.

The chapter begins on a catwalk over a political convention. Rorschach calls out to a girl named Laura as gunshots sound out… and then he too is shot and killed. From there, the focus shifts to a detective investigating the whole thing. He talks to the head of security for the campaign, goes to the autopsy, and pieces together a few clues. Eventually, it seems that the guy in the Rorschach costume was a comic artist named William Myerson, and then a bombshell is dropped- Myerson’s fingerprints don’t belong to him, but to Walter Kovacs, the real Rorschach.

So, right off the bat, there will be questions of whether this comic should even exist. Watchmen is a notoriously prickly subject- some people want more, and some think that making more Watchmen stuff is highly disrespectful to Alan Moore. The first question this issue has to answer is does this story need to be told? Well, that’s a hard question to answer just from one comic, and it’s actually a reason for all the naysayers to stay around and read it. King layers everything correctly, setting out two wonderful little mysteries- why did Rorschach and a nineteen-year-old girl named Laura Cummings try and assassinate a presidential candidate, and is this Rorschach THE Rorschach.

Although the issue does trade in the imagery of Watchmen, it’s all done lightly because the focus of the story has nothing to do with the central story of the comic or its TV sequel or Doomsday Clock. It’s a mystery, reminiscent of the original, but it doesn’t have the same portentous feeling that Watchman #1. King just presents the facts, moving the detective along from lead to lead. A really fun one is a tape of what appears to be a seance. Two of the people in the seance? Captain Marvel and Silver Age Superman writer Otto Binder and Frank Miller, two writers who wrote superhero comics in the real world but in the world of Watchmen, a world of pirate comics, probably went a different way. It could be an Easter egg. It could be something more- Binder wrote some of the best Superman comics of the Silver Age, albeit ones that today’s fans would think were childish, and Frank Miller was Moore’s compatriot in bringing more complicated adult themes to comics. There’s a juxtaposition there that might play into things later.

The art by Jorge Fornes is very crisp and clean. Even though it’s 2020 in the Watchmen world, there’s a very retro feel to the world, as evinced by the HBO show. Fornes captures this perfectly, down to the main character’s hair cut. His heavy linework works perfectly for this story, underlining the goings-on, mirroring the heaviness of the narrative.

To answer the question of whether Rorschach #1 is a tale that needs to be told, the answer is no, but that’s the same answer for just about any tale. Very few stories need to be told. However, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be, and that doesn’t mean this one shouldn’t either. King and Fornes are building a great little mystery here. While the argument can be made that this story can’t be told without Watchmen iconography and the fans who hate any use of Watchmen will howl for the blood of the creators, Watchmen couldn’t be told without adapting the Charleston characters. This is a great first installment that sets out its mysteries nicely and begs readers to come back and see what comes next.

Grade: A