Rorschach #1 preview begins with a bloody bang in the return of the Watchmen to DC

Check out the first pages of Rorschach #1 as Dr. Manhattan, Nite-Owl, Silk Spectre, Ozymandias, and the Comedian return

Update: Writer Tom King's Rorschach #1, which marks the beginning of the Watchmen character's new era at DC, goes on sale Tuesday, October 13.

DCcomics.com has a preview of the first issue of the 12-issue Black Label series. Check out the pages below. 

Original story follows

Writer Tom King and artist Jorge Fornes's upcoming Rorschach limited series won't just return the enigmatic vigilante with the malleable mask to print (or some version of him – this one isn't Walter Kovacs), it'll bring back the entire core cast of Watchmen, including Ozymandias, Comedian, Nite-Owl, Silk Spectre, and Dr. Manhattan – at least for a panel, seen above.

Revealed on Saturday during DC FanDome's 'Expansion of DC's Watchmen Universe' panel, moderator Damon Lindelof (also known as the showrunner of HBO's recent Watchmen sequel TV show) dug deep on the motivations and inspiration for King and Fornes's upcoming Rorschach limited series with the creators, ultimately revealing an image of the core cast, reunited.

It's interesting that the cast is assembled this way in these costumes, as these versions of the characters never appeared in one place in the original Watchmen series with Comedian having died by the time the others confronted Ozymandias, who stands with the heroes in his costume.

It's hard to say what this means about the timeline of the story – we know that Rorschach will feature a new version of its title hero with a different philosophical motivation and that the story takes place in a present-day version of the Watchmen universe. But with Dr. Manhattan in play, his quantum manipulation abilities may make anything, even time travel, possible.

As for that new version of Rorschach, we don't know much about him yet either – however, King did reveal that he's at the heart of a murder mystery around the death of the President of the United States, and that contrary to the original Rorschach who believed in the black-and-white interpretation of good and evil put forth by author Ayn Rand's philosophy of objectivism, this new Rorschach will base his beliefs on the community responsibility taught by author Hannah Arendt – a contemporary of Rand who had separate and in some cases opposite beliefs.

Rorschach #1 is due out October 13.

Given The Watchmen’s integration into the DC Universe in recent years, we may have to add the original series to our list of the best DC comic book stories of all time.