University of Panels

24: Nite Owl I

(Hollis Mason)

 

Alan Moore's WATCHMEN is one of my favorite comics of all-time. It's in my top five in fact. A primary reason for this is because of the deep psychological profiles that the characters possess. While you'll see many of them on this list, I will say that out of all the Crimebusters, Nite Owl is probably my least favorite. It's not that I hate him, as he is a genuinely good character, and I adore his romance with the silk Spectre. But in terms of being psychologically complex however, ehh... it wasn't as developed as the treatment the other characters had recieved. His predecessor Hollis Mason, the first Nite Owl on the other hand was particularly fascinating. 

 

One of the first of the Minutemen, Hollis fought crime throughout the early 30's and 40's. But the most interesting things about him transpire after his crime fighting career, where he is now retired and wrote the best selling "Under the Hood" which told the secrets of superhero life from his perspective. This gives Mason a layer of depth that is unfamiliar to most superheroes, as his greatest contributions to the community were not his superhero activities, but how they impacted him after retirement.