“A Vigilante Psychopath, That’s What Batman Is”: Watchmen’s Rorschach Was Specifically Intended to Critique Batman

The main character in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ seminal Watchmen series, Rorschach, is often compared to DC’s flagship character, Batman. Despite the design being modeled after Steve Ditko’s Question, Moore has been open about his vigilante being a critique of the Caped Crusader.

As he noted in an interview for the BBC’s Comica Britannia documentary series, the story of Watchmen, as created by Alan Moore, served as a deconstruction of the superhero genre, which the writer saw as ripe for critique, and ready for change. After years of the industry’s biggest tropes going unchallenged, the author blazed a trail by adding complexity and depth previously uncommon in the medium.

That said, Moore didn’t like everything that followed from his career. One major disappointment was how his work became defined by characters like Rorschach – who Moore believes is completely misunderstood by contemporary readers.

Related

“It Felt Like a Bit of an Amputation”: Alan Moore Reveals Pain of Disowning Iconic Watchmen & V for Vendetta Comics

In an interview with Games Radar, Alan Moore discussed the painful process of detaching himself from his legacy of groundbreaking comic book work.

Alan Moore Sought To Deconstruct Superheroes With Watchmen

Watchmen is one of the most debated comic book stories of the medium, due to the contested meaning of its various characters. While some see Rorschach as the true hero of the story, that was never Moore’s intention. “A person dressing in a mask and going around beating up criminals is a vigilante psychopath,” Moore told BBC Four, before adding, “that’s what Batman is. We came up with the character of Rorschach as a way of exploring what that Batman-type, driven, vengeance-fueled vigilante would be like in the real world. And, the short answer is, a nutcase.“

Just as Doctor Manhattan was created to be an exploration of a hero with god-tier powers, Batman was an examination of what drives a violent, street-level vigilante. Moore stripped away the legend of Bruce Wayne, and replaced it with the tale of an abused, rage-driven man who grew up in poverty. The writer set out to present his vision of what such a character would be like if he existed in reality. The iconic creator wanted to erase the noble, heroic view of superheroes and replace it with a more understandable and grounded set of motivations and flaws.

Moore Intended Rorschach As A Realistic Take On Batman

Alan Moore’s work at the time he made Watchmen was targeted at the adult collectors of the 1980s, who had grown up on Silver Age comics. His writing was as much a contrast to that colorful and upbeat era as DC would permit, and similar themes can be found in Moore’s seminal Batman tale, The Killing Joke. Moore’s intention, first and foremost, was to push back against people’s common perception of superheroes. With Watchmen, and specifically Rorschach, the goal was to dispel the notion of a noble, romanticized Caped Crusader, and reveal the dark and troubled vigilante underneath.