YMMV / Rorschach (2020)

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: There's a lot of direct references to real world people and their work (most prominently William Myerson being a humongous analogue to Steve Ditko), but one of the most obscure yet most integral to the plot are those regarding Otto Binder (prolific sci-fi comic writer, most known for creating Supergirl and his work on DC's Captain Marvel). The "Static Man" conspiracy theory he created was something he really did — late in his life and following the premature death of his daughter, he became convinced that he could communicate with spirits by listening to the static of recording tape. The tape which the detective finds off of Myerson's body in issue #1 is also directly based on a real séance recording between Binder, Frank Miller, and a few other close friends — the transcript is almost completely identical to the real deal, sans the "Tom Fagan" in attendance being substituted for the fictional William Myerson.
• Funny Moments: Issue #5 has the detective meet Governor Turley in his office for urgent matters... so urgent that Turley demands they talk even while he's still on the crapper, Lyndon Johnson-style. Neither of the two acknowledge the fact at any point during their conversation.
• Unexpected Character: There's absolutely no way anyone possibly could have expected Frank Miller to be a character in this series, or for him to adopt the mantle of Rorschach!
• Win Back the Crowd: The series began with a very uphill battle to surmount. Problem one: it's another spinoff of Watchmen, a property with a greatly sequelphobic fanbase, and coming in the wake of the divisive Before Watchmen and Doomsday Clock series. Problem two: it's written by Tom King, one of the most controversial comic book writers of The New '10s, who came off the substantially divisive Batman (Tom King) and the near-universally reviled Heroes in Crisis. However, while the series' very existence is still divisive, much like with the HBO television series, readers ended up liking it more than expected, with Rorschach opting to instead be a politically-driven commentary on the impact of Watchmen's iconography through the aftermath several decades into the future. Otherwise-sequelphobic fans have welcomed the series more for generally avoiding the usual pitfalls that plagued other Watchmen sequels (namely attempting to alter or override any of the plot or characters from the original series) and instead focused on telling a solid crime thriller which just to happens to have a lot to say about its titular character.

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