Nite Owl (I) Part 5: Watchmen #9 (May, 1987)

This is technically out of sequence in terms of the reading order of Watchmen, but I’m putting this issue here because it takes place before Hollis’ death.

I have this issue in the Watchmen trade.

We see Hollis at a Minutemen reunion party in 1962, just after Under The Hood is published, as Laurie’s origin is explained.

Notes of Interest:
1) Hollis appears here in one of Laurie’s memories from when she was thirteen.

2) It’s established that Hollis kept in touch with Sally up to this point, because he’s known Laurie for a while.

3) He gets into a small argument with Sally - who isn’t too happy about what he wrote in Under The Hood.

4) In the prose piece at the back if the issue, we learn that in his autobiography, Hollis alleged that she was sexually assaulted by The Comedian.

WTF? Moment: We often see Hollis with a drink of some kind in his hands, and this issue is no exception. There’s no indication that he gets drunk, however, and that bothers me. There could have been something there, either a liver problem or an incident resulting from being overly intoxicated. Something that explored how drinking may have been his way of dealing with the evils of the time, and how it eventually caught up with him.

Nite Owl (I) Part 4: Watchmen #4 (December, 1986)

Hollis faces his retirement, and change…

I have this issue in the Watchmen trade.

We witness both times Hollis interacts with Dr. Manhattan. The first is in June, 1960 at a benefit event for the Red Cross. They’re both at the event, but we don’t see them talking. Their second meeting is in May, 1962 at Hollis’ retirement party. Hollis reveals that since things have changed in the crime fighting business, he plans to fix cars, and Dr. Manhattan has a few choice words about that.

Notes of Interest:
1) Hollis mentioned first meeting Dr. Manhattan at the benefit in his Under The Hood comments from Watchmen #3, calling it a turning point in his career.

2) Thanks to Dr. Manhattan, Hollis felt obsolete in two ways – as a costumed hero getting too old to continue fighting crime, and as a mechanic fixing cars that will no longer be made.

3) Hollis’ entire world came crashing down when Dr. Manhattan arrived. What’s interesting is that Moore could have made Hollis turn evil and plot to destroy Jon, or go batshit insane and end up in a padded room next to Mothman or simply say ‘to hell with it’ and commit suicide. Instead, Hollis writes his novel (giving us great insight to the Watchmen universe), does his mechanic thing (as much as possible), and lives somewhat vicariously through the activities of his unintentional successor.

4) Hollis, of all the characters in this story, is the one guy I’d want to hang out with, listening to his stories over beers, and I think that was Moore’s intention: to present someone readers could identify with as the ‘average guy’ who just wanted to be a super-hero, did it, and got out just as everything got (more) crazy.

WTF? Moment: Hollis was 45 years old when he retired, and a rather intelligent man. There’s no reason (aside for the plot points mentioned above) that he couldn’t have gone back to school to upgrade his mechanic skills for the new technology. Electric cars are different, but they still break down.

Nite Owl (I) Part 3: Watchmen #3 (November, 1986)

This is the last issue of the series to feature bits from Under The Hood, and it deals with Hollis’ activities in the 1950’s after The Minutemen disbanded.

I have this issue in the Watchmen trade.

Hollis has a brief appearance this issue, where he’s at home watching Dr. Manhattan’s press conference. Dan stops by, and Hollis tells him about it. In the excerpts from Under The Hood, Hollis discusses the reasons behind his eventual retirement as the first Nite Owl.

Notes of Interest:
1) Hollis was forced to reveal his secret identity during the McCarthy era, but it didn’t affect him much due to his NYPD service record.

2) Costumed villains practically vanished in the fifties, replaced by drug runners and pimps.

3) After the arrival of Dr. Manhattan, Hollis realized that the world is changing, and his type of costumed hero was becoming obsolete.

4) Hollis met both Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias at a charity event in June, 1960. At 46 years old, he decided that it was time to start thinking about retirement – both from the police force, and as Nite Owl.

5) He formally retired in May, 1962, and kept in touch with Sally over the years.

6) Hollis was contacted by a fan asking his permission to use the name Nite Owl as a successor in crime fighting. After visiting the stranger’s house and seeing the technology that was to be used, Hollis said yes.

WTF? Moment: Having Under The Hood published in 1962 gives us a great snapshot of how Hollis saw the world up to that point, but why couldn’t there have been something like an addendum for the later part of that decade and into the seventies? I wonder if his opinion of Dr. Manhattan changed after Apollo 11 landed on the moon, or if he re-evaluated his view of The Comedian after Kennedy’s assassination.

My Thoughts On Thor...The Movie

I saw Iron Man 2 last week (which is FANTASTIC by the way), and know how Marvel managed to connect it with Thor, the next installment of the Marvel Movie Universe.

Here’s my question: How will Marvel connect Thor with the previous two movies (Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk)?

Here’s my answer…

The explosion of the Arc Reactor – which was a unique achievement that has never existed before, and therefore no one could predict the ramifications of its detonation – was somehow noticed by the gods of Asgard. Either it woke them out of some form of suspended animation, or brought them back into existence, or just made them aware of the power humans now have and they feel threatened. This would cause some of the gods, most likely Tyr and Loki, to want to attack humanity in self defense. They would enlist the Frost Giants, Dark Elves, trolls and others as their army. Other Asgardians, including Odin, Thor, Balder, Sif, Valkyrie and the Warriors Three, would try to stop them, believing that humanity should be left alone. The resulting battle, with humanity at stake, causes the tremendous storm we see in The Incredible Hulk.

But how does this explain the presence of Thor’s hammer at the end of Iron Man 2?

Instead of Odin sending Thor to Earth to learn humility (as it was in the comics), Thor winds up on Earth during the battle, and forgets everything about his Asgardian self. It could be from an injury, or it could be from a spell cast on him by Loki. While the rest of the movie deals with Thor recovering from the injury/spell and rediscovering himself, the battle ends with Loki’s forces victorious, and preparing to invade Earth…

Now I have to figure out how to connect this with the Captain America movie.

Nite Owl (I) Part 2: Watchmen #2 (October, 1986)

Here, we learn more about Hollis’ time with The Minutemen, with the real 'meat and potatoes' of the character explained in the Under the Hood excerpts.

I have this issue in the Watchmen trade.

While this issue focuses on The Comedian, Hollis makes an appearance in a flashback sequence. In October of 1940, we see Hollis (as Nite Owl) paying a photographer for eight copies of the first (?) official photo of The Minutemen. In the excerpts, Hollis explains how he came up with the name and look for Nite Owl, his methods of fighting crime and his perspective on the creation of The Minutemen.

Notes of Interest:
1) I’ve spent time in my youth fantasizing putting on a costume and fighting bad guys. Moore’s use of the excerpts in this issue brought reality to that. One of the many things Moore was trying to express with Watchmen was that the superhero genre in comics can be grounded in reality and make for great storytelling. Marvel and DC didn’t get that for over ten years, but The Ultimates, Astro City, The Authority and Identity Crisis are direct descendents of Watchmen, and proof that Moore was right.

2) Within the flashback to 1940, Hollis had no idea what happened after the photoshoot. In his autobiography, it’s clear that he found out later.

3) We learn that The Minutemen lasted roughly ten years - from the fall of 1939 to sometime in 1949 – and Hollis stayed with the group until they disbanded.

4) Hollis comes across as a regular guy, the most ‘normal’ of The Minutemen, with the least amount of personal issues regarding society, race, gender or sexual orientation.

5) While never the official leader of the team, Hollis was the spirit of the group, and got along with most of the others despite being all too aware of their shortcomings.

WTF? Moment: My one gripe with the series in general is that there’s no moment where The Minutemen worked together as a team. Not even a simple fight with just Hollis and Sally Jupiter going against a group of thugs – a nod to the fight later on with Dan and Laurie, or a battle where Eddie shows his darker tendencies and Hollis’ reaction to that. Heck – I’d love to have seen Hollis’ reaction to what Eddie did after the photoshoot. I haven’t read Absolute Watchmen, so I have no idea if Moore ever planned to include something like that, but I would have liked it, and it would have worked in this issue.

Nite Owl (I) Part 1: Watchmen #1 (September, 1986)

When Alan Moore began working on Watchmen, he used Charlton Comics characters recently purchased by DC in order to incorporate them into mainstream DC continuity. The powers that be nixed that idea, so Moore, along with artist Dave Gibbons, created new characters for the story which ended up in its own separate universe. The first Nite Owl, Hollis Mason, was based on Dan Garret – the original Blue Beetle. The year is 1985, and Hollis has been retired from fighting crime for 23 years. He started out as Nite Owl in 1939, following Superman’s first appearance in Action Comics and Hooded Justice’s first sightings. Prior to that, Mason was a graduate of the New York Police Academy, and as a boy he worked at a local auto repair shop with his father. In 1962, Hollis wrote his autobiography Under the Hood, in which he describes his motivations behind becoming a masked adventurer, his relationships with other heroes and his time as a member of the Minutemen.

I have this issue in the Watchmen trade.

The first time we meet Hollis Mason, he’s shooting the shit with his Nite Owl successor Dan Dreiberg. Mason tells a story about confronting old nemesis Screaming Skull…in a grocery store.

Notes of Interest:
1) To my knowledge, this is the first time Moore incorporated prose in his comic book storytelling, a staple in his later League of Extraordinary Gentlemen work. In this issue, he includes the first two chapters of Hollis’ autobiography.

2) A lot has happened to this timeline before the story begins, including the passing of a law in 1977 that made costumed crime fighting a crime.

3) Through Hollis’ book excerpts, we learn that (by 1938 at least) DC Comics existed, and Superman, The Shadow and Doc Savage were fictional characters. We also see what motivated Hollis into becoming a costumed crime fighter.

4) I find it funny that Hollis’ dog is named Phantom, that it is mentioned by name in the same panel we first see Hollis’s face in costume, and that Hollis - as Nite Owl - kinda looks like Lee Falk’s Phantom.

5) Hollis was born in 1917, which makes him 68 years old in 1985, and he’s in pretty good shape considering he drinks and smokes.

WTF? Moment: I have a hard enough time keeping in touch with friends I had in high school let alone people I didn’t like. So why would Hollis trade phone numbers with someone he repeatedly put in jail? Sure, Screaming Skull may have reformed and found Jesus, but still…

Firefly – The Series (2002)

Synopsis: Sometime in the future, humans colonize other galaxies. Space travel is commonplace. The ruling (Empire) government is The Alliance, and (Rebels) Browncoats fight for independence…and lose. Former Browncoat Sergeant (Han Solo) Malcom Reynolds thumbs his nose at The Alliance by captaining Serenity, a Firefly-class vessel known for salvaging and looting Alliance property. Along for the ride are his First Officer Zoe, pilot Wash, engineer Kaylee, hired gun Jayne and companion Inara. New to the crew are Shepherd Book, Doctor Simon Tam and his sister River. All three have secrets in their past that involve The Alliance. Come to think of it – everyone on Serenity has a skeleton or two in their closets…except maybe Kaylee. The series revolves around Reynolds and his crew dealing with The Alliance and other unsavory types of scoundrel that exist throughout the ‘verse.

Comments: I’m not a huge Joss Whedon fan. I never liked Dollhouse, thought Dr. Horrible was okay, couldn’t get into Angel and thought the Buffy movie was better than the series.

Needless to say, I’m in the minority.

My wife discovered it first. She grew up watching John Wayne westerns with her dad, and she fell in love with it. She described it to me as a “Space Western”, and my mind went to some lame-ass 80’s cartoon I remember seeing that had sheriffs riding space horses. I gave it a try, and am now squarely on the Whedon bandwagon.

This show had nine characters, ten if you count the ship – which Whedon did – and they all worked. Every one of them was fully developed, with rich backstory, despite having clichéd stereotypes: The Captain, The First Officer, The Hired Gun, The Engineer, The Pilot, The Doctor, The Counselor, The Priest and The Patient.

Whedon turned those clichés on their ears. The Captain had a fire in his eyes that went out after losing the war, and was slowly getting it back. The First Officer – a woman by the way – was married to The Pilot, who ran away from a fight when he had a choice. The Hired Gun couldn’t be trusted. The Engineer was a naive young woman who had never been in space before. The Counselor was a highly respected prostitute. The Priest used to be high ranking Alliance officer, and The Doctor was wanted by The Alliance for breaking his sister, The Patient, out of a mental hospital.

What amazed me most is how well the cast got along. They felt like a family…the way the cast of ST:TNG did after seven years together…only these people were together seven months.

And the cinematography!

The constant zooming in and out of focus, the ‘realistic’ look, and the total lack of sound in space!

Did you see the latest Star Trek movie? Did you love the shaky cam work? The flares made by all the lights and the realistic grit under The Federation’s fingernails? How Kirk, Spock and the rest were not nicey-nice all the time?

That all worked because Joss did them first…on this show.

It’s a tragedy that the series lasted 14 episodes, and only 11 even aired!

Adorkable Moment: Joss Whedon is, hands down, the best writer of women characters. He should have been allowed to make his Wonder Woman movie by D.C./Warner Brothers, but was denied. Marvel smartened up and signed him on to do the Avengers movie - an ensemble cast of fully-developed male and female characters. I can’t wait.

Elektra Part 14: Daredevil #190 (Jan, 1983)

Elektra is wanted by more than just Matt in this, her final appearance in my collection…

Believe it or not I actually have this issue, but I also have it in the Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller Vol. 3 trade.

The issue begins in the past, sometime after Elektra left Matt and Columbia University behind her. She’s in the middle of nowhere, during a snowstorm, looking for The Chaste – a secret group of ninjas led by Stick, who taught Matt how to use is radar-sense. She attempts to climb the mountain where The Chaste resides and falls. They find her, and Elektra stays with them for a year until Stick realizes that her hatred makes her unworthy of completing her training. He kicks her out, and Elektra returns to her old sensei. He tells her that there are other goals in life to strive for, but she is adamant in proving herself to Stick, and decides to join the enemy – The Hand – in order to fight them from within. The Hand captures her, and they have her fight and kill another to prove herself worthy of joining them. Elektra wins, but she learns that her opponent was her old sensei, and Elektra doubts she’ll ever earn her place with The Chaste again. Back in the present, Elektra’s body is dug up (again) by The Hand as part of a plan to bring her back to life so she can kill Stone, the last surviving member of The Chaste. Daredevil, Black Widow and Stone follow The Hand to an abandoned church, where they try to stop the ceremony. Matt, however, hears a heartbeat, and compelled by his love for Elektra, he uses his own life energy to complete the resurrection. He fails to revive her, but Stone discovers that Matt’s efforts purified her soul. The church caught fire during the battle, and Stone is left inside with Elektra’s body. Daredevil and Black Widow re-enter the church looking for Stone, but he’s gone…and so is Elektra’s body. The issue ends with Elektra, alive and pure of spirit, reaching the top of The Chaste’s mountain wearing a white version of her red costume.

Notes of Interest:
1) Miller uses third person narrative (again) to explain what Elektra’s thinking, the idea being that Elektra and Daredevil are forever apart, free to live separate lives.

2) Although it’s never stated, it was Stone who finally revived Elektra, at the cost of his own life.

3) It would have been cool to see her revive The Chaste and train new recruits but…oh well.

WTF? Moment: I know this is nit-picking, but how did Elektra’s winter parka change color once she reached the mountaintop?

Elektra Part 13: Daredevil #182 (May, 1982)

Elektra doesn’t make an appearance here, her corpse does. And no, the ‘z’-word doesn’t apply…

I have this story in the Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller Vol. 2 trade.

Elektra’s body is dug up on the last page in a superb effort by Miller to prove to all that she is in fact dead after teasing readers, and Matt, all issue long.

Notes of Interest:
1) In the “Born Again” storyline (another masterpiece by Miller), Kingpin mentions that Daredevil’s psyche has been disturbed for some time. This issue explains the cause.

2) I’ve never read Elektra: Assassin but Elektra uses some sort of mental powers in that story she never had before. I guess you could argue that this issue establishes those powers. But I don’t count Assassin as canon, so Matt’s just losing it.

3) Since this takes place after What If? #35, it could be said that Uatu’s to blame for Matt’s behavior.

WTF? Moment: I know Matt loved Elektra but…touching her dead face with his bare hands? Ewww.

WTF? Moment #2: Foggy is a true friend. He finds Matt in a graveyard in the middle of the night, kneeling next to Elektra’s open casket, and doesn’t even question how his blind partner got there or did that – all by himself.

Worst. Comic. Book. Movie. Ever.

I submitted this to The Rotten Tomato Show when they asked for opinions for the worst comic book movie.

It never went anywhere, but here it is. Enjoy.

Elektra Part 12: What If? #35 (October, 1982)

I love this series. Always have. It’s a great concept even though I admit not every story’s a winner. I’m including this issue as Elektra’s twelfth appearance because it shows how her life would have ended had she lived…

I have this story in the Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller Vol. 3 trade.

Bullseye is killed during his prison break (from Daredevil #181), which prevents him from killing Elektra after letting Foggy Nelson go. Aware that Kingpin won’t be too happy about Nelson being alive, Elektra prepares to leave the country. She’s attacked outside her apartment, and kills at least three men before she’s shot and surrounded. Matt finds her, alive but bleeding, in his brownstone. He threatens to take her in, and she explains that in prison, Kingpin would see to her death. Elektra winds up spending the rest of her life on a beach somewhere, with Matt, half a world away.

Notes of Interest:
1) I like how this takes place immediately after Daredevil #181, with Uatu approaching Matt as he’s standing over Elektra’s grave. This is why I’m counting this as her twelfth appearance, even though it came out six months later.

2) Allowing any creative team access to any pivotal moment in Earth- 616 history can be dicey, because different people steer storylines in different directions. Frank Miller wrote this story, which gives it credibility, and shows us where Miller could have gone with the character.

3) I wish we saw more of this timeline, because you know Kingpin wouldn’t stop looking for her…

WTF? Moment: Why would Foggy go to Matt instead of the police? Because he’s all freaked out from almost being killed? Because Matt’s the first person he thought of after recognizing Elektra? I always assumed he hid under a rock or something until he got hungry again. But that asks the question – did Foggy go to Matt’s place in the original timeline?

Elektra Part 11: Daredevil #181 (April, 1982)

This is it. The BIG one. No. Really.

I have this story in the Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller Vol. 2 trade.

Elektra succeeds in acquiring her target – Franklin Nelson. She takes him into a parking garage and prepares to kill him when he recognizes her, and refers to her as “Matt’s girl”. She lets him go, and she’s attacked by Bullseye. They fight, and she gets several good shots in, but he wins by stabbing her with her own sai. She lives, making her way to Matt’s brownstone, where she dies in his arms. Her death is confirmed by the city coroner, and is buried by issue’s end.

Notes of Interest:
1) I’m not sure, but I think that’s Elektra in the courtroom, sitting behind Bullseye, as Matt closes the case.

2) It was Miller’s decision to have Elektra die. Guess he felt Matt needed more suffering in his life.

3) Elektra’s death solidified the hatred between Daredevil and Bullseye. It’s a very emotional moment. Quite a memorable one. Hard to believe it’s all of eight pages long in the middle of a 38 page story.

WTF? Moment: I’d like to think Foggy would’ve notice an attractive woman dressed in red driving a cab before getting in, but it is New York, and it is Foggy…

WTF? Moment #2: I’m still fuzzy regarding Elektra’s feelings towards Matt. If she loved him, why’d she appear to care less about him? If she hated him, why go to him while she was dying?

WTF? Moment #3: Why did Elektra let Foggy go in the first place? Did she have a moment of weakness when he mentioned Matt? Was that the moment she remembered him from her time at Columbia University?

Elektra Part 10: Daredevil #180 (March, 1982)

Elektra wins her boss’ admiration, and gets a new target...

I have this story in the Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller Vol. 2 trade.

Cherryh wins the election, and Kingpin acknowledges Elektra’s contribution to that by keeping her on the payroll. However, Daredevil forces Kingpin to have Cherryh resign soon after, and Kingpin gives her a new target in retaliation…Franklin Nelson.

Notes of Interest:
1) Elektra is in all of five panels this issue. Six if you include her hand.

2) The way she holds the picture in that last panel, you’d expect it to burst into flames any moment.

3) We see her face when she gets the picture of her new target, and it is so apathetic. There’s no way to tell who’s in the picture.

4) Once again, no dialogue!

WTF? Moment: What is with Miller’s lack of dialogue with this character? Most of the time he includes narration about her, rather than have the character do the narration herself – which he lets his characters do in Sin City.