His suspicions raised, Dave deploys his new simian sidekick (see last week's post) to scout out the headquarters of the two companies. Gab learns the attacks are part of a corporate war for dominance by-any-means-necessary, and that Ajax Co. thugs intended to hijack tomorrow's Sterling Co. milk train at 12:00 AM.
Naturally, Midnight crashes the planned donnybrook.As an aside: this fight scene offers another good example of the variant colors seen on Midnight that I referenced in an earlier post, though this time they're in the same issue!
After summarily dispatching the Ajax attackers, we shift to a celebratory scene at Sterling headquarters, where Sterling CEO Bently has drawn the mistaken conclusion that Midnight is taking his side. Our hero arrives just in time (as Providence would have it) to correct this notion.
Not taking too kindly to these threats, Bently responds by spraying Midnight full in the face with ammonia stored in a lapel sprayer. What is this guy, a supervillain? Were ammonia-loaded self-defense lapel pins a common personal security device amongst 40's era executives?
After overpowering the blinded hero, Sterling personnel tie Midnight to a chair in the office (because...I guess that's just the thing to do when threatened by a masked vigilante?)
Our hero is unmasked to satisfy Bently's curiosity about the crime-fighter's true identity, yet Clark manages to maintain his secret by....wait for it...making silly faces. I know it was the 1940s...but I'm still amazed that this kind of conflict resolution flew even then...even in a publication intended for children
As it turns out, while Midnight was defending the Sterling train from Ajax thugs, Sterling thugs were "doping up" the Ajax milk supply. (It's never stated precisely what the milk is doped with, but a prediction that "the hospitals will be overrun with future Sterling customers" seems to imply it's not a drug to make them high, as much as something to make everyone sick.)
Once Midnight is left alone with the obligatory single guard, cries of "Help! Murder! Police!" emerge seemingly from thin air. The protests ratchet up the anxiety level of the inexplicably jumpy crony, but nothing prepares him for coming face-to-face with the origin of the voice.
After the worst gun-toting criminal henchman in history faints from seeing a talking monkey, Gabby frees Midnight and the two set off to prevent the distribution of the tainted milk.
Unfortunately, by this time (i.e., sometime after 2:00AM) the milk has already been delivered to the homes of customers. (In case you didn't know, rather than purchasing milk at a grocery store, back in the day it was far more common for people to have their milk delivered every morning to their door step...much like their newspaper. You can learn more about it here.)
Given this unfortunate turn of events, our heroes conclude there's only one reasonable thing to do. What? You thought I was gonna say "take to the radio waves of UXAM and warn the city? Contact the cops and hospital and quickly spread the word of this danger to public health? No. no. no. no. See that's why you're you, and Midnight is the hero of Big City.
The only rational response to a situation like this is to drive around the city firing a handgun from a moving vehicle at private homes and citizens so as to shatter the glass bottles containing the poisoned beverage. Granted, when most folks do this it's cause to have them arrested; but we're talking about Midnight here--he of freakishly superhuman marksmanship.
Following the destruction of the diabolical dairy products, Midnight places a call to the offices of Thomas Hart (Ajax CEO). Posing as Bently, Midnight claims Sterling is ready to sell out to Ajax, and invites Hart to the Bently home that evening to sign the appropriate legal paperwork. He then seems to have placed a similar call to Bently posing as Hart.
When Bently, then, arrives at the Hart residence prepared to accept the surrender of Ajax only to find the latter anticipating Bently's submission, tempers quickly rise to the point of fisticuffs
After allowing the two commercial titans to go at it for awhile, Midnight emerges from the shadows to explain that he decided that since the two had chosen to ignore his warnings, he decided he'd spare his own knuckles and them them punish each other. Additionally, Midnight announces (whilst holding the two at gunpoint) that their companies will henceforth be kicking in $50,000 each for the "annual milk fund.") I'll leave it to you to ponder the wholesomeness of a child's symbol of justice extorting money out of citizens without bothering with any messy "justice system procedures."
The story ends (rather ironically) with a fourth-wall breaching panel in which Midnight directly addresses the reader with a morality lesson.
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