Any reader of the
Spring Road Superhero Review knows I'm a fan of Midnight (fedoras are just cool, there's no two ways about it). The very
first post on this blog explained that Midnight was created by a guy named Jack Cole around 1940 for
Smash Comics. Thanks to sites like the
Digital Comics Museum, anyone with an internet connection can locate and read the golden age adventures of Midnight.
At some point,the rights to the character were purchased by DC Comics, who further developed the Midnight's back story. Though I could piece some of the DC additions together from entries and other things I'd read online, there was always a blind spot because I'd never read Midnight's re-vamped
origin story from Secret Origins #28 (July 1988). Thanks to
The Dork Review, however, that's no longer the case.
There are some notable differences from Cole's story--most of which I'm guessing DC supplied to fill plot holes in the original. I had hoped to post a full-review of all the differences I spotted for today, but life got in the way, so I'll mention only the first two.
In DC's version, Dave Clark had come from serving as a stand-in for a radio serial about a fictionalized crime fighter named Midnight. It was this that gave him the idea and name for the moniker her later adopts.
In the original, Clark was just happened to witness a building collapse on his way home from work, and there's no particular explanation for why he chooses the name "Midnight."
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| Smash Comics #18 |
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| Secret Origins #28 |
Additionally, in Cole's original story, the first person to address Clark as "Midnight" is some random woman at Morris Carleton's penthouse, whereas in the DC version, Clark
identifies himself as Midnight.
Sadly, that's all I have time to include for now. Hopefully, I'll return to this topic and flesh it out later. In the meantime, take a trip over to
The Dork Review and enjoy the goodness!
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