"It's A Match!"

                                                          It certainly is isn't it? 😉

I still don't get why Todd McFarlane never sued Marvel over this blatant knock-off. I would've.....

What The Fuck Were They Thinking!?: Nightwatch

Happy Hump Day People.....

Ok, so today's newest inductee into the house of shame is this guy, Nightwatch.

Don't ask me why, but when I was thinking about columns to write, for some weird reason this guy popped into my mind.

In case you don't remember him, Nightwatch showed up as an anti-hero of sorts in Web of Spider-Man#99.

At first glance, you might be forgiven for mistaking him for another anti-hero, Spawn.

 Seriously, they look they could be brothers

Whether or not the resemblances between the two was intentional or not( even though I think its highly likely it was, perhaps as an intentional dig by Marvel) the fact remains that Nightwatch already had a huge knock against coming out the gate...besides his name.

Nightwatch? Really? Because Neighborhood Watch was too long to spell?

Anyhoo, here's Spa-,uh I mean Nightwatch's deal in a nutshell.

Nightwatch, in his regular civilian identity of Dr. Kevin Trench, stumbles upon a strange man in a hi-tech knock-off of  Spawn's costume fighting some thugs. Even though he drives them off, the costumed man dies anyways.

 Dr. Trench decides to unmask the poor bastard and much to his surprise, realizes he recognizes the man behind the mask; it's an older version of him.

Dr. Trench does what we'd all do if he found an older version of ourselves in a tricked out Spawn Halloween costume, and checks himself into a mental hospital/drinks himself silly takes off to some deserted island. His rationale was if he runs away and never puts on the costume, complete with cloak-generating technology and a shitload of gadgets, then maybe he won't die in the future.

Sounds legit.

 

After obviously rethinking this strategy, he decides to wear the costume (because why not?) and fight crime despite knowing what his future holds. To further the Spawn comparisons, his suit used nanite technology to self-repair any damages the suit sustained, as well as providing enhanced strength and and basically use the suit and cape to mimic Spawn's abilities, but using science not hell-magic.

 He quickly runs into Spider-Man and off to the races we go. appearing in crossovers and earning his very own solo title.

Eventually Nightwatch would conquer the circumstances that had let to his supposed dark future, and just as quickly as he appeared, he just as quickly faded away into obscurity-land.

Because hey, it was the 90's.

He'd show up years later in the pages of She-Hulk's solo title in the 00's, apparently alive and well.

All seemed good until it we hit Retcon-Land.

It seems Nightwatch the hero was all a huge scam that Dr. Trench perpetuated using the combined assistance of Dr. Druid, the Shocker, and Vibro. In reality he was really the villainous Nighteater, who made the entire Marvel Universe that he was a good guy the whole time, as was revealed in She-Hulk#12.

No, seriously. Here's the pages to prove it:

So yeah, this happened...

"Nightwatch" was dealt with, and that's been the last anyone's heard of him since.

BTW, Spawn isn't the only guy Nightwatch looks like.

Remember this guy?

Yup. Homeboy didn't just steal from Spawn, he stole from M.A.N.T.I.S. Another fellow black/African-American hero.

Lame.

Terry Kavanagh. 

Alex Saviuk.

 Marvel Comics circa 1994. 

WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING!?

 Ok, I know it seems I'm just picking on Spider-Man, and trust he has a lot of losers amongst his rogues gallery and allies, but so do a lot of other well-established heroes.

I'll give poor Spidey a break for now since he's more than earned it.

But the rest of you out there? Watch out.....