Watchmen: 7 Ups And 0 Downs From 'It's Summer And We're Running Out Of Ice'

3. Grappling With The Cult Of Rorschach

Watchmen, the comic, has had a problem on its hands for the last couple of decades, and its name is Rorschach.

Intended as a satire of Steve Ditko's Randian superhero Mr. A (and the early version of the Question), Walter Kovacs was a dogmatic conspiracy theorist who brutalised criminals and condemned those who didn't comply with his own absolutist ideology. He decried sex workers, left a disturbing manifesto behind in his own journal, and threatened to jeopardise world peace and kill millions because Ozymandias achieved it through horrid means. A moral quandary, yes, but once Veidt indicated that the plan had already been put in effect, exposing the conspiracy would've only resulted in further casualties - he had to die to safeguard peace.

As the years have gone by, readers who managed to spectacularly misread the point of Watchmen have come to lionise Rorschach as a badass vigilante who refused to compromise his own morals even at the brink. In reality, Rorschach is depicted as a pitiful character with a warped world view - he's not a hero, and to proclaim him as such would be a mistake.

It's one fans haven't stopped committing though, and the Watchmen show doesn't allow anyone to make that same mistake.

Here, Rorschach's legacy is completely toxic. His journal has partially inspired a new white supremacist terrorist cell called the Seventh Cavalry, who adopt his visual motif and quote his writings in their broadcasts. They're the unquestionable enemy of HBO's Watchmen, and in reckoning with Rorschach's legacy, the series further intimates its importance.