William Benjamin Brady - Before the Watchmen (2012)

An American citizen born on the 4th of July 1917, William Benjamin Brady was raised in a Nebraskan farming town. Bullied when he was younger, his high school days turned around drastically due to his prowess at sport, in particular, American Football which he eventually was scouted as a potential student for a scholarship.

Choosing to attend Dartmouth because of the sports programme, he excelled at everything other than his academic work. All was going well until the final game of 1939 season when he was tackled by a member of the Texas Christian University's Horned Frog's in the fourth quarter.

His injury ended his football career and he was saddened by the pro-recruiting scouts not even speaking to him upon learning that he was in no position to play. His father helped him to graduate that spring, just barely getting the grades, before moving to New York in search of finding a job and his new career. However, every job that he looked at in the New York Daily Gazette required skills that he didn't have. On the verge of giving up and returning back to his home town, he was swayed by an advert for a part in a chorus for the new Broadway Review. Although not having any background in singing or dancing, he believed that due to his good looks - which girls in high school compared to a movie star - he would be able to get the gig.

Despite being told that he had the look, the director dismissed him, rudely adding that he should expect to hear from them and not to bother leaving his resume.

In a depressed state, he spent the next several days at home drinking beer, considering what he should do. William concluded that he had the looks of a Hollywood actor and could try there at least, but was unsure how he would get a train ticket. Almost giving up, he saw an advert for the First National Bank - 122 Rockefeller - and applied, arranging an interview for the next day.

As he was leaving the elevator, he was taken aback by one of the other candidates making a homophobic remark about the state of the Dollar Bill costume. Considering leaving, he was quickly called into the boardroom, where he met with the representatives of the Dollar Bill scheme. Seeing the costume, Willaim scoffed at the costume as not being able to see "any straight guy" wearing it and added that it looked as though someone had "vomited up the American Flag". Looking the costume over, he added that the cape was totally impractical for fighting crime.

After a moment of hesitation and realising that he had no other choice, Brady accepted the role of Dollar Bill. He would go on to do tv commercials, eventually impressing his employees enough for them to ask him to answer an advertisement in the newspaper for a group of costumed adventurers. Reminding them that he was an actor, not a real hero, they countered with the instruction to act as a costumed hero. They reassured him that the add was nothing more than a publicity stunt and that no one would get harmed.

Attending the tryouts that next evening, he expressed his belief that they all were the same behind the masks and deserved a shot, causing one of the other auditionees to leave in annoyance. Left waiting for over three and a quarter hours, he was the last to audition that evening in front of Metropolis, Silk Spectre, Nite Owl and Spectre's agent Larry Schexnayder. Telling them the truth that he had no powers or skills to speak off, the team admitted that they had already made up their mind that he was in just because of how popular and well known he was, hoping to make the Minutemen just as much of a household name as he had become.

Earning himself great respect from his teammates and the public, he tried to get a job in Hollywood, but due to being Dollar Bill he could not find any work for the sake of being typecasted.

Returning to New York, he would continue on as Dollar Bill, opening a new branch of the National Bank and renting a new apartment for himself. Watching tv one night, he was shocked to hear about the murder of his former teammate Silhouette, who had been killed alongside her lover in their apartment. However, despite drinking a toast to her memory, he couldn't let his more conservative side not think that the murder was an act of God for her sexuality.

Throwing himself into his work as Dollar Bill, he was tragically killed by robbers while giving pursuit.