Before Watchmen: Rorschach #3 Review

Here's the thing about Before Watchmen: Rorschach. Nothing about this book is necessarily of poor quality. It's a perfectly serviceable tale about a lone vigilante battling the worst sort of scum 1970's New York has to offer. But nothing about this series takes particular advantage of the Watchmen license. With a few modifications, this could just as easily be a story about Punisher, Wolverine, or even Daredevil if he were in a particularly cranky mood. So the question quickly becomes -- why bother doing a prequel to Watchmen if it's going to be so formulaic? How does that serve the brand?

Issue #3 sees Rorschach retaliate against the gang of thugs that have been occupying his time lately, while in his civilian guise, Walter Kovacs attempts to return the kindness shown to him by the waitress at the Gunga Diner. The latter material is somewhat more interesting, as it shows that Rorschach still has a shred of ordinary humanity to him that has been more or less drowned out by the period of the original series. Brian Azzarello does a decent job of capturing Rorschach's voice in the recurring journal excerpts. But again, there's little in this story that feels vital or unique to Watchmen. As in the previous two issues, the serial killer subplot feels tacked on and almost an afterthought to scenes of Rorschach kicking the crap out of heavily muscled thugs.

And certainly, Lee Bermejo can draw a muscular thug with the best of them. The sheer amount of detail, power, and gritty texture Bermejo brings to every page is impressive. In terms of page layouts and inventive design, however, the series falls behind the rest of the Before Watchmen pack. As seedy as this vision of New York is, the series doesn't look much like a Watchmen book when Rorschach isn't in costume.

With only one issue left, there's little hope that this series will overcome its recurring flaws. But the good news is that, at a mere four issues, Rorschach isn't in danger of overstaying his welcome.

Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com