Taking matters into his own hands, Liver Lip begins "visiting" Acme employees, threatening their wives and children unless the men agree to sabotage the company under his orders.
Meanwhile Doc Wackey and Gabby are testing another new invention--the "visoscope" which enables them to "see everything that goes on in the city." They tune in to Acme just in time to witness the sabotage. Immediately, Wackey informs Dave Clark, while Gabby shuttles off to try and be of some assistance until Midnight's arrival.
When Midnight gets there a brief scuffle ensues before he and Gabby subdue the conscripted saboteurs. What doesn't make a lot of sense, however, is the reaction of the Acme employees. When Midnight initially asks the men, "What's your game?" He's greeted with a stone-cold refusal to talk. Okay. I guess that makes sense. The guys are still worried about their wives and children, right? They don't want to turn on Liver Lip because they're afraid he'll retaliate against their loved ones.
But, literally moments later, when Midnight (essentially) says, "Okay. Whatevs...Off to jail with you." They all immediately fall apart like wet tissue paper, begging "No! Not that!" What gives here? Have they suddenly lost concern for their families, or are these guys so self-centered that they wouldn't even do a little jail time to protect their wives and children?
After hearing the men's stories, Midnight sends them home. Courtesy of the visoscope, Midnight learns that Liver Lip is watching a cock fight at the Hamilton Sport Club, and our hero is off to dispense a righteous beat-down.
Upon Midnight's arrival the donnybrook breaks out, and the predictably dirty Liver Lip manages to shank Midnight in the shoulder.
Having pinned Midnight to the wall with his dagger, Liver Lip produces a battle axe from somewhere I guess it's hanging on the wall of the Sport Club? and prepares to deliver the coup de grace.
However, at just that moment, one of the other people in the club informs Liver Lip that, "The cops have been tipped off! They've surrounded the building!We're trapped!"
More desirous of avoiding arrest than he is of ending Midnight, Liver Lip decides to flee. For reasons no one can possibly fathom, the bad guy decides his best bet is to put on some stolen skis and sail down an exterior staircase while swinging his axe at the cops to clear his path.
Okay...so...even if all the simple act of skiing down stairs was pulled off without any hitch (already a wildly implausible scenario) just exactly how did Liver Lip see the rest of this playing out? First, he has an axe. The cops have guns. There seems to be a pretty obvious weaponry advantage. Second, even if he makes it to the bottom of the stairs and isn't immediately rushed by the cops who have the Sport Club "surrounded" what comes next? Is he going to run away while wearing skis? Is he supposed to ski off on a level surface of asphalt with not even a set of ski poles?
Overall, it's impossible not to think this is a story where Jack Cole just ran out of time and threw something together to meet a deadline.
Cole tries to resolve the story with yet another deus ex machina. This time, as Liver Lip is skiing down the stairs (the preceding is a phrase that I, literally, never would've anticipated having to write at any time in my life...ever), Midnight nails him with the vacuum gun, throwing the villain off-balance, causing him to lose the axe and pitch forward down the stairs. Cole's artwork makes clear that Liver Lip landed on the upturned blade of the axe, presumably decapitating him (if the reactions of the surrounding police officers are any indication).
While there is a certain primal satisfaction in watching a scoundrel like Liver Lip "reap what he has sown," the details of this story are bit more disturbing than what we have seen to this point. Dobbs (Smash Comics #19) dies in a fire of his own creation. Midnight knows nothing of it. Similarly, in Smash Comics #21, Julie the Jerk meets his end when he loses his footing while attempting to flee and is impaled on a church steeple. Again, Midnight had no active hand in his death. Yet here, it is Midnight's vacuum gun that causes Liver Lip to lose his balance. Perhaps even more disturbing, given that this is a tool that allows Midnight to swing from building to building--and that has even maintained suction to a speeding motor boat--wouldn't it be reasonable to expect that the retraction on the vacuum gun would've pulled Liver Lip back before he landed on the axe?
What is the reader to make of this? Did Midnight know what he was doing...and what its outcome would be? Is the hero of Big City now to act as judge, jury, and executioner?
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