Night Owl
Nite Owl is the name of two fictional characters in the comic book limited series Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons and published by DC Comics. They are modified versions of the various Blue Beetle characters created for Fox Feature Syndicate and later sold to Charlton Comics, with the second Nite Owl bearing certain similarities in appearance to Batman.
Publication information
Publisher DC Comics
First appearance Watchmen #1 (1986)
Created by Alan Moore (story) and Dave Gibbons (art), based on Blue Beetle, created by Steve Ditko
In story information
Alter ego - Hollis J. Mason
- Daniel Dreiberg
Team affiliations (Mason)
Minutemen
(Dreiberg)
Crimebusters
Partnerships (Dreiberg)
Rorschach
Notable aliases (Dreiberg)
Sam Hollis
Abilities (Dreiberg)
Has technical knowledge and employs several high-tech gadgets and weaponry, notably including a flying/submarine owl shaped ship (that he affectionately refers to as "Archie"). Good fighting prowess.
(Hollis)
Athlete-level strength, skilled hand-to-hand combatant
Fictional character history
Born in 1945, Daniel Dreiberg relied more upon technical wizardry and tools than toughness, which set him apart from his fellow costumed adventurers. Still, he has demonstrated more than adequate skills when defending himself. All of his gadgets and costumes are based on an owl theme. He uses an owl-shaped flying vehicle nicknamed the "Owlship" or "Archie" (Archimedes, after Merlin's pet owl), equipped with a variety of offensive and defensive devices, such as flamethrowers and "screechers" -devices capable of producing a sharp screech-like sound.
Dreiberg's father was a banker who left him a large inheritance, which he used to design and build his crime-fighting gear. Hollis Mason, the original Nite Owl, was his hero and when he retired, Dan wrote to Mason, asking if he could carry on his name. Upon looking at his gear, Mason was too impressed to refuse, and gave Dan the greenlight to start fighting crime in the 1960s. From then, the two men became friends, and met every Saturday at Hollis' house.
In 1965, Dreiberg (as Nite Owl) successfully debuted and teamed up with fellow costumed adventurer Rorschach to take on organized crime. Having already come to believe that his expensive activities were accomplishing little, Dreiberg retired after the passing of the Keene Act on August 3, 1977, although in 1985 (when the story takes place) he seems to regret his decision to give up crime fighting. Rorschach would later say regarding his retirement, "No staying power." When not fighting crime, Dreiberg mastered in aeronautics and zoology at Harvard University, contributing scholarly articles to ornithological journals after his retirement in 1977.
Watchmen Movie - Official Trailer
Personality
Like Hollis Mason before him, Dan Dreiberg was friendly, honest, and affable. Also like Hollis, he lacked psychological issues like the ones that tainted his colleagues. Dreiberg appears to have old fashioned tastes in music, preferring 1930-1940s Jazz to modern pop music. There is a vague suggestion that Dreiberg may have been sexually inexperienced before he became involved with Laurie Juspeczyk. Alternatively, he may have been impotent.
Events of Watchmen
Dreiberg becomes romantically entangled with the second Silk Spectre, Laurie Juspeczyk, after she leaves Doctor Manhattan. He returns to vigilantism along with her which began with a heartening night out in costume where they successfully save the occupants of a burning building. The excitement of aiding the residents awakens Dreiberg's sexual feelings for Laurie and the two make passionate love following the rescue. They later break Rorschach out of prison in an attempt to stop Ozymandias' scheme to "save the world from itself." Unfortunately, the freeing of Rorschach indirectly resulted in the murder of Hollis Mason, which Dan learned of only when he and Rorschach went to interrogate suspects. Upon learning of Mason's death, Dan becomes violent, attacking the informer and loudly swearing vengeance against Mason's killers with such ferocity that Rorschach, a notorious sociopathic killer, had to restrain him. In the end, Hollis' killers (the Knot Tops) were killed along with half of New York City by Ozymandias' plot.
Dan and Rorschach travel to Ozymandias' Antarctic fortress without Silk Spectre, as she had been teleported away by Doctor Manhattan. They battle and are swiftly defeated by Ozymandias, who reveals his plan to unleash a telepathic monstrosity on New York City that would expand massive psychic waves that would kill half the city. Dan expresses the desire to stop him and is told that the events already had happened well before the conversation itself. Millions are dead, and the world's nations agree to work together to combat this new 'threat'. Reluctantly, Dan and the returned Laurie agree to keep this secret.
Rorschach leaves anyway, attempting to take Dan's vehicle back to civilization and tell the world. Unseen by the others, Doctor Manhattan attempts to stop him, but Rorschach demands Doctor Manhattan kill him rather than live with keeping such villainy a secret, and Manhattan reluctantly complies. Dan and Laurie are offered hospitality by Ozymandias, which they accept.
They are seen in the conclusion of the story under their new identities of Sam and Sandra Hollis, making a brief visit to Laurie's mother.
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