Chapter I

A clear summary of the chapter itself:

What Happened?:


 The first chapter starts off with Rorschach Journal which takes place in October 12, 1985. It begins by revealing blood all over a street in New York City with a smiley face button, which gives the readers an idea about something violent that occurred. As readers continue to flip through the pages, the incident unravels itself by having two detectives investigating on the crime scene. During their investigation, the two detectives come to a conclusion that the body of the victim known as Edward Blake,was thrown out of his apartment window. This was proven in page 3, when one of the detectives assumed the victim tripped out of the window, and the other detective says “ Forget it, that’s strong glass, man. You trip against it, even a big guy like that, they don’t break. I think you have to be thrown.” As the detectives were in investigation, Allan Moore and David Gibbons decided to show a flashback of the murder in every other panel to give an image in the reader’s mind.

 Later on the night, when the two detectives depart from Blake’s apartment, Rorschach, the chapter’s main character, gets introduced as an aggressive and non-heroic detective. Rorschach curiosity leads him to learn that Edward Blake was a comedian, and an ex- adventurer based on his costume  and goes on a hunt to find out more about Blake’s death. During this process, Rorschach visits several new characters in different locations to look for clues. For example, he visited Dannie’s apartment, where they meet awkwardly with surprise. This is shown as Dannie enters his apartment, and sees Rorschach unexpectedly eating his food. “ Got hungry waiting. Help myself to some beans. Hope you don’t mind,” Says Rorschach. Dannie just shockingly said Rorschach name in response. Unfortunately, Rorschach leaves with a disappointment after getting no answers, although having his own theory about possibly having a mask killer. We later see two minutemen members having dinner and having conversations about the old times. While they were together, one of the members placed a happy smiley button on the sky deck counter which was very similar to the one that was found beside Blake’s dead body.


Who was involved?
The first chapter of this comic book introduces several new characters besides Rorschach as mentioned earlier. Those include two Nite Owls, Hollis Mason and Daniel Deiberg, who are two investigators having a Saturday night beer drinking session and a conversation about their good old days at Mason’s house. Daniel goes home and finds out that someone broke into his apartment. As he enters his kitchen, looking surprised, he sees Rorschach eating a can of beans. On this specific scene, it allowed the readers to know that they both knew each other. Furthermore, when both Rorschach and Daniel headed to the workshop, they were also known to be former partners with each other, during their conversation at Dannie’s workshop.
During that night, when Rorschach visited a bar for clues about Blake’s death, another character known as Happy Harry gets introduced. Happy Harry, the owner of the bar, was extremely intimidated after seeing him, but we later discover that they were both friendly with each other. Based on this, we could assume that Rorschach is seen as a dangerous fellow as his own frien
ds fear him.
Although not finding any clues on previous visits, Rorschach still has hope and decides to visit Adrian Veidt ( Ozymandias) an ex-adventurer, who is also considered as the smartest man in the world. This is proven in p.17. When asked about Blake’s murder, Adrian does not show any sign of caring and was not able to help Rorschach solve his mysteries in anyway.

The next scene, Rorschach finds his way into the Rockafeller Military Research Center behind the security guard’s back to visit Dr. Manhattan and Laurie Juspeczyk. Laurie did not enjoy Rorschach's company because he was wanted by the police and also hated Blake, because he almost raped Laurie’s mother in the past. when the comedian’s name was brought up. This made Laurie very angry and Dr. Manhattan did not like that, so he commanded Rorschach to leave and made it happen by teleporting him out. In addition, we learn that Dr. Manhattan did not show any empathy towards Blake’s death when asked about it. Those are two new characters introduced in this story.

We also learn that two of the characters that Rorschach confronted about Blake’s death, Danny and Laurie got together for dinner. They discussed the past and reveal that they were both members of a set known as “minutemen”, when Laurie says, “ Y’Know, when I think back…why did we do it? Why did we dress up like that? “ on p.25.
We believe that all these characters listed above and all of the events that occurred on the first chapter, will play important roles in this story, as we continue to read.



FUTURE EVENTS

We believe that the major characters will play an essential role in the future, to help out Rorschach  Also, Rorschach may be dealing with more incidents that will lead to new clues about the comedian’s death on the next chapters. However, since this is the first chapter of the story, its main focus was really just to introduce the characters and how they behave. At this moment, it wouldn’t be as accurate to guess what events will happen, but it is certain that the person responsible for Blake’s death will be revealed, and will be severely punished by Rorschach. We may also learn more about “minutemen”, which we assume it is a set where Laurie and Dannie were part of, since they had a brief discussion about it. Currently, Rorschach is still clueless, but we have faith in him, that he will not give up on his investigation. In addition, we may also learn what the smiley face button symbolizes in the near future.

Character Analaysis

Who are they and how do they get involved in the plot? The key character that we chose to focus our character analysis on is Rorschach. He is presented as one of the current detectives who work without the government’s consent, due to a new law which forced many to quit, including Rorschach’s former partner. According to page 6, he gets introduced to the plot as a curious detective, who is looking to find clues related to who’s responsible for his friend Blake’s death. Rorschach's real name was not mentioned at all
during the first chapter. Although he is the protagonist of the story, readers cannot immediately assume that he’s heroic, and the friendly type. Rorschach is a man that could get extremely angry, but on the bright side, he treats everyone the way they treat him. This attribute is extremely similar to another well known hero, named the punisher. They are both known to punish who ever that deserves it. "Rorschach's Journal: October 12th, 1985: Dog carcass in alley this morning. Tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen it's true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout 'Save us!'...and I'll look down and whisper 'no.” This story is heavily focused on multiple perspectives, but it is Rorschach's voice who starts off the novel, and introduces the world in which the readers are about to enter.


Powers, abilities, or key characteristics Rorschach is very different and unique compared to most superheroes, as he does not possess any superpowers. However, he does carry a high level of strength as proven in the bar scene, how he confronted a man that insulted him, by breaking his fingers. This easily proves that Rorschach is well known to not control his anger if anyone goes against him. He’s very mysterious and low-profile as none of his personal information was brought up during the first chapter. In the motion clip, Rorschach is seen to talk in a low-toned voice, even when he’s angry. During a few scenes including the first page, Rorschach seems to keep track of his thoughts on what occurred in the city of New York in journal.
Despite his anger, Rorschach still does show some empathy towards his friend’s death, as he still looks to seek for revenge, even if other characters refused to worry about it. Like most typical detectives in the past, Rorschach is seen to dress in a classy way, wearing a half trenchcoat, thick scarf, and a pair of pinstripe pants. Walking with his hands in his pockets, make Rorschach's character even more mysterious, especially after an altercation. Lastly, Rorschach's most captivating physical characteristic, is his mask. To briefly describe his mask, it is a plain white cloth, with a pattern of inkblot, constantly changing. Depending on what happens around him, Rorschach mask’s inkblot pattern will differ in response. This is presented when Rorschach gets excited, the pattern of his inkblot will change at a quick pace, reflecting his emotion. Although his face is not shown when wearing his mask, his vision still is as good as a typical human. Rorschach is also seen as a psychopath in others’ perspective. This was well shown when Rorschach attempted to warn Veidt about a possible mask-killer, Veidt just ignores his warning and look at him like he’s insane. On p.19, “I came here to warn you about the mask-killer, “ says Rorschach  Veidt then replies by saying, “ Sure. Have a nice day”. On this scene, it was clear that Rorschach was not taken seriously.
Motivation for getting involved?
Rorschac’s motivation for getting involved in the plot is plain and simple. He was worried about a possible killer in town, after hearing about an ex-adventurer getting killed. He was heavily concerned about his death, as he was his old buddy, and wants to look out for the other ex-superheroes and seek for revenge, as he’s looking for the killer.

Do we love Rorschach?
We love Rorschach because he is a very mysterious character. He is very dedicated to his job because he is the only “detective” to continue with the investigation while the other two detectives wanted to drop it. He stands out from all the other characters to us because he portrays a vicious behaviour  but he is a also a respected man. We love the way he thinks because he gets his job done very quick and slick. He interviewed approximately 5 characters in 1 night. He also has a mini diary which he keeps track of his information, thoughts, feelings and any sort of clues, which we found interesting. Although he is very gloomy, he still shows care for his buddy Blake. When Rorschach informs the bartender that Blake is dead, he mentions that Blake was a friend of his in page 15, sixth panel.

Stand out scene

The scene that stood out the most for us was the scene that took place in Happy Harry’s Bar&Grill on pages 14-16. The reason it stood out was because this is the scene where we find out who Rorschach really is and how he handles his business. Before this scene, you only see Rorschach going on adventures to find out who the murderer was by talking to the listed characters and how he documents his information and thoughts (his journal). These scenes only shows you how Rorschach thinks and how his attitude and mindset is.

Rorschach was calm when he walked into the bar. He was having a decent conversation with the bartender, until someone has insulted him about his odor. That made Rorschach angry, so he walks to the insulter, takes his finger and snaps it back. As he is doing this, he states which finger he broke to everyone that is in the bar. Nobody did anything about it, they just stared and begged Rorschach to let him go. While he was breaking his finger, Rorschach also asked the men in the bar who the killer was, but nobody said a word, so Rorschach decided to break his index finger without any sort of hesitation.

This scene shows us that Rorschach is serious and he doesn’t like to play games. When he wants something, he goes out his of way to get it. This is the scene where we find out what kind of character Rorschach is and how he does his job. It gives the reader an idea of what ability he has and what he can do later on in the book, with his abilities.

Key Themes or symbols:

A common theme that was found in this story is hate. Throughout this chapter, the authors explore the various types of hate that one can experience. The first situation in this chapter that reveals hate, was
when Edward was murdered. This crime symbolizes hate, as it played a significant role which led to his death. Another way that hate was presented was when Laurie showed her feelings towards the comedian Blake, and Rorschach  The reason behind her hate towards him, is because he attempted to rape her mother, and spoke about him in a negative way. Her hate towards Rorschach was also confirmed when Rorschach meets her in the military centre. “What are you doing here Rorschach? I hear you’re wanted by the police,” says Laurie to him in a non pleasant way. The public also demonstrates hate during the first chapter, as they are seen to insult Rorschach. A specific scene that indicates this, was when a man insulted Rorschach about his odour.


Another theme that was presented throughout chapter 1 is loyalty, and how people deal with it. A great example was when Rorschach shows loyalty to his buddy and his occupation, as he wouldn’t give up on seeking for the man responsible for Blake’s death. This would not only be seen as revenge but he’s also willing to complete his task as a superhero. In our culture today, people still show hate towards each other, as murders and shooting occur every day on a daily basis. Loyalty could be presented in several ways today in our culture, but an exceptional example, would be Mr  Wilkinson showing loyalty towards his occupation, which deals with marking assignments and teaching the skills we need to know, which he’s doing a fantastic job in.

The key symbol that was in the first chapter was the smiley face. This kept re-occurring in the beginning and in the end. This can possibly symbolize that something is about to happen or something just happened. After the murder of Blake, the smiley face was found in the scene with a strip a blood on it which represents a bad image of what happened. However, during Laurie’s and Danny’s dinner, the smiley face button was in mint condition symbolizing that they were in good hands

.http://prezi.com/skizff2ccosq/untitled-prezi/