Hooded Justice was the first masked vigilante. Never appearing without his mask, his identity was a mystery to even his fellow Minutemen.
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History
He first made his public appearance in the autumn of 1938 when he violently stopped a gang from assaulting a young couple. A week later, he intervened in a armed robbery at a supermarket. It was his second appearance in which the public gave him his name.
In 1939, Hooded Justice joined the Minutemen. He was secretly homosexual and in love with Nelson Gardner a.k.a. Captain Metropolis. But in order to hide it from the general public, he pretended to be in a relationship with Silk Spectre. He later rescued the Silk Spectre from the Comedian's sexual assault, which led to the Comedian's expulsion from the team.
Hooded Justice was a brutal vigilante who would beat criminals to a bloody pulp, this was suggested by the Comedian to be a part of his sexual fetishes. His controversial talent for brutal treatment made him infamous in local newspapers. His true identity remained unknown to his fellow Minutemen. Even his lover Nelson Gardner did not know his real name. Whoever Hooded Justice was, he seemed to suffer from some kind of trauma.