Spider-Man and the best contributions of Steve Ditko

Credit: DC Comics

3. Rorschach

Now I know what you are all thinking – Steve Ditko did not create Rorschach, Alan Moore did! And you are not mistaken at all. I ask you how many people know of Mr. A? A few may know of The Question from Justice League Unlimited or they know of his variations like Renee Montoya or that odd version we got in The New 52. Push that all to the side, without Mr. A or The Question, we do not have Rorschach!

Rorschach has the outspokenness and the faceless mask from The Question. From Mr. A, Rorschach borrows this hard black and white view of the world, with no gray whatsoever. There is good and there is evil, there is right and there is wrong, nothing in between. This was Steve Ditko’s outlook on the world. The two characters had no problem inflicting pain, killing or leaving criminals for dead. Rorschach contains this as well. Ditko even commented on the character that he’s like Mr. A ‘but insane.’  Watchmen itself is quite the masterpiece and holds up after all these years. It is interesting such a character still does as well, given he has no appearance anywhere else, unless you count the current things from DC Comics. Alan Moore believes because the character has this fierce sense of integrity.

The combined contributions of Mr. A and The Question gives us one of the all-time best characters. He shows up in many all-time best lists such as Wizard, Empire and IGN. May I note he ranks in these relatively high as well.