Character Spotlight: Nite Owl (I)

Every character deserves a Spotlight. A moment of appreciation, reflection, discussion…and in some cases rejection.

NITE OWL (I)

The first Nite Owl is a fantastic character, both within the grand Watchmen story and in his own right.

Alan Moore was given newly bought Charlton Comics character Blue Beetle to introduce into the DC Universe, but his rough draft was deemed too intense for DC to use outright, so DC gave him essentially a pocket universe to tell his story. As a result, Moore had to change everything about Blue Beetle and come up with a new character with a different name and appearance. When Moore was faced with this challenge, Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons told him of a character Gibbons created when he was fourteen named “Night Owl”, along with his drawing of the character. Moore loved it, and came up with the name Hollis Mason.

Moore’s use of Mason in Watchmen was to introduce superheroes in this world to readers in a relatable and realistic manner. Sure, Moore’s story took place in 1985, but costumed heroics began almost fifty years earlier – during Mason’s time. We learned why Mason got dressed up in the first place, where the name “Nite Owl” came from, and how the passage of time affected public opinion regarding his actions and those of his comrades.

And Moore did this through the use of excerpts from Mason’s autobiographical novel, which was never revealed in full.

The first time I read Mason’s words, I kept hearing Adam West’s voice in my head, and I’m sure I wasn’t alone. Hollis had that sense of nostalgic appreciation to heroics of the past that come up every time I saw a Batman re-run. Keep in mind Watchmen came out in 1986, and I first read it in 1988 - when there was talk of a new Batman movie being made - and West’s name kept popping up. He was first considered for the lead, then for a cameo as Thomas Wayne, and for the longest time fans and West himself felt that he should be somewhere in the movie because of his long-standing association with the character. It never happened, but there was a definite similarity between West and Mason – two older men retiring in obscurity, being replaced by the next generation of ‘hero’.

I read the first seven issues and thought it was a great story, but when I reached the last few pages of #8 I was furious. Mason’s death, in that manner, really drove home Moore’s intended message of expanding the potential of comic book storytelling to me. I was crushed. I was heart-broken. I almost gave up reading the rest of the story. My eyes were opened…and I hated it. Looking back, I realized it had to be done.

It just sucked balls.

Nite Owl (I) Part 6: Watchmen #8 (April, 1987)

Hollis faces his end...

I have this issue in the Watchmen trade.

Hollis gets back in touch with Sally. They talk about the events of the night before and how Nite Owl and Silk Spectre have returned to the spotlight. Later, as Hollis prepares for Halloween trick-or-treaters, local gang-bangers learn about the second Nite Owl’s involvement in Rorschach’s escape from prison. They mistakenly blame Hollis for Dan’s actions, and decide to teach him a lesson…by killing him.

Notes of Interest:
1) Based on his conversation with Sally, this is the first they’ve spoken to each other since the reunion at Sally’s in 1962.

2) I must have missed something. There’s obviously a moment when Sally mentions making a decision between extra analysis or aerobics that affects Hollis in some way, but I don’t understand how. A dig about his book maybe?

3) Another part I don’t get is where Hollis is carving the pumpkin. I assume when he says “Like Rodin, huh?” he’s referring to the sculptor, and the jack-o-lantern is the masterpiece, but beyond that I have no idea.

4) Talk about classic Moore storytelling…First, Moore had the gang confuse Nite Owl with Nite Owl II, even though their costumes were completely different and Hollis was significantly older - a depiction of mobs distorting facts in order to justify their actions. There’s the panel where the gang’s knocking at the door, and we see Hollis getting up from a chair facing a fireplace. Above the fireplace are the various pictures of himself with the Minutemen and other framed moments from his past - a testament to all the good deeds done over a lifetime. There’s the panel showing Nite Owl in his prime, fighting what looks like a gang of thugs, and smiling. Immediately on the next page is the panel showing Hollis in the present, bloody and battered fighting a gang of thugs, with the silhouette of his statue forming a mask over his face – a death mask. There’s the statue itself (given to him at his retirement party in gratitude of his career) being used as the murder weapon – showing how perceptions of heroism change. Finally, there’s the last panel, with the three children finding the body – innocence lost.

WTF? Moment: When I first read this issue in 1988 (I borrowed the trade from a friend), I wanted to scream at the page. Heroes shouldn’t die this way. It made me so mad I wanted to throw it away (which would have angered my friend) and never read the rest. But of course I had to read the rest, and eventually bought my own copy. Over time, and with many re-readings, I have learned to accept how and why Hollis had to die, but MAN does it suck.

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.

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…