- For other versions of Gardner, see Captain Metropolis (disambiguation).
"Please! Don't all leave! Someone has to do it, don't you see? Someone has to save the world!!!"
—Captain Metropolis to the Crimebusters
Nelson Gardner, known publicly as Captain Metropolis, was the organizer, founder, and leader of the Minutemen. As a retired Marine, Gardner used his tactical knowledge to organize the team against enemies that had to be fought with numbers, almost always proving successful. He acted as the lover of Hooded Justice, a relationship that was hidden from the public eye. After the split of the Minutemen and HJ's disappearance, Gardner enthusiastically attempted to form a second team known as the Crimebusters, but it fell apart the same day it was formed. Years later, he was decapitated in a car crash in 1974.
Biography
Minutemen
Nelson Gardner was advising the New York City Police Department on urban warfare strategies when he was inspired by Hooded Justice to become a masked vigilante, adopting the guise of Captain Metropolis.
Using the skills he acquired in the military, he meticulously shaped his Captain Metropolis persona and attempted to eradicate organized crime in urban areas. He decided that coordinating a team of masked adventurers would be more effective against crime than each of them acting independently.
He contacted Larry Schexnayder, a talent agent representing Sally Jupiter, aka Silk Spectre, informing him that he devised codes, passwords and strategic exercises for the "The New Minutemen" and asked for his cooperation. He signed as "Captain Metropolis" and left the name of "Nelson Gardner" as his representative.[1] Once Gardner collaborated with Larry on forming the superhero team, the Minutemen were born: consisting of Silk Spectre, Silhouette, Nite Owl, The Comedian, Mothman, and Dollar Bill.
But Captain Metropolis was not ready to take the Minutemen public yet. He needed Hooded Justice and he worked diligently to track down the vigilante and recruit him to the team. Once Hooded Justice, the masked vigilante who had inspired the movement, was recruited Gardner felt secured in his decision and he introduced the Minutemen to the press.
Throughout his time with the Minutemen, Captain Metropolis took on various criminals and supervillains including Moloch, Screaming Skull, King Mob, and Captain Axis.
Though it was publicized that Silk Spectre was in a relationship with Hooded Justice, it is all but confirmed today that Nelson and Hooded Justice were in a relationship and Silk Spectre was merely playing the part for the added publicity - and possibly being paid by Nelson. When Ursula Zandt's lesbianism was outed by the press, and despite their homosexuality, Metropolis and H.J. voted her out as the revelation would damage the team's image.
When United States entered World War II in December 7, 1941, Captain Metropolis reactivated his military status to go fight. Gardner returned home unharmed and resumed his secret relationship with Hooded Justice.[2]
In 1949, Captain Metropolis disbanded the Minutemen following a series of tragedies and scandals that befell the team.
Afterward
In the 1950s, the House UnAmerican Activities Committee demanded that all costumed adventurers to reveal their identity. Because of his exemplary military service, Gardner was given a passing grade by the HUAC.
In 1960 as a representative of the former masked adventurers Gardner was asked about his opinion about Doctor Manhattan, the first person with superpowers; in obvious tension, Nelson just said that they were "pleased" for him.[3] To maintain his physical physique, Nelson followed a strict regimen of Canadian Air Force Exercises, but his beer belly had started to show.[4] Later that year, Gardner along with former and new costumed heroes attended a Red Cross charity event[4] and was seen troubled, talking with the Comedian.[3]
Around 1962 he reunited at Sally Jupiter's house along with Hollis Mason and Byron Lewis, and thirteen-year-old Laurie Juspeczyk met them.[5] That year he read Mason's book Under the Hood where his relationship with Hooded Justice was revealed.
Forming the Crimebusters
Crimebusters era.
In April of 1966, Gardner attempted to come out of retirement to form a new league of extrajudicial avengers, the Crimebusters. He invited Rorschach, the second Nite Owl, the second Silk Spectre, Dr. Manhattan, Ozymandias, and former Minutemen teammate the Comedian, and spoke of tackling the "social ills" of America. But his plans never fully came to fruition; the Comedian (who knew that the world was no longer the same place it was in the Minutemen era in the aftermath of Doctor Manhattan and the looming threat of nuclear warfare) mocked him for wanting to "dress up" and play "cowboys and Indians", and further accused the older hero of seeking personal glory and a sort of mid-life crisis, which Metropolis insisted wasn't true. As the would-be members filed out, Metropolis begged them not to leave, telling them that someone had to "save the world." The crime display that he worked so hard on was burned and destroyed by the Comedian. Gardner permanently retired shortly thereafter.[6]
Death
On the night of October 3, 1974, Gardner is decapitated in a motor vehicle collision. There has been some speculation on whether it was suicide or simply an accident.
Personality
Owing to his military background, he had a strategic approach for crime-fighting, as he was the brain behind the Minutemen and later the failed Crimebusters. He was also polite and reserved.[7] Though a soldier and a de facto leader, Metropolis often appeared timid, weak-willed and easily flustered.
Although a gay man, Gardner had conservative and racist views and during his time in the Minutemen, according to Hollis Mason in his memoir Under The Hood, he made racist comments regarding the blacks and the Hispanics.[8]. It can be seen from the display in the Crimebusters scene that Gardner's views were very conservative, even reactionary. He regarded the liberal sentiments of the '60s as "social evils" that the Crimebusters should crush; furthermore, he was concerned by "Black Unrest", "Campus Subversion" and "Anti-War Demos".[6] It would seem that the world he wished to save was that of respectable, White 1950s America and the "social ills" he feared were the changes and political upheaval of the 60s.
Trivia
- Nelson Gardner's name is a tribute to two influential DC Comics writers: E. Nelson Bridwell, who was widely known for overseeing and maintaining DC's internal continuity, and Gardner Fox, a key figure of the Golden Age of Comics. Fox co-created or helped develop numerous DC heroes, including Barbara Gordon, the original Flash, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Doctor Fate, Zatanna, and the original Sandman. He also wrote the first story to unite several of these characters as the Justice Society of America — the team on which the Minutemen are based on — and later contributed to the formation of the Justice League of America. In 1961, Fox introduced DC's concept of the Multiverse in the landmark story "Flash of Two Worlds."
- An alternative interpretation suggests that Gardner staged his own death and survived into the story's present day of 1985, living alongside Hooded Justice as his lover. This possibility — supported by suggestive imagery within the narrative — is explored in The Fate of Hooded Justice and Captain Metropolis, leaving Gardner's ultimate fate ambiguous.
- As Gardner grew older, he adopted a strict physical training regimen modeled on exercises associated with the Canadian Air Force, despite not being Canadian and having never served in that organization.