Watchmen #6

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Graded population

CGC records 849 graded copies for Watchmen #6 (1987). Population is the number recorded by this grading source, not the total print run or all surviving copies.

The Abyss Gazes Also

On October 25th, clinical psychologist, Dr. Malcolm Long, examines Rorschach, whose public identity is Walter Kovacs, at Sing-Sing. Dr. Long hopes that he has the chance of helping Walter and as well finding out why he is so alienated and emotionally withdrawn.

Revealed through flashbacks and Dr. Long's notes, Walter was born in 1940 to Sylvia Kovacs. His father is unknown. His mother was a prostitute who resented his interference in her business, and abused him viciously. At age 10, Walter attacked two bullies that had cruelly abused him, partially blinding one with the bully's own lit cigarette. This incident lead the authorities to investigate Walter's home life and removed him from his mother's custody. Walter became a ward of the state and his life improved with excellence in schoolwork, although he is usually a quiet child.

On October 26th, Dr. Long continues his session with Walter and ask him to talk about his alter ego Rorschach. Walter suddenly tells Dr. Long that he doesn't like him for not understanding "pain" but agrees to tell about Rorschach. In 1956, Walter left the Children's home and became an unskilled laborer at a garment industry. Working in this capacity, in 1962 he grew fascinated by a new fabric made possible through technologies developed by Doctor Manhattan. Two viscous liquids, one black and one white, between two layers of latex, continually shifted in response to heat and pressure, forming symmetrical patterns like a Rorschach inkblot test while never mixing to produce a grey colour. Walter learned of the fabric when a young woman chose not to buy a dress which she had ordered made from it; subsequently Walter took the dress home and experimented with the fabric. He learned to cut the fabric and maintain the seal using heated scissors. By March 1964, Walter learned about the Murder of Kitty Genovese|murder of Kitty Genovese in which she was raped and killed in front of a building full of tenants who didn't bother to help her. The murder convinced Walter to finally being ashamed of humanity.

Dr. Long tries to conclude that the Genovese murder made Walter to think that humanity is rotten and tries to reason that there are good people like himself. But Walter dismisses Dr. Long's claims and asking why he bother to spending time with him rather than the other violent inmates. When Dr. Long tries to explain that he wants to help Walter, but Walter believe otherwise and sees that Dr. Long wants to diagnose a more famous person to get to be known in the journals and know what makes him sick. Before being taken back to his cell, Walter enigmatically tells Dr. Long that he will soon find out what makes him sick. On the same day, Walter escaped an attempt on his life in the cafeteria by calmly and wordlessly grabbing a pot full of boiling cooking grease and hurling it into the assailant's face. Walter was hauled to solitary confinement and the assailant suffered from his burns. As he was being dragged away, Walter spoke to the other inmates: "None of you understand. I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked up in here with me."

The next day, Dr. Long picks up where Walter left off on becoming Rorschach. Dr. Long assumes that the Genovese murder inspired Walter to becoming Rorschach, but Walter replies that he wasn't Rorschach then. In his words, he was "Kovacs pretending to be Rorschach." At that time he was considered "soft" because he left criminals to live prior to 1975. In 1965, Rorschach was acquainted with Nite Owl II and became partners in bringing down street gangs and important criminal figures such as The Big Figure. But Walter considered Nite Owl and other costumed crime fighters to be soft and that none of them lasted long, except for the Comedian whom Walter considered him to truly understood how the world work. By the end of the interview, Walter states people like Rorschach and the Comedian do it "because [they] have to. We do it because we are compelled."

Dr. Long now knows that Walter wasn't compelled to become Rorschach not because of his childhood or the Genovese murder that caused him to overreact the injustice in the world, but something else. All the while his evaluation with Walter becomes an obsession for him and consequently causing damage to his marriage.

On October 28th, Dr. Long tries some more blot tests with Walter, as Dr. Long knows that his patient has been holding back on what he actually sees. Walter looks at one and answers that he sees a dog's head split in half. Walter then reveals to Dr. Long about the 1975 kidnapping case of six-year-old Blaire Roche in which he investigated. After brutally interrogating fifteen people for Roche's whereabouts, Rorschach found the captor's vacant hideout and learned to his horror that the girl had been murdered, butchered, and fed to two German Shepherd dogs. He killed the dogs with a meat cleaver and waited for the kidnapper. Once the man arrived, Rorschach wordlessly confronted and chained him to a pipe, ignoring his claims of innocence, then placed a hacksaw near him and set the house on fire. Finally speaking, he told the terrified man that he would not have time to cut through his restraints before the fire killed him (implying that he would have to sever his own arm to escape). Walter calmly watched the structure burn from across the street; the suspected kidnapper did not emerge. At this moment Rorschach ceased to be Walter Kovacs and became Rorschach. After finishing his story, Walter is taken back to his cell while Dr. Long is left shocked.

Dr. Long returns to his home with his previous optimistic outlook on life completely shattered. During a dinner party with guests invited by his wife Gloria, the guests start to tease Dr. Long about his interview with Walter. Unamused, Long tells them in detail about the murder of Claire Roche. The dinner soon ended with the guests quietly leaving. Gloria is furious and left Malcolm. Dr. Long sits on his bed looking over a Rorschach blot and trying to pretend it looked like a spreading tree, but it didn't. Instead, it reminds him of a dead cat he once found.

| Appearing1 = **Featured Characters:** * Dr. Malcolm Long) * Rorschach (Walter Kovacs)) Real name revealed

**Supporting Characters:** * Crimebusters) ** Captain Metropolis (Nelson Gardner)) ** Comedian (Eddie Blake)) ** Doctor Manhattan (Jon Osterman)) ** Nite Owl (Dan Dreiberg)) ** Silk Spectre (Laurie Juspeczyk)) * Gloria Long)

**Antagonists:** * Gerald Grice) ** Fred and Barney the Dogs Both die in flashback * Knot-Tops * Sing-Sing inmates * Soviets * Walter Kovacs' bullies ** Richie (Injured boy)

**Other Characters:** * Bernard (News vendor) * Blaire Roche (Kidnapped child) * Janey Slater) * Kitty Genovese * President Nixon) * Randy & Diana (Longs' friends) * Sylvia Kovacs) * Sylvia Kovacs' client * Blaire Roche's father * Blaire Roche's mother * God * Jesus * Senator Keene) * Moloch (Edgar Jacobi)) * Roche Chemical * Walter Kovacs' father * Hermann Rorschach

**Locations:** * Watchmen Universe ** 1951 *** United States of America **** New York City ** 1956 *** United States of America **** New York City ***** Unnamed garment industry ** 1961 *** United States of America **** New York City ***** Unnamed spinoff fabric ** 1964 *** United States of America **** New York City ***** Manhattan ****** 7th Avenue (Manhattan)|7th Avenue ******* Bernard's Newsstand ***** Queens ** 1965 *** United States of America **** New York City ** 1966 *** United States of America **** New York City ***** Manhattan ****** Nelson Gardner's Mansion ** 1975 *** United States of America **** New York City ***** Brooklyn ****** Modern Modes Shop ** 1977 *** United States of America **** New York City ***** The Bronx ** 1985 *** United States of America **** New York City ***** Manhattan ****** 7th Avenue (Manhattan)|7th Avenue ****** 42nd Street (Manhattan)|42nd Street ******* Bernard's Newsstand ****** Long House ***** Sing-Sing Prison *** Japan **** Hiroshima *** Pakistan *** Soviet Union **** Russia

**Items:** * *New York Gazette* * Rorschach's Mask

**Vehicles:** * Archie

**Events:** * Cold War * Murder of Kitty Genovese * World War II ** Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima

**Concepts:** * Keene Act * Rorschach test

Creative credits

Writers: Alan Moore

Interior art: Dave Gibbons

Color: John Higgins

Source records & attribution

Panel Profits keeps each source identity attached to its edition record.

COMICBASE: comicbase:1202227

GCD: 42475

PANEL PROFITS: 2402846