Nite Owl

Nite Owl
Promotional art for Before Watchmen: Nite Owl #1 Art by Andy Kubert and Joe Kubert.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Watchmen #1 (1986)
Created by	Alan Moore Dave Gibbons
In-story information
Alter ego	Hollis T. Mason Daniel Dreiberg
Team affiliations	(Mason) Minutemen (Dreiberg) Crimebusters
Partnerships	(Dreiberg) Rorschach
Notable aliases	(Dreiberg) Sam Hollis
Abilities	(Mason) Excellent athlete Skilled hand-to-hand combatant Good detective skills (Dreiberg) Genius-level intellect Wields and employs owl-themed gadgets and weaponry, including a flying/submarine owl shaped ship (that he affectionately refers to as "Archie") Great athlete and hand-to-hand combatant

Nite Owl is the name of two fictional superheroes in the comic book limited series Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons and published by DC Comics. The duo are modified analogues of the first two Blue Beetle characters (The second Nite Owl's background detail is created to parody Clark Kent) created for Fox Feature Syndicate and later sold to Charlton Comics. The second Nite Owl parodies the appearance of the iconic popular superhero Batman while the first parodies The Phantom. The second Nite Owl received a four-part miniseries as part of the Before Watchmen prequel franchise, and made it to number 115 on Wizard's Top 200 Comic Book Characters list.

Hollis T. Mason was the first Nite Owl. At the age of 12, his father left the family farm in Montana and moved to New York City, working at Moe Vernon's Auto Repairs.

Starting out as a New York City policeman in 1938, he was inspired by Action Comics' Superman and the real life exploits of Hooded Justice to take up the life of a vigilante. He was nicknamed "Nite Owl" for spending his evenings working out in the Police Gymnasiums as much as possible and going to bed at 9:00pm to rise for a 5:00am workout before donning his badge and uniform. His costume was designed to free his arms and legs while protecting his chest, abdomen and head with a tough leather tunic. With the tunic hiding his hair, a domino mask concealed his identity.