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In General
- Ascended Extra: While an important part of Watchmen backstory, it was more focused on their Crimebusters' successors. Here they even have a team of Legacy Characters.
- Badass Crew: Deconstructed. The Minutemen, while they can fight well, they are also very dysfunctional, and their relationships to each other varies from respect to apathy to outright hatred.
- Badass Normal: Unlike the Crimebusters, they were all normal humans.
- Breaking the Fellowship: After Silhouette is murdered and her death is avenged, the Minutemen break up. With many of its members either retiring or dying.
- The Cape: Deconstructed. Most of the Minutemen, despite their good intentions, included bigots, glory hounds and even an attempted rapist among their members.
- Celebrity Superhero: Many of them got into heroism more for the publicity than helping people. Dollar Bill got a movie franchise and Silk Spectre got a snuff film. Silhouette even became an LGBT and feminism symbol in the 21st century.
- Composite Character: They take traits from the original comic, movie, and the Before Watchmen comics.
- Double Standard: Silhouette is kicked out of the Minutemen after being exposed as a lesbian. Two of the male members of the team were also homosexual, but did not ever get called out for this, presumably because their relationship was never made public.
- Dwindling Party: Starting with the death of Silhouette, the Minutemen slowly drop like flies, with everyone but Sally and Byron being murdered or dying in an accident.
- Legacy Character: They seem to have inspired a series of successors who have taken on their old identities, but if they're canon characters or OC's, it's unknown for now.
- Nazi Hunter: As the were created during WWII, they were often recruited to fight Nazis and Nazi sympathizers. One of their enemies is called Captain Axis.
- Posthumous Character: Many of them were already dead by the time of the Manhattaning, and by the modern day it is very unlikely any of them remain alive.
- Precursor Hero: They are the predecessors of the Crimebusters, who are the predecessors of nearly all heroes who came after.
- Slave to PR: They were forced by Laurence to not deal with crimes like child trafficking because it wasn't "cheerful enough".
- Two Girls to a Team: Silhouette and Silk Spectre were the only two females of the original Minutemen.
Original Members
Captain Metropolis (Nelson Gardner)
A former Marine who applied his knowledge of military strategy to crime-fighting. A very insecure and nervous person. Remained active until 1974, when he was decapitated in a car crash.
- Authority in Name Only: By the time he created the Crimebusters, he was too out of shape and practice to be an effective leader, forcing his second-in-command Ozymandias to step up as the true leader.
- Blackmail: It has been suggested that Nelson received high-marks in the military without promoting due to blackmailing key officers, perhaps by seducing them and then threatening to expose their affair. It has also been suggested that he used similar ploys to secure military contracts to acquire his fortune.
- Boomerang Bigot: Was very conservative and reactionary like many white Americans of the 1950s...in spite of the fact that his being gay would be detested by such a group. He voted Ursula Zandt out of the Minutemen for having been revealed to the public as a lesbian as well.
- Broken Ace: In his prime, he was a confident leader and an ideal hero, being handsome, intelligent, charismatic and a skilled fighter and tactician. He was also a neurotic mess who was tortured by internalized homophobia and keeping his sexuality a secret and had to see his dream of heroes changing the world for the better die before him.
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": An "M" on his chest, though its significantly more subtle than most examples.
- The Cape: Of all the characters, both first generation and second, he is one of the least cynical. To the point of Deconstruction, actually, as he naively believed that superheroes and teams could be a force for positive social change, when most people regarded them as fad celebrities at best. His idea of positive social change is also a bit reactionary, to say the least.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Bigotry aside, he did genuinely want to help people."Please! Don't all leave...Somebody has to do it, don't you see? Somebody has to save the world..."
- Determinator: Deconstructed. Continued attempting to uphold justice as a masked crimefighter well into middle-age, long after the other surviving Minutemen had retired after acknowledging their obsolescence or, in the Comedian's case, allowed cynicism to crush their pretensions of being a hero. While his doing this is presented as being admirable to a degree, it's mostly used to emphasize how ineffectual trying to be a superhero is at resolving the world's problems.
- Did Not Think This Through: The massive societal and political problems of The '60s are not going to be affected by some superheroes dressing up and taking on a supervillain, as the Comedian points out to him.
- Glory Days: Part of the reason he formed the Crimebusters was to recapture the glory of the Minutemen.
- Hauled Before A Senate Subcommittee: Was forced to testify and reveal his true identity to the HUAC. Thanks to his military record, he was cleared almost immediately.
- Heroic Build: In his day. Toward the end of his career, he went to seed.
- Hide Your Gays: Because of the prejudices of the time, his relationship with Hooded Justice remained ambiguous, although it is very likely they were a thing.
- The Leader: Was implicitly this for the Minutemen, being the one responsible for uniting them in the first place as well as the only one among them with the strategic knowhow to coordinate a team. By the time he attempted to form the Crimebusters, though, he had long since decayed to the point of being a Leader Wannabe.
- Military Superhero: He was in the Marines which is where he learned both his combat skills and tactical skills.
- Never Found the Body: It has been proposed that Nelson did not die in his car accident and used a body double to feign his death. The order to have his body cremated prevents any scientific dispelling of this theory.
- Noble Bigot with a Badge: Racist and hidebound, but he means well enough.
- Non-Indicative Name: In spite of taking the name Captain Metropolis, he was actually only a Lieutenant when he was in the Marines. Of course, "Lieutenant Metropolis" doesn't sound as catchy.
- Posthumous Character: Died in a car accident where he ended up decapitated.
- Primary-Color Champion: His outfit was mostly red and blue.
- Related in the Adaptation: His brother Lance Gardner is a dancer and model from the Wonder Woman comics. He's the great-uncle of Guy Gardner and his siblings Mace and Gloria Gardner through their father Roland Gardner. His great-niece Alexandra Gardner was the roommate of Caitlin Fairchild.
- Sex Sells: The reason he recruited Silk Spectre and Silhouette was ultimately to use them as Ms. Fanservice to attract attention for the team and his cause.
- Sickly Child Grew Up Strong: Asthmatic and sickly as a child, but overcame it has he grew up, eventually joining the Marines.
- Small Steps Hero: Deconstructed. He wanted to use the Crimebusters to fight street-level crimes, hoping it would have a big impact on the world. Comedian flat out tells him that it won't help since they're on the verge of a nuclear apocalypse.
- Straight Gay: Had an affair with Hooded Justice.
- Superheroes Wear Capes: He's got one.
- Super Zeroes: Probably the most conventional example in the story; a racist washed-up loser whose biggest scene is as a paunchy has-been desperately trying to claim that his moderate fighting skills will solve all the ills of America.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: While he failed to keep the Crimebusters together, his actions helped inspire a new generation of heroes, including a second generation of Minutemen.
- Undignified Death: Getting beheaded in a car accident is likely not the way a man who presented himself as The Cape would want to go out.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He accidentally inspired Ozymandias to commit the Manhattaning in the first place.
- White-Dwarf Starlet: Captain Metropolis is a borderline male example; clinging to his heroic past and trying to organize a new team in the late 60s, despite the fact that where he was once dashing and handsome, he has since become a neurotic, paunchy mess whose prejudices have come to the fore.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: He honestly believes he and the new heroes of the 1960's can work together to solve society's issues and is heartbroken at realizing how powerless they and him especially really are.
Silk Spectre I (Sally Jupiter)
A founding member of the Minutemen and mother to Laurel Jane Juspeczyk (Silk Spectre II).
- Abusive Parents: Her home life was so toxic, that she ran away at 16.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Whereas canon!Sally only had sex with The Comedian one time after Silhouette's funeral, this one had a continued affair with him until Laurie left the Crimebusters and they moved back to California.
- Awful Wedded Life: Her affair with Eddie Blake and giving birth to his child didn't do any favors for her marriage with Larry Schexnayder, even after they had two children of their own, leading to their divorce in 1956.
- Babies Make Everything Better: Averted and deconstructed. She attempted this with Larry, but it failed and they still divorced in 1956.
- The Beard: She was apparently in a relationship with the Hooded Justice to hide the affair between HJ and Captain Metropolis.
- Becoming the Boast: A rare-third person example. Her first fights were staged, but she eventually learned how to genuinely fight.
- Broken Bird: She's a typical superstar tragedy story, except she's also coping with a failed marriage to her former agent, an estranged daughter, and a barely thwarted rape by a former comrade (and her subsequent self-loathing for later having his daughter).
- Burlesque: After lying about her age, she worked as a waitress and burlesque dancer after running away from home.
- Civvie Spandex: It's a showgirl costume.
- Composite Character: Her history is a combination of the original comic and Before Watchmen, while her appearance is based off of the film.
- Consummate Liar: Laurie was known to claim her mother lied as easily as fish swim.
- Distracted by the Sexy: As part of her fighting style, Sally used her looks to distract her opponents.
- Fake Danger Gambit: Sally's career consisted almost entirely of staged heroics by thwarting staged shop robberies using hired actors, which the stores usually go along with it for the free publicity.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: Sally was known to wear a long black glove on her right arm as Silk Spectre. Even in her more revealing photo-shoots, Sally always kept her right arm covered or hidden. This was done to conceal scars from acid burns on her forearm and elbow, inflicted on her in her youth in Poland.
- Faux Action Girl: She started out as this since all her early fights were staged. Fortunately, she grew out of this and became a true Action Girl.
- Fiery Redhead: When she was active, she was a real firecracker.
- Glory Days: A major reason for her pushing Laurie to become the next Silk Spectre was to recapture the excitement of her glory days.
- The Heart: She served as this along with Lawrence Schexnayder, as all the members (except Silhouette) were very fond of her and the group fell apart after they left.
- Hiding Your Heritage: Changed her name from Juspeczyk to cover up her Polish heritage.
- Hypocrite: She told Laurie to stay away from the Comedian, while continuing to have an affair with him.
- I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: A dark example. Judging from dialogue and a couple of pictures, she and Eddie can be said to have been a bit flirtatious with each other while he was with the Minutemen, but she never took the flirtations seriously. However, he very clearly thought there was more going on there than there actually was and acted horribly upon it.
- Knight Templar Parent: Sally really wants Laurie to succeed at being a superhero, even at the cost of Laurie's personal life. Laurie feels that Sally is projecting on her.
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: The light to the Silhouette's dark in her Minutemen days.
- Legacy Character: Not only to her daughter, but her actions led to inspiring Laurel Drake to become Songbird and her daughters becoming the Black Canary and White Canary respectively.
- Ms. Fanservice: What her role on the Minutemen equated to. Her costume showed off both her breasts and legs.
- Multi-Melee Master: Sally was a capable fighter in the use of weapons such as lassos, brass knuckles, and knives.
- My Beloved Smother: Laurie feels her mother put a lot of pressure on her to follow in her footsteps.
- My God, What Have I Done?: She voted to expel Ursula from the Minutemen when her sexuality was exposed, and she showed a lot of guilt when she was found murdered.
- Never a Self-Made Woman: Sally's career was aggressively built by her husband/manager.
- Noodle Incident: How she got the scar right arm is unknown, even after her death. It is implied that her parents are responsible for it, which would explain why she never talked about it and why she ran from home in the first place.
- Nominal Hero: Sally is, as ever, in it for the publicity. This puts her at odds with many of her teammates, particularly Ursula, who willingly takes on difficult and unglamorous cases.
- Pass Fail: Changed her name from Juspeczyk to cover up her Polish heritage.
- Posthumous Character: While she was alive at the time of the Manhattaning, she passed away of natural causes at age 86 in 2006.
- Proud Beauty: She takes quite a bit of pride in her Ms. Fanservice status, she wasn't even that bothered by her first film being an adult film.
- Related in the Adaptation: With her husband Laurence Schexnayder she's the mother of Loren Jupiter, making her grandmother of Jarrod Jupiter and Lilith Clay.
- Silver Fox: She's implied to have been this, since she could still fit into her old costume at 80.
- Slave to PR: Sally refuses to help with depressing cases, because she wants the team's name (and her own) to be associated with happy, triumphant things in the minds of the public: Gang bosses, terrorists, or some new super-villain named... Moloch.
- Stage Mom: Coached her daughter to take up her profession.
- Stocking Filler: She wears stockings and suspenders as Silk Spectre.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: While still not quite the household name she once was, she still retains more of the fame she held from her super hero career than he canon-self did, making celebrity appearances at charity events and such. She's also implied to have aged more gracefully than her canon-self did. She's also the only confirmed deceased Minutemen not to have been murdered, instead passing due to natural causes.
- Took a Level in Badass: Although her first fights were staged, she had to learn how to fight properly as a member of the Minutemen. Over the years, Sally became skilled in hand to hand combat using trickery, deception, and her overall agility to overcome opponents. She trained extensively in grappling and utilizing such methods as wrestling, jujitsu, judo, and kickboxing.
- World's Most Beautiful Woman: She was once called "The Most Beautiful Woman in Europe".
Nite-Owl I (Hollis Mason)
One of the first superheroes to fight crime, and a former police officer, Hollis Mason has since retired, revealed his identity and written an autobiography that provided dramatic insights into the world of superheroes.
- Abusive Parents: After telling his father that he saw a friend of his kissing a man, his father beat him up and nearly killed him.
- Animal-Themed Superbeing: Animal Alias variety. Other than the color and some aesthetics, his outfit didn't look owl-like.
- Boxing Battler: His primary fighting style. He took down dozens of high profile criminals and even threats to national security during his years as a crimefighter.
- The Cape: Here, he's the original example, before even Superman.
- Cool Old Guy: He was always the nicest and most level-headed of the Minutemen, and he's only gotten better with age.
- Defiant to the End: When goons attacked him, he managed to scare off all but one of them, who killed him.
- Domino Mask: Wore one back in the day.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Motivated Byron to get his act together before he drank himself to death.
- Honorary Uncle: He's considered to be like an uncle to Laurie.
- Incompatible Orientation: Developed a crush on his teammate Ursula, but she only liked him as a friend and couldn't reciprocate his feelings.
- Legacy Character: Not only did he inspire Dan to become the second Nite-Owl, he also serves as a partial inspiration for Batman.
- Loved by All: Hollis becomes this by his life's end. His good work ethic and honesty made him a local hero out of uniform and in-uniform he became one of the most well liked heroes, even having a parade thrown for him in the end when he rescues a missing child. He's one of the only Minutemen to survive with his health and reputation intact, having escaped many of the scandals that claimed his companions.
- Mentor Archetype: After his retirement, he took Dan under his wing to become the next Nite-Owl.
- Mistaken Identity: Killed because the second Nite-Owl broke Rorschach out of jail, and one guy in a drugged-up gang of top knots knows where "Nite-Owl" lives.
- Old Superhero: He retired long before the Manhattaning occurred.
- Only Friend: Of Byron Lewis, being his constant partner and the one who kept the Mothman functioning, at least for a time.
- Parental Substitute: His mentor Moe Vernon, who helped inspire him to become a crime-fighter, especially after his own father Robert Mason beat Moe for being homosexual, driving him to commit suicide.
- Passing the Torch: He retired and gave his codename to Dan Dreiberg.
- Precocious Crush: As a kid, he had a crush on his English teacher Ms. Albertine.
- Platonic Life-Partners: He became close friends with Ursula Zandt, even revealing his identity and continuing her crusade against child trafficking after her murder.
- Related in the Adaptation: His brother is Philip Mason, making him great-uncle of Hunter "Hun" Mason. His nephew Robert III Mason is the father of Rex Mason/Shift, and his great-niece is Courtney Mason/Anima. His niece Myra Mason is the wife of Charles McNider/Dr. Midnight. His nephew Gil Mason was a corrupt deputy commissioner from Batman: The Animated Series.
- Retired Badass: Even in his old age, he managed to fight off most of the top-knots that broke into his workshop until the last of them beat him to death.
- Second Love: For Sally Jupiter, entering a long distance relationship with her and they were on one of their phone dates when he was attacked and killed at his workshop.
- In Spite of a Nail: It is believed if he hadn't been killed by gangsters, he just would've been killed in The Manhattaning.
- White-Dwarf Starlet: Downplayed. While he's surrounded by his own memorabilia and has nothing to do but tell Dreiberg stories of his past exploits, he seems to have mostly made peace with his obsolescence.
Dollar Bill (William "Bill" Brady)
A former star college athlete from Nebraska who was hired by a bank to be their in-house superhero. Died in 1947, when during an attempt to foil a bank robbery, his cape got caught in the door and he was shot.
- Adaptational Heroism: In canon, when he found out about Silhouette's death, he wrote it off as a punishment for being gay. Here, he regretted the role he played in her death and sought to avenge her.
- All-American Face: He was designed to play this up. His background as a small-town college athlete definitely helps.
- Alliterative Name: Bill Benjamin Brady.
- The Cape: Both the attitude, and personified by the actual cape on his costume which gets him killed.
- Cape Snag: While attempting to stop a raid upon a National Bank, William's cape became entangled in the bank's revolving door and he was shot at point-blank range by the fleeing robbers before he could free it.
- Captain Patriotic: His outfit has red and white stripes on a blue background, likely intended for this image by his sponsors.
- Career-Ending Injury: During the final game of the 1938 football season, while trying to sell his abilities, an opponent fell on his knee, ending his career before it could start.
- Corporate-Sponsored Superhero: He was made to wear a garish costume as one of the conditions of his sponsorship. The cape was caught in a revolving door, trapping him long enough for a crook to shoot him dead as he tried to stop a bank heist.
- Farm Boy: Grew up as one in the town of Waymore, Nebraska.
- Fatal Flaw: Besides his costume, Bill's biggest flaw was his recklessness, which not only led to the end of his football career, it made him rush to the bank were he would be killed.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: After being roughed up, Dollar Bill underwent intense physical conditioning and hand-to-hand combat training. By 1942, he was considered on par with most professional boxers.
- Hero Stage Show: Dollar Bill's day job is performing in a heroic stage show to entertain kids and promote a bank. At one point, he convinced Nite-Owl to join him.
- Impractically Fancy Outfit: The bank who sponsored him insisted that he wore the cape that led to his untimely death.
- Last Disrespects: After discovering The Liquidator's corpse, he spat and cussed at it. Can't say the creep didn't deserve it though.
- Lightning Bruiser: The fastest of the Minutemen and the strongest after Hooded Justice.
- Meaningful Name: "Bill" is part of his superhero name as well as his real name. His middle name is Benjamin, another slang term for money.
- Nominal Hero: He is more of an advertising ploy than an actual superhero.
- Related in the Adaptation: His father was Benjamin "Wing" Brady, a pilot and later secret agent of the Foreign French Legion.
- His nephew Randall Brady was an editor for the Daily Planet in the Smallville series.
- His great-niece Emmaline "Mary" Brady-West is the mother of Wally West.
- His other great-niece Grace Brady, is the niece of John Sargent/Sargon the Sorcerer.
- His great-nephews Gabriel and Theodore "Teddy" Brady originate in the Wildstorm universe.
- Through his great-niece Eva Brady, he's the great-granduncle of Finnbar "Finn" Brady, the son of of Cheryl Constantine.
- Superheroes Wear Capes: Deconstructed, just like canon. His death showed how impractical wearing a cape is, and how wearing a cape led to his death.
- Took a Level in Badass: Despite being an actor, and afraid of getting shot, Bill follows Nite Owl and Hooded Justice into one of the banks he supported to fight the robbers. After that, he compares his experiences to playing football in college, and how the adrenaline got him going.
- Undignified Death: Got shot up by a random bank robber after getting his cape stuck in a revolving door.
Mothman (Byron Lewis)
A self-made millionaire with a love of flight who decided to become a superhero both out of a desire to add spice to his life and out of guilt over his privileged lifestyle. Ultimately, his alcoholism turned him into a shell of his former self, and was eventually committed to a sanitarium.
- Adaptation Origin Connection: On the day he suddenly awoke from his catatonic state, he motivated his cellmate, a twenty-one year old Drury Walker, to continue with his legacy.
- The Alcoholic: Eventually committed to a sanitarium due to his alcoholism.
- Animal-Themed Superbeing: Animal Alias variety, with moths as his theme.
- Batman Grabs a Gun: He grabbed a gun for the first time in his life to save Hollis from a Japanese soldier. He is so traumatized by what he did, he ends up being shot himself.
- Broken Bird: A male version of this trope. He wanted to make the world a better place, but injuries, the loss of his teammates and his alcoholism took a heavy toll on his mind and body.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: In Earth-27 Byron Lewis died in an asylum and his last words were about going into the flame. In Doomsday Clock he dies by walking into a burning asylum.
- Hauled Before A Senate Subcommittee: Averted. Unlike the original comic, he isn't forced to testify before Congress, because he was already institutionalized at the time.
- Incompatible Orientation: Developed a crush on his teammate Ursula, but she only liked him as a friend and couldn't reciprocate his feelings.
- I Will Only Slow You Down: At the ending of Hell Hath No Fury, he stays behind at the Soul Collection so Unity and Angie can escape Charaxes.
- Last of Its Kind: Officially at least, he was the last of the original Minutemen to die, passing away of a stroke in Arkham at age 94.
- Legacy Character: He accidentally inspired Drury Walker to become Killer Moth and his technology was later used by Nite-Owl II and Batman.
- Military Superhero: Not as obvious as most examples, but he was an army medic before he became Mothman.
- Non-Action Guy: He was never a fighter, and the only time he used a gun was to save Hollis from a Japanese saboteur, leaving him rattled at having taken a life.
- Not Quite Flight: Thanks to the wings on his costume.
- Passing the Torch: Helped Hollis mold Dan Dreiberg into a worthy successor of both of them, before committing himself to a sanatorium.
- Spirit Advisor: His soul was preserved by Drury Walker in his soul collection, occasionally advising him when he's at The Dreaming.
- Token Good Teammate: Besides the Nite-Owls and Silhouette, he is the closest to a traditional hero in the Minutemen.
Silhouette (Ursula Zandt)
The first female superhero and first openly gay one. She became a hero after she lost her family to Nazis.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Unlike canon, where she snarked at Sally for being Polish, in this version she tells her to embrace her heritage.
- Blinded by Rage: She was so determined to get revenge on her sister's killer, she nearly got herself and her girlfriend murdered by Nazi soldiers.
- Bury Your Gays: Not long after being kicked out of the Minutemen, she was murdered in a hotel room alongside her girlfriend Gertrude by an old foe.
- Dark and Troubled Past: She watched her parents get murdered by Nazis and she and her sister were kidnapped by fascists. Years later, she saw her sister get tortured and murdered by a Nazi too.
- Doomed Moral Victor: As the LGBT movement picked up steam and a culture of tolerance and acceptance took root in America and global popular culture, Ursula Zandt was resurrected — as an icon of feminism and a pioneer of the LGBT movement.
- Dude Magnet: Both Hollis and Byron were attracted to her. Unfortunately for them she's gay.
- Due to the Dead: Sally Jupiter felt genuinely saddened by her death and visited her grave during her birthday and the anniversary of her death. Byron also kept the location of their graves secret, to keep them away from those who would defile it.
- Friend to All Children: Her primary motivation for crimefighting is to protect children and made her debut fighting child abductors.
- The Gunslinger: Ursula learned to use handguns with remarkable accuracy in Europe and in her early days as a crimefighter. She maintained this proficiency until her death.
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: The dark feminine to the first Silk Spectre's light.
- Like Brother and Sister: She treated a young Eddie Blake almost like a younger brother, and it's very likely the Comedian was the one who avenged her.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Feminine-looking enough not to qualify as a Butch Lesbian.
- Ms. Fanservice: Like Sally, she was recruited for her sex appeal. Her hero costume shows off much of her chest. Her using a whip only increased her status as a Sex Symbol, given their association with the BDSM subculture.
- Official Couple: She was in a secret, but happy relationship with Gertrude Gruber.
- Pet the Dog: Ursula is hardly a villain, but she's still closed-off and none too friendly with her fellow masked adventurers. She goes out of her way to combat child abuse and child trafficking in particular — it's not glamorous compared to catching wartime saboteurs and stopping bank robberies, but somebody has to think of the children. She also considers Hollis and Byron her friends.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Her expulsion and later murder indirectly led to the dissolution of the Minutemen in the subsequent years.
- Sacrificial Lamb: When her sexual orientation (officially) became common knowledge, Laurence Schexnayder, the Minutemen's publicist, pushed hard to have her kicked off the team, as it would have hurt the group's image at a time when superheroes were falling out of favor.
- Statuesque Stunner: 5'9"/175cm tall, and was very beautiful.
- Take Up My Sword: Hollis Mason and Byron Lewis continued her crusade against child traffickers to honor her.
The Comedian (Eddie Blake)
See the Crimebusters page
Hooded Justice
Hooded Justice was the first masked vigilante. Never appearing without his mask, his identity was a mystery to even his fellow Minutemen.
- Affectionate Nickname: Sally called him "HJ" for short.
- Ambiguously Bi: His sexuality is officially listed as Bisexual? He was at least in a relationship with Captain Metropolis.
- The Berserker: In his first ever case as a vigilante, HJ beat up three street thugs so bad they lost the use of their legs for the rest of their life.
- The Big Guy: The largest, strongest member of the Minutemen. Hooded Justice was known to be a world-class hand-to-hand combatant. His skills even seemed to dwarf those of the very talented Comedian, who many Minutemen believed to be afraid of Hooded Justice.
- Bondage Is Bad: His outfit invokes this and he is one of the most brutal vigilantes.
- The Brute: An anti-heroic version. His fellow Minutemen claim they saw him kick men through brick walls on several occasions.
- The Cowl: He is a really intimidating vigilante by size alone and his beatings are savage.
- The Dreaded: Many criminals were known to have wet themselves when confronted by Hooded Justice. Several others immediately confessed to crimes when Hooded Justice approached them, even before he asked a question.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As extreme as he was, he did seem to genuinely care about Sally, and immediately came to her aid when he witnessed Blake attempting to force himself on her.
- Good Is Not Nice: He would have been a straight up villain if he didn't prey mostly on rapists and criminals.
- Lightning Bruiser: He was 6'4"/193cm tall, yet he was fast enough to beat and cripple three robbers with ease.
- Minor Major Character: Hooded Justice is a fairly insignificant character within the conventions of the main plot, but is responsible for the setting branching off into an Alternate History through his actions as the world's first masked crimefighter.
- Shrouded in Myth: He might have been a circus strongman by the name of Rolf Muller. The implication is strong, but still somewhat ambiguous.
- The Spook: His identity was never known and he promptly disappeared when people started asking questions, never to be seen again.
- Stealth Expert: Hooded Justice was known to be highly elusive, able to enter and escape buildings even when they were highly guarded or surrounded. Hooded Justice would often startle his teammates by suddenly stepping out of a shadow and leaving them wondering if he had supernatural powers.
- Superheroes Wear Capes: Played with. His cape is decidedly more villainous-looking than the others, but he's still ultimately a (anti)hero.
- Uncertain Doom: No one's sure if Hooded Justice is still alive.
- Wife-Basher Basher: Seeing women hurt gets him furious. His first appearance involved him stopping a rape (crippling one of the attackers in the process), he beat the Comedian severely following his attack on Sally Jupiter.
Successors
Captain Metropolis II
Silhouette II
Dollar Bill II
Mothman II
Hooded Justice II
Rorschach II
- Affirmative-Action Legacy: A woman taking the mantle of a man.
- Ambiguous Situation: Her relation to Walter Kovacs, if any, is unknown.
- Badass Longcoat: A nice looking leather coat in better condition than the one Walter Kovacs used.
- Combat Pragmatist: Rorschach appears to prefer to avoid fights whenever necessary though. When cornered, Rorschach is fond of using improvised weaponry to devastating effect.
- Expressive Mask: Unlike the original Rorschach mask, she can consciously alter the image on the mask in place of its usually free-floating shifting.
- Genius Bruiser: Rorschach speaks in a manner that presents education. She also has shown proficiency in psychoanalysis, chemistry, biology, neurology, electronics, forensic pathology, and advanced mathematics.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Rorschach is a capable close-quarters fighter, roughly equivalent to a SWAT Officer or Special Forces Military Operative.
- Stealth Expert: Rorschach is quite stealthy and able to enter and exit secure facilities with relative ease.
- Strong and Skilled: In contrast to her predecessor, she appears to have proper training in combat and investigation.
