Rorschach’s first DC Universe encounter is the only DC character as grim as he is

This week saw the release of Geoff Johns and Gary Frank’s Doomsday Clock #2, and with it a meeting that’s been imagined by fans for thirty years — but fans who probably never thought they’d see it in an actual comic. And probably not exactly like this.

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for Doomsday Clock.]

This week, in Doomsday Clock #2, Rorschach met Batman.

In Doomsday Clock — a 12-issue DC Comics miniseries based on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen that could be considered both a sequel, a crossover and a response — Rorschach, Ozymandias and a pair of costumed criminals have busted their way into the DC Universe. They’re there to look for the missing Doctor Manhattan, in the hopes that they can convince him to return to their universe and stop an impending global nuclear war.

To that end, Rorschach and Ozymandias have split up, each of them going to talk to the two smartest people on the planet. Ozymandias already called dibs on Lex Luthor, which leaves Rorschach with his competitor: Bruce Wayne.

In our last issue, we learned that Rorschach isn’t the man who appeared in Watchmen, but he still monologues like him. Specifically, he told the sad story of how he’d gotten so busy beating up his favorite waitress’ abusive boyfriend that his favorite pancake place had stopped serving breakfast. Morning ruined.

But what does our luckless crime-puncher find on the late-night kitchen counter in Wayne Manor?

Gary Frank/DC Comics

And that’s how we wind up with Rorschach eating pancakes in Wayne Manor.

Gary Frank/DC Comics

And a bit of tin foil, carried on an otherwise invisible draft of air, is what leads Rorschach to discover the door behind the grandfather clock that reveals the staircase down to the Batcave. As he wanders the cave, he muses about the stability of a man who would keep so many strange trophies — costumes, weapons, news clippings and artifacts. And then, naturally, he runs into the man himself.

Geoff Johns, Gary Frank/DC Comics

Probably not what all those fans have been imagining for so many years — but maybe that’s exactly the point.