I surprised myself by having some kind words for the cover of Nite Owl #1. But I genuinely appreciated how the image looked cool like Batman at first glance, but then became rather silly the more you examined it. The same can be said for this joint pose of Nite Owl and Rorschach. You might initially think this was a neat, brooding cover, but if you look closer, you'll see just how awkward and unnatural both the characters are. And I think — at least I hope — that this was intentional. As the story will soon reveal, that whip actually belonged to a prostitute. I don't want to get too graphic here, but it looks like Nite Owl is getting a bit aroused by this and Rorschach is acting really stiff and uncomfortable. Maybe that's just me reading too much into it, but that's what I see. I also don't think it's a coincidence that Rorschach is looming over Nite Owl here. I'll get more into that later.
David Finch's variant doesn't do much for me. It's quite stiff and dull. I suppose Nite Owl's control stick is rather phallic, which would fit in more with this story's sexual nature. But I don't think Rorschach is making the right pose if that's what Finch was going for. Rorschach appears quite relaxed and even approving, which doesn't work for this potentially sexual innuendo. Neither does Nite Owl's expression. Maybe if he looked a little bit happier? Oh well, let's move on.
Our story begins with Nite Owl and Rorschach chasing a couple of criminals down an alleyway. The criminals split up, giving Rorschach a chance to comment on Nite Owl's left-leaning politics. Rorschach pursues his criminal to the right, while Nite Owl heads left. To his surprise, this takes him into a room where a nude prostitute has been working with a bound-and-gagged client. Equally surprising was how the prostitute knocked out the criminal cold.
She can tell Nite Owl is attracted to her, so she begins playfully flirting with him until Rorschach enters the room. He immediately calls her a whore and tries to attack the woman. Nite Owl defends her, actually throwing Rorschach across the room to get him to stop. He tries to apologize to his partner, but Rorschach brushes him off and leaves with the insinuation that Nite Owl will soon be one of the prostitute's clients.
The comic then takes an unexpected detour in Rorschach's life. He plops down in front of the TV, eating cold beans straight out of the can. A commercial for bras disturbs him, reminding him of his mother forcing him out of their apartment while she worked as a prostitute. And, yes, even as a child, he ate cold beans straight from the can.
Deep sigh!
I really hate it when writers make too big a deal out of something inconsequential — especially when they're inflating a detail from someone else's work. I had thought that Alan Moore was merely showing us Rorschach eating the beans because he was too hungry and insane to worry about comfort or hygiene. But that wasn't good enough for J. Michael Straczynski. No, the cans of beans needed a special significance. They remind Rorschach of his tortured childhood, a kind of perverse form of comfort food. OK, now that I'm done rolling my eyes, we can get back to the story.
Dan visits Hollis, who tells him the woman he met is actually the Twilight Lady, and he warns Dan to stay far away from her to preserve Nite Owl's reputation as a kid-friendly hero. Hollis bitterly says that you can't do anything "that might make you realize that an awful lot of your life was just a lie."
The next night, Rorschach doesn't join Nite Owl on patrol, as Walter Kovacs is attending a church meeting. The pastor likes to wave around a big sign that says "The End is Nigh" because, you know, there's no possible way for Rorschach to have come up with that sign all by himself. Anyway, the pastor's message is to "get louder" to compete with the sins of the world, and it resonates strongly with Walter, inspiring him to resume his activities as Rorschach.
He follows Nite Owl to the scene of a homicide. The police officer present is surprised to see Nite Owl there, as the victim was allegedly a prostitute. But Nite Owl takes a special interest in this case, as the victim's old bruises remind him of his mother being frequently beaten by her husband. Nite Owl quickly becomes irritated by the lack of concern shown by both the police officer and the landlord. Rorschach walks in, saying their attitude is unfortunately too common in cases like this. He shares the story of Kitty Genovese, the woman who was allegedly attacked for over an hour in front of 38 neighbors, who refused to call the police.
Rorschach's story fails to change the attitudes of the cop or the landlord, so Rorschach and Nite Owl leave the apartment. They quickly reconcile and Rorschach claims the Genovese story was what inspired him to become a superhero (a claim that would later be debunked by Malcolm Long).
We then get an extended flashback of Dan as a child. Apparently he got beaten up on a near-daily basis by schoolyard bullies because ... I don't know, he was a dweeb? Anyway, Dan's father was infuriated by his weakling son constantly being beaten, so Dan's mom taught him how to conceal his bruises with makeup and, more importantly, how to psychologically distance himself from the pain. She tells him to find something special to hold onto, a place deep inside himself where nobody can hurt him. Inspired by the news reports about Nite Owl, Dan bought a 50-cent mask and wore it to confront his bullies. They still beat the snot out of him, but now he's gained a sort of moral victory by refusing to outright surrender to them. I guess.
And then we bizarrely get a separate flashback of young Dan telling his mom one night that he overheard her and his dad talking about how they only got married because she was pregnant and there was a "disagreement" over what to do with the baby. But Dan couldn't tell which parent wanted to keep him, so he asked his mom point-blank who it was. She refuses to answer, only saying "it doesn't matter anymore."
We finally cut back to the present, where Nite Owl is remembering those words from his mom and the police officer saying "one more dead slut doesn't matter." He vows to himself that it does matter, so he pays a visit to the Twilight Lady.
Ugh!
Straczynski is driving me crazy! He clearly wishes he could have been writing a Rorschach comic instead. And I don't blame him — Rorschach is a much more compelling character than Nite Owl. But this is the one and only comic book miniseries dedicated to Nite Owl's origins, and Straczynski should have embraced the unique aspects of Nite Owl's character. Instead, he decided to make Nite Owl a watered-down version of Rorschach, complete with his own harrowing childhood overflowing with unnecessary melodrama. And when Straczynski wasn't doing that, he was sloppily retreading Rorschach's origin. I can't believe that the editors didn't step in and say, "Hey, leave the Rorschach stuff for Brian Azzarello — he's handling that miniseries."
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