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Ladies and gentlemen and others, I am back for another stint of blogs and I've honestly missed this place! But enough with the sentimentality, it's time to work on what you came for: the fights! The is a battle between "Coriolanus" or what he was formerly called Caius Martius and the "Faceless Vigilante" also known as Rorschach. Who will come out on top in this fight of Gritted Abandonment? Who will be the one to grit their teeth and stick it to the other? There can only be one! There can. Only. Be. ONE! LET THEM FIGHT!
Caius Martius Coriolanus[]
| “ | He that will give good words to thee will flatter beneath abhorring. What would you have, you curs that like nor peace nor war? The one affrights you, the other makes you proud. He that trusts to you where he should find you lions, finds you hares; where foxes, geese. Who deserves greatness, deserves your hate.
— Caius Martius Coriolanus
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In a place that calls itself Rome, Caius Martius was a proud Roman general who had served the great empire many times over and was given the name "Coriolanus" after leading the Roman armies to victory against his sworn enemy Tulius Affidius and the Volsces in the city of Corioles. Eventually because of his stubborn pride, inexperience in the political realm, and immaturity/introversion combined with his vocal and fierce contempt for the lower class, he was ousted and banished from the very city he had served and protected for so long. Feeling abandoned and betrayed by his allies, he aligned himself with his sworn enemies, Tulius and his Volsces and decided to focus his vengeance and anger toward Rome in which he truly took up the mantle of "Coriolanus" and forgotten the name he had been given when he was a babe.
Realizing that they've all made a grave mistake after their recent losses on the warpath led by the newly christened Coriolanus, in response they desperately tried to persuade him to end this conflict and sent in his close advisor, Meneius Agrippa and fellow comrade, General Cominius. Both failed in their attempts to stop his oncoming wrath. In one last attempt, they sent his wife, Virgilia, his son, Young Martius and his mother, Volmnia, to plead with him for peace. He wasn't swayed until his mother gave an impassioned speech about the ruin he'll bring not just to Rome, but more importantly to his family and their future and his honor. He's moved by this plea and returns to the great city for peace talks between the Volsces and the Romans.
While this deal was being struck, Tulius Aufidius, now filled with jealousy seeing all of the glory and praise being placed on his enemy's name, plotted with a band of Volsces to strip Coriolanus of his command and kill him. When he (Coriolanus) returned, he was once again met with hostility from the Volsces. Coriolanus berates and challenges the group that now surrounded him, to which they accept by attacking the Roman general. He killed a few of them, but the numbers were too great and he was killed in the process.
While the exact knife model is unknown, it doesn't matter too much. The combat knife here has a sharpened blade that's 6.75 in length and made to slash and stab any foe unable to defend themselves well enough.
The pistol has a 8 round magazine, shoots semi-automatically, 1,500 ft per second and has a range of 50 m. Another weapon that Martius has used in his military career to great effect. During his murdering rampage in the battle of Coriolies, when he runs out of bullets with his rifle, he will immediately switch to his pistol. This is not something to scoff at as he is more than capable of killing a couple of enemy soldiers with it.
This carbine is fitted with a M68 Aimpoint red dot scope, a 30 round magazine, gas-operated/full automatic, has a fire rate of 700-950 rounds per min and a range of 400 m. This is his main weapon. This is the weapon he's used in every conquest for Rome and extremely adept with it.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Militaristic Conditioning: This man has been put through the ringer and has got the scars to prove it. He's trained and transformed his body to be what his Empire has so long desired in their soldiers. He's put himself through rigorous training and is at a physical condition reminiscent of many soldiers apart of special forces today.
- Expert Combatant: Caius is more than capable using both firearms and in CQC. During the Battle of Coriolies, he was the one on the offensive and more than likely the sole reason as to why the Romans won the battle in the first place. He took the fight to his enemies without hesitation and eliminated them with ease. His Colt Model 933 is his extended arm and works just as well with his pistol at his side. In CQC, he was trained in Krav Maga and when face-to-face with his sworn enemy, Tulius Aufidius, who was a former Roman Soldier and well-experienced in his own right, he had him on the ropes during their short duel.
- Master Strategist: Martius has never lost a battle in his life as a commanding officer. He was often commended for his leadership and because of it, he was recommended by Meneius to run for consul. He can make quick and key decisions in the heat of battle and if necessary, will take measures by himself to ensure victory.
- Simmering Rage: During intense and heated moments, Caius is prone to outbursts of rage. When hardly any soldiers were brave enough to storm the house full of armed Volscian soldiers, he took it upon himself to clear the house to which he did successfully and with brutal ease. This wasn't before he scolded the soldiers in an insult-ridden rant as he often does when there is no battle occurring. This can also lead to his downfall as it is the reason as to why it is partially the reason he was banished in the first place.
Rorschach[]
| “ | This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout "Save us!"... and I'll look down and whisper "No."
— Rorschach/Walter Kovacs
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Rorschach, real name Walter Joseph Kovacs, was the son of Sylvia Kovacs, a prostitute, and an unknown father only known to Kovacs as "Charlie". His mother was frequently abusive and condescending towards him. He was eventually moved out of his mother's care and brought to the Lillian Charlton Home for Problem Children in New Jersey, where he rapidly seemed to improve, excelling at scholastics as well as gymnastics and amateur boxing. When he became sixteen Kovacs left the Charlton home and took a job as a garment worker in a dress shop. There he found a certain dress fabric that shifts black patterns depending on heat that he would later fashion into the mask he wears as Rorschach. Kovacs eventually disillusioned with the underlying apathy that he saw as inherent in most people when he read about the murder of Kitty Genovese and the unresponsiveness of her neighbors. Inspired by Genovese's murder, Kovacs returned home, made a mask out of the fabric and began fighting crime as the vigilante Rorschach.
Rorschach would leave criminals alive but bloodied, after investigating the kidnapping of a young girl named Blair Roche this changed, however. Rorschach discovered that the kidnapper, Gerald Grice, had killed the girl and had fed her remains to his dogs. This caused Rorschach to suffer from a psychotic breakdown and killed the dogs with a meat cleaver. When Grice returned to his sack, Rorschach handcuffed him to a stove, poured kerosene around, he then placed a hacksaw near Grice telling him that the only way to escape the fire would be to cut his own hand off.
When the Keene Act was passed in 1977 to outlaw vigilantes, Rorschach responded by killing a wanted serial rapist and leaving his body outside a police station with a note saying "Never!". By 1985 Rorschach was the only masked vigilante left that wasn't sponsored by the US government.
After the Comedian's death, Rorschach began to investigate and discovered that Ozymandius had killed him in the hopes of hiding his plan to fake an alien invasion in the hopes to give the United States and the Soviet Union a common enemy and prevent nuclear war. Though Rorschach and the other Watchmen failed to stop this plan, he did manage to reveal the truth to the world by sending his notebook to a newspaper publisher before being killed by Doctor Manhattan.
The cleaver weighs at 2.25 pounds and the length is at 7.5 inch. It is made for chopping things up and that's exactly what Rorschach does to some of his targets.
An improvised weapon Rorschach made during his getaway after being ambushed by the NYPD. He made short work of the squad trying to take him in.
This iron bar is made for prying doors open and nails off walls and the like. It can also be used to beat people down in scraps. It's 18 inches in length and weighs about 1.32 lbs.
This was gifted to him by Nite Owl II and you wouldn't see him go anywhere without it. It's gas-powered and with an extremely long cable, he's able to scale buildings with ease. He can also use it to deadly effect by shooting like you would any other firearm.
This handheld saw may require a plug in, but it gets the job done. It's meant to cut wood at an angle you can't get with a table saw, into dry walls, and removing grout or mortar for construction work. It can also cut through flesh and bone with ease.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Peak Human Condition: Throughout his career as a vigilante, Rorschach demonstrated immense strength, speed and reflexes that, coupled with his extreme tenacity, rendered him one of the most dangerous vigilantes of his era. In his youth, Rorschach excelled in physical activities such as gymnastics and boxing and during his days as a vigilante, was extremely capable and was quite frankly, ruthless and overwhelmingly fast. Even in the years after the Keene Act was passed, retained his great strength as well as brutal skill.
- High Pain Tolerance: Due to his mental instability, Rorschach is extremely stoic, as shown by his indifference to pain and discomfort. He even tolerated Antarctic temperatures while wearing only a trench coat over street clothes, without complaining or even commenting on the severe cold. During his arrest, Rorschach was able to jump from the window of Moloch's apartment and shake off the rough landing, only to go on to fight NYPD officers briefly before being overwhelmed.
- Master Combatant: Rorschach was a ruthless and blindingly fast self-taught combatant. This skill was apparent when he was a child, as he managed to beat up two childhood bullies, blinding one with a cigarette and biting the other in the cheek. At the children's home where he grew up, Rorschach excelled in boxing and this led to him being able to have an effective career in vigilantism, fighting numerous criminals with no known losses. During the Police Strike of 1977. Nite Owl mentioned how Rorschach was holding down the entire Lower East Side alone. These skills, along with his ruthless nature, made him feared in the criminal underworld
- Weapons Mastery: Rorschach's intelligence and prowess as a combatant grant him the ability to improvise weapons from common items. He tends to use otherwise harmless objects as improvised weapons, such as hair spray, pepper, cooking fat, electric wiring, clothing fabric and even a toilet to give himself an advantage in combat.
- Gifted Intellect: Despite his mental illness, Rorschach is known to be tactically proficient with the use of his surroundings, and also an impressive self-declared investigator. While going to school at the Charlton Home he excelled particularly in the subjects of literature and religious education. He is an incredibly deep thinker, constantly journaling his philosophies and opinions on the state of society in his journal.
- Expert Investigator: Rorschach was a peerless detective, being able to come up with a broad range of theories on people and draw elaborate conclusions from small bits of information. However, the accuracy of these conclusions is not always guaranteed, as his Mask Killer theory proved to be inaccurate. Rorschach's investigative prowess may be a result of his paranoia.
- Expert Lockpicker: He is also skilled at picking locks, as seen when he breaks into a cemetery to see The Comedians grave and pay his last respects. He also managed to break into Dan Dreiberg's apartment numerous times throughout the comic, even when Dreiberg purchased increasingly impregnable locks in accordance to each break in.
(All info is provided by the DC and Watchmen Wikis)
X-Factors[]
Experience: War-Hardened General vs Cleaning Up the Streets
Caius Martius has trained physically his adult life for combat. He lives and breathes it. It's the only thing he knows how to do right. He's a soldier through-and-through. He has fought and bled for Rome and faced all kinds of foes equipped with all kinds of weapons and helped conquer them all. He's prepared for almost anything thrown at him.
Rorschach, while not as familiar fighting in the field of battle like his opponent, he's also fought almost all of his life. To fighting his bullies when he was an adolescent child to fighting off street thugs during his time as a Watchmen when they were active. But even when superhero vigilantism became illegal, he never stopped fighting and cleaning up the streets. He created a name for himself and gained a reputation of one that is feared by all. He's faced all kinds of foes: common street thugs, large goons, NYPD Swat teams, supervillains and even his own teammates in the incredibly intelligent Ozymandias, who's an extremely difficult foe in his own right.
Durability: The Scars Tell the Story vs Indomitable Will
As I've said before, Martius has been put through hell. He's survived many battle, won them too, but his body tells the story. His body's the canvas, the toll it's taken on him have become the words, the blood he lost became the ink and the scars left are now the punctuation. They paint the picture. They cover his body and you can see some of them on his face as well. Nothing is safe. Yet, he keeps trucking along like nothing's happened. His adrenaline keeps him going.
Rorschach is one tough son-of-a-b***h. He just won't go down. It's not in his nature. It's been built up overtime through the abuse from his mother and the men she's spent time with, his bullies, and the foes he faces. When he was being restrained in prison, he took a hit from a night stick to the gut, one that put any ordinary man down for the count and shook it off like it was nothing. He has a high pain tolerance and was slightly annoyed by the icy cold temperatures in Antarctica. He went toe-to-toe with Ozymandias and couldn't stay down after being knocked around and launched into concrete pillars.
Brutality: No-Nonsense Soldier vs "Justified" Vigilantism
Caius is a soldier. He'll do whatever it takes to win. It doesn't matter to him how many bodies he has to shoot to get the job done. It doesn't matter if he fills a body with lead or shoots a hostile many times in the head to emphasize a point. He'll do what he has to do.
Walter Kovacs had always been a reflection of what society dealt him. It was ugly and cruel, so he became ugly and cruel. The bullies beat him down and it ate away at him, so he paid them back in kind with a beat down of their own and took a piece of their cheeks with him. He's dropped people down elevator shafts after getting info or when he got sick of them. He's chopped up a child murderer with a meat cleaver as repayment to what he did to a little girl. He's beaten people to bloody pulps to get what he wants. Soon all of this killed another person too: Walter Kovacs. He became Rorschach.
Intelligence: A Calculating Leader vs An Intense Investigative Journalist
Caius Martius is an experienced strategist. He's one that can pick apart his enemies piece by piece and pull his troops to victory. He hasn't lost a battle that he's led his soldiers ever and all he knows is war and combat. He has the combat expertise in spades, but he lacks almost everything else because outside of that, he isn't exactly a people-person. He's not great with the political aspect of his career and isn't exactly liked by everyone.
Rorschach, while not being a people-person as well, has a pretty good idea of how people work. More specifically, the people he surrounds himself with. He can hide in plain sight and spy on anyone because no one knows what he looks like under the mask. He was able to figure out Ozymandias' plan without much help and knew he was going to die that very day, so he sent in his journal which would reveal a secret that would've died with him had he not done so. He's been described by Nite Owl II as "tactically brilliant and unpredictable". He's very intuitive and crafty as he can often make improvised weapons out of anything from a hair dryer to cooking fat.
Mental Stability: A Prideful and Raging Man vs a Paranoid and Abused Conspirator
Caius Martius can be prone to rageful outbursts as I stated before. In the heat of the moment, he lashes out, most of the time, verbally with scathing remarks. Other times, it can be physical. He's also very prideful and this can hinder his ability to make the right judgement call and has hindered his political career more often than not.
Rorschach didn't have the best childhood. He was abused by his mother and her partners, affecting how he views women. He calls them most of them "wh*res". And because he was abused, it's more than likely that he's been traumatized and it helped mold him to who he is now. After The Watchmen was disbanded, he isolated himself from everyone else and he went down the rabbit hole of conspiracy. He became a paranoid conspirator leading to a lot of distrust between him and his former teammates while losing a lot of his humanity along the way. Ozymandias describes him to be a "true sociopath" and this is reflected in how he deals justice.
Rorschach caught wind of a dictatorship that's sprung up in "a place that calls itself Rome" with a man called Caius Martius Coriolanus possibly heading this martial government. He's packed his bags and gone undercover studying the city. He notes the mistreatment that's being caused to its citizens and wants to put a stop to it, but waits to see any more corruption is going on. After "investigating" a little bit more, he hears that the "Roman Empire" wants to expand and he realizes its now imperative to stop the general as soon as possible. But little does Rorschach know about his "investigations" are causing too much noise and Martius lays a trap for the vigilante. Not something that would kill him on the spot, but instead will lead Coriolanus to his hideout so that this whole ordeal can come to an end quietly. Rorschach falls into it and before he can realize what it is, Caius and his men have already surrounded the abandoned two-story house. In response, Rorschach prepares some weapons of his own and lies in wait for the soldiers to barge in.
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