New York Gazette/War of the Worlds
Right before the scene starts to introduce viewers to Hooded Justice a paperboy is shown barking the headline of the New York Gazette. The headline helps to set the date and location for one of the Hooded Justice's vigilante activities as 10/1938. The moment I saw the headline I thought about the Squid hoax engineered by Ozymandias and the odd but unintentional parallels to Orson Welles' War of the World dramatic enactment that caused hysteria and panic for some.
When Orson Welles was asked to comment on the hysteria he was blamed for causing, he was incredulous. “We’ve been putting on all sorts of things from the most realistic situations to the wildest fantasy, but nobody ever bothered to get serious about them before,” he was quoted as saying. “We just can’t understand why this should have such an amazing reaction. It’s too bad that so many people got excited, but after all, we kept reminding them that it wasn’t really true.”Many people were tense because of the show and the narration of Hooded Justice suggests some inner turmoil that drives him. Then there is this:
WABC, which aired the program in New York, issued a statement one hour after the broadcast ended:
Hooded Justice, whose real identity is never revealed, was the first-ever masked adventurer and the lead influence for Nite Owl (Hollis Mason) and the rest of the early costumed heroes. He wore a hood and a noose, had the body of a wrestler, and was a charter member of the Minutemen.Sometimes I wonder the difference (or if there really is one) in the two distinct audiences of Watchmen, those who read and love the comic series and those who know and love the Movie adaption primarily. share
Although the press and many members of the public believed the Hooded Justice was in a relationship with fellow crime fighter Silk Spectre (Sally Jupiter) (to the extent that Laurie Juspeczyk believed that Hooded Justice was her father), in fact he was a homosexual who was involved with Captain Metropolis. He also had sadomasochistic tendencies (see Sexuality, below).
He is the only masked vigilante whose final fate is never fully resolved. It is suggested he may have been killed but never proven.