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…