Character Analysis
Busting Caps
The Black Caps are the dumbest bad guys ever, down there with the Foot Clan and the Putty Patrol on a list of least effective henchmen ever.
Can you guess why Will calls them Black Caps? Yes: they all wear black hats.
The fools conduct all their business out in the open, which makes us wonder if they actually know the meaning of "secret" in secret society. For example, Will's mother is possessed in order to turn her into a secret agent of sorts, yet the Black Caps hang out with her and talk to her in Will's presence, blowing their cover instantly. They can't even get a cover story straight, either. At one point, they tell Will about his "uncle Bill" (7.122) when he doesn't even have an uncle Bill. Couldn't they afford a quick ancestry.com search?
The Black Caps are the middlemen between the demons of the Never-Was and this world, attempting to draw those demons from the other dimension through little windows carved in the air with a magic wand. Maybe they just need better management. They're overseen by Mr. Hobbes, a.k.a. The Bald Man. That's already a problem. Why is a member of the Black Caps not wearing any headgear whatsoever?
Whenever the Black Caps have a direct confrontation with Will, Mr. Hobbes, the most physically distinguishable among all of them, is the one to do it. He sticks out in a crowd, making it immediately obvious when the Black Caps are up to no good.
At the end, Will discovers that Mr. Hobbes might not even be human. "Beneath his flesh Will saw a freakish armature of solid bone covering his entire head and neck" (45.43). Will blasts Mr. Hobbes with a burst of psychic energy giving him a nosebleed. Yeah, that'll teach him.
Mr. Hobbes'll be back to fight again another day…and he might even present Will with his dry-cleaning bill.