Actually, Nite Owl was very technologically gifted. He built and operates his flying ship dubbed Archie and had several neat little weapons he made himself.

I agree totally with Daniel. Nite Owl in the graphic novel was very technologically gifted. He made all of the gadgets that are part of his suit, such as his night-vision goggles, and he made Archie, the flying owl hovercraft/ship. He also made the hovercraft platforms that are used later in the graphic novel as well as Rorschach's grappling hook.

He's a direct parallel to Ted Kord, another out-of-shape schlub who invented gadgets to make up for his lack of fighting technique.

No, OnanRulz, Nite Owl was a talented hand to hand combatant as well as having athlete like strength.

Yeah, but he certainly didn't have throwing stars. (I just re-read it, and unless I nodded off for a panel or two, I didn't see them.) But I think that what Snyder is doing with the costume and weapons is updating the whole aesthetic for a modern audience's range of experience; i.e. what if 1985 was today? In the comics, the washed-up Owlman is based on what Blue Beetle was like ten years earlier (a corny comic book character), but in the movie he's based on what Batman was like ten years before this movie got made (an over-the-top Joel Schumacher character). Hence the use of that Smashing Pumpkins song, an alternate version of a song from the Batman and Robin soundtrack. It's pretty brilliant, really.

And you can say, "oh, he's changing the story, this sucks," but he's not. He's updating the visual language to make the story more palatable for mass audiences -- and also for the geek minority, even though they may refuse to admit it. I wish Bryan Singer had tried to update the X-Men's costumes more like this, rather than going the basic black route, but it might have been what needed to be done at the time.

Oh, hes changing the story; this sucks.

Someone needed to say it.

I got one of those from my sister some time back in South Africa, nice toys!

Actually, back to the weapon... I used to work in this weird shop years ago that sold all kinds of swords and knives and battle axes and shit. We had piles of the hooky folding Krull thing shown in the picture above. In fact, they looked EXACTLY like that thing. We bought them from a distributor in China for a buck a piece and sold them for four dollars and then would watch the rednecks buy five at a time and then go throw them at each other in the parking lot.

My point is this, if you want to slightly update a character from a renowned and beloved graphic novel, don't give him a four dollar piece of shit weapon you could buy at any flea market or swap meet.

Well, never having worked in a weapon shop, i think the claw thing looks cool. It looks like a talon, so it fits in with the whole owl theme.

Niteowl is kinda the anti-superman; instead of a bad ass superhero that pretends to be a mild mannered geek, he's a mild mannered geek that dresses up like a superhero. Which doesn't mean he doesn't have ninja skills; he is definitely capable of kicking ass. It's just that he's going to be thoroughly unable to pick up on chicks in bars afterwards.