A Pig in a Poke (part 1) -- Smash Comics #66 (AUG 1946)

The origin of the expression 'pig in a poke' comes from the 1500s, when a “poke” was a sack, and merchants would sell piglets in pokes, often sight unseen. When an unsuspecting buyer got his poke home and went to release the piglet, a chicken, duck, goose, or some other animal less valuable than a pig would come out of the bundle instead. The advice being given is “don’t buy anything until you have seen it.” (gingersoftware.com)

The expression strikes me as very appropriate for the Midnight feature from August 1946.  As the story opens, Dave Clark is strolling past the offices of his (apparently) old friend, veterinarian Jim Gage.  He decides to drop in for a visit--just in time to see the Doc manhandling a thug whom he'd caught, "prowling around my office."

Squealing Like a Stuck Pig

As the ne'er-do-well is running away he ominously shouts, "Kirkey'll take care 'o you!"  When Dave asks what this is all about, Gage dismisses it as not "worth the trouble of asking."  The good doctor then quickly pivots the conversation by saying he has a very important announcement that Dave can make on air, if he likes.

Gage claims he's discovered a surefire method for detecting trichinosis in pigs.  Dave says that's "terrific," and we're treated to a couple of PSA style panels where Gage and Clark more-or-less break the fourth wall to tell us about the importance of government meat inspectors.  This whole conversation is interrupted, however, by a sudden phone call.

Dave offers some tongue-in-cheek condolence to Gage for the loss of his, "best girl."  Gage responds that it's worse than that:  She was his best lab assistant!  Dave smoothly segues into an exit by acknowledging there's little he can do to help his friend solve the new assistant vacancy...but he'll be sure to broadcast the Gage discovery.  With that, he's out the door.

Just outside, however, Dave notes that the thug who'd been casing Gage's office earlier has returned--with a gun!  Quickly donning his mask, our hero decides to pick up with would-be assassin where Gage left off.

Unfortunately, Midnight's opponent has an accomplice waiting across the street in a car.  While our boy is distracted beating his brown-suited yegg to a pulp, his wingman approaches and clubs the blue paladin unconscious.  By the time Midnight wakes, both assailants are gone.  He takes a quick peek in the window, sees Gage is fine and busy with something--and decides there's, "no sense in worrying him with all this."  [Yes.  You read that right.  Midnight decides that the guy who was apparently the intended target of a murder doesn't need to at least be warned that a dude showed up outside his office with a handgun to plug him!?]  Instead, he just takes off his domino mask and heads home.

Back at the Case de Clark (y amigos), Dave decides he really just needs a little meal to clear his head.  Alas, Sniffer has already wiped out all the roast beef.  After breaking up yet another near-fisticuffs between Wackey and original Snoop Dog, Dave volunteers to head out and buy, "a flock of pork chops" as it's almost dinner time.

Poor Dave can't seem to get a break, though.  At one butcher shop after another he keeps hearing the same story:  "Sorry, but the guy who was in here just before you bought up every piece of hog meat in the store!"  After about seven shops, Dave finally spots the pork-laden purchaser and tries to corner the guy to get some answers as to what the heck he's doing.

Who is this mystery man?
Why is he gathering all the pork in Big City?
Come back next week for the answers to these (and other) questions!

Killer Looks (Part 2) -- Smash Comics #65 (JUN 1946)

When we left Midnight last week, our hero had just captured the fleeing Cyanide Cindy after her failed attempt to threaten her way to the Kandle Beauty Lotion Contest crown.

Having learned that his contestants were...ahh...motivated to not put their proverbial best feet forward, Kandle is persuaded to restart the contest.  Though radio announcer Dave Clark has mysteriously disappeared, Midnight offers to pinch hit for him.

When word of the soon-to-be reprised contest gets out, Dame Kandle storms off proclaiming, "John Kandle doesn't know I'm here! Wait'll I ask him about these contest kiddies! The worm!"

Fifteen minutes later, the allotted prep time has come and gone but now both Mr. Kandle and Sniffer Snoop are missing!  Midnight tells Mr. Perkins (the only remaining contest judge) to stay on site, and our hero makes a bee-line for a nearby tavern where he's sure he'll find the absent assessors of allurement.

He arrives to find a panicked Hotfoot "yipe-ing" and to see Cyanide Cindy and Lefty forcing some poor sap into a car.  (You'd think they would've been handed over to the cops following their earlier assault with a deadly weapon and intimidation, but I guess not?!)  So, naturally, Midnight has to subdue them a second time.

Just another scene of the "non-powered" Midnight punching a dude hard
enough to knock the door off a 1940s sedan. 😕

After quickly trussing up Cindy, we learn that her would-be victim was Sniffer Snoop.  Sniffer informs Midnight that he was heading to the tavern with Kandle when the magnate suddenly disappeared.  A moment later, Sniff Dogg says he heard a groan from the bushes, but before he could investigate he was seized by Cindy and Lefty.  He leads Midnight to the scene of the crime where our hero discovers Kandle's corpse!

Sniffer races back to the contest fetches Perkins, Gabby, Wackey, and Mrs. Kandle.  Then...the wild speculation starts.  Sniffer is sure the "gangster woman" is guilty.  Cindy protests that she's, "not strong enough to kill a man with a rabbit punch!"  Though not necessarily on-board with Sniffer, Midnight notes that he's experienced Cindy's delicate fist one or twice...and it's plenty lethal!

Gabby interjects that obviously Mrs. Kandle is guilty party!  "You should've heard the threats she made against her husband!"  Midnight looks Dame Kandle over, pronouncing her "...just about strong enough to kill a man that way, too!"  At this, the emotionally-distraught widow faints.

Mr. Perkins sweeps his erstwhile employer's widow up in his arms and begins carrying her to a first aid station.  While Gabby and Sniffer are still busy arguing over which woman is the murderer, Midnight (in his best Columbo impression) asks Perkins, "Isn't Mrs. Kandle a bit heavy for you?" 

When the slight man explains that adrenaline fuelled chivalry must've given him a momentary burst of strength, Midnight asks if Perkins might not mind rolling up his sleeves and showing off his ectomorphic frame.  And then comes our "Big Reveal!"

Killer Looks (Part 1) -- Smash Comics #65 (JUN 1946)

This week's story, again, presents us with a femme fatale.  In this case, her name is Cyanide Cindy!  (I like it.)  As per usual with Midnight's female villains, I'm expecting this story to be a little more interesting than the last couple.

As the story begins, Wackey and Gab are curious where Dave is heading off to.  He informs them he's broadcasting a beauty contest at Center Park.  Wackey and Gab recall Sniffer having said something about being a "fine judge of feminine pulchritude," and decide to tag along to see what stupid thing Sniffer will do there.  (Sure, guys.  That's why you wanted to go to the women-in-swimsuits competition.😏)  Upon arrival at Central Park--lo, and behold!--Sniffer actually is a judge!  When he disavows Wackey and Gab to contest sponsor John Kandle, the latter orders their unceremonious bouncing from the judges' area.

The disgruntled duo settle into seats amongst the general audience.  Gabby grouses, "Someday I'm going to eat that turkey buzzard raw!"  A middle-aged woman in the crowd overhears the threat and chimes in, "If you're talking about my husband, John Kandle, I may cook him for you!  Imagine such goings-on just to sell his beauty lotions!"  

This budding discourse is interrupted, however, when Dave Clark announces, "the cream of American womanhood!"  Apparently, the cream left something to be desired.

Incensed, Mr. Kandle decides someone has plotted to sabotage Kandle's Beauty Lotion with this farce.  He demands an explanation from one of his employees named Perkins. (I can only assume Perkins is a right-hand man or something.)  Wackey and Gabby are having a ROTFLOL moment, whilst Dame Kandle seems suspiciously pleased by the goings on.

Though initially wanting to call the whole thing off believing, "if pictures of these women get into the papers my business will be ruined!"  Perkins persuades him that he must name a winner if for no other reason than prestige.  "People expect you to come through every time!"  (Yeah...I'm not really following the logic on that argument either.)

Despite the lack of any real logic in Perkins' argument, Mr. Kandle is nevertheless on the verge of naming one of the contestants the winner, when a last-minute mystery contestant shows up.

While the disparate reactions of Wackey, Gabby, and Mrs. Kandle are pretty much what you'd expect.  

Sniffer has a (shocking!) attack of conscience and protests to Kandle that he has his principles and won't be changing his vote.  "After all, beauty is only skin deep!"  While the two judges are busy debating the ontological nature of beauty, the last-minute contestant decides to take a more direct approach.  She tells a guy named Lefty to, "toss me my rod."  (Rod was just a term for a handgun back in the day. Get your mind outta the gutter.)  About this time, Midnight realizes why the mystery contestant looks so familiar.  She's a notorious (though previously unseen) criminal named Cyanide Cindy!

Quick as a whip, our boy Midnight pieces together that, "Those [other] contestants look like dishrags because Cindy persuaded them in her own sweet way!"  The next thing you know, the femme fatale has a gun at the back of Sniffer's head.

At this point, I'm wondering, "Why all
this rigamarole to win a beauty contest?
Is there a big cash prize?  Is Cindy insanely
insecure?

About this time, Midnight comes out from behind the curtain telling Cindy to, "Drop that heater!"  She, of course, takes a shot at him at near point-blank range...but somehow utterly fails to hit him, whilst our azure-hued avenger deftly kicks the gun out of her hand.

For good measure, Midnight goes on to deck Cindy's henchman (Lefty), who also  is armed...and also fails to get a bullet within three miles of our hero, despite firing at point blank range.  (A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, these guys would've made great imperial storm troopers.)  

Cindy tries to make a break for it, while our hero was dispatching Lefty...but no such luck for the beastly beauty.

"Every time I meet you?!"  Cindy sure sounds like she's tangled with our
hero before, but I can't seem to find when/where.  

Join us next week as we wrap up this crazy caper!

Midnight Throws that Twerk -- Smash Comics #55 (OCT 1944)

Smash Comics #55 (OCT 1944)

This week's Midnight tale again comes to us courtesy of Paul Gustavson.  Again, it's another example of the comic-heroic combination that became signature for the Golden Age Midnight.

In this instance, the comedic elements have actually enhanced over time, almost certainly in ways not anticipated by Gustavson.  Take, for example, the title of our hero's principal antagonist this time:  psychologist Adoniram P. Twerk, "B.S., F.O.B., P.F.T." (This little dig at the pomposity of some academic credentialing sounds like it could be made today!)

We're told Twerk is trying to research the effects of trouble upon the, "cervical android cortex of the redundant clavicle."  He is, unfortunately, meeting with some frustration in his attempt to find suitable test subjects.  His landlady, Miss Lobelia proves less-than-willing to respond as Twerk had hoped, despite his best efforts to be a terrible renter.

An ironic reaction, indeed, for one named Twerk.

 
Barrelling onto the streets of Big City, Twerk searches high and low for "trouble," and despite finding it in a number of places deems all such examples, "ordinary."  (One wonders, then, why Twerk ever expected Miss Lobelia to supply his observational needs simply because he was a crappy tenant...but whatever.)

After seeing a newspaper announcing the release of the notorious "Killer" Klaw, and the latter's vow to "get Midnight" for sending him up the river, Twerk believes he's found just the combination of unusual people and unusual trouble for which he's been looking.

Apparently, everyone in Big City knows Dave Clark is chummy with
Midnight...but no one can put two and two together.

Having earlier smashed some gum into Doc Wackey's beard on the street, Twerk (who somehow knows that Wackey will in the near vicinity of Dave Clark), randomly shows up at the door of Dave's house and offers Sniffer Snoop a match to light his tobacco pipe.  This is an issue because Wackey is, at that very moment, soaking his beard in a highly inflammable solution in order to remove the gum Twerk deposited there.  (What's the deal?  Does Twerk have cognitive premonition powers or something?) Anyhoo, this has the predictable result.

Against all logic, despite the fact that Sniffer is doofus who strikes a match in a room full of inflammable gases, the "world's greatest detective" successfully shifts the blame for the explosion onto Twerk.  No sooner does Sniffer blame Twerk, than Gabby, Wackey, and Hotfoot proceed an attempted pummeling of the bespectacled interloper.  (You'd think they wouldn't have too much trouble either, since they fight toughened thugs on the regular...but it doesn't appear so.)

Midnight breaks up the row, and inquires about Twerk's identity and intentions.  The self-proclaimed "leading psychologist" replies that he's here to help Midnight, "take care of Killer Klaw once and for all."  Twerk claims to have studied the criminal psyche to such a degree that he, "understands Klaw as well as I do myself."  Twerk tells Midnight that the key to stopping Klaw will be using the latter's rage against Midnight as a bait to draw the criminal out.  As it turns out, however, Twerk has himself led Klaw directly to Midnight's doorstep.  After sending a secret signal, the gun-toting brute bursts into the scene!

Caught dead to rights on the business end of a gatt, Midnight and pals allows themselves to be trussed up.  Klaw and his immediate crony leave entrust their quarry to the watchful eyes of their newfound chum, Twerk, while they "figger out a way to get rid of 'em dat ain't got no kickbacks."  (Remember, dear reader, this is all taking place on the premises of Dave's house in the city which has very recently experienced a fiery explosion.  I guess neighborliness and the tendency to call law enforcement when explosions happened in the city wasn't quite as prominent as I would've assumed?)  Once Klaw and his right hand are out of the picture,  Twerk seems to shift allegiances yet again.

After unloading the guns of Klaw and his accomplice (which, why would they leave their guns in the room in the first place?!) Twerk unties Midnight and pals pleading that he's done all of this as a "favor" to our crime-fighter.

You and me, both, Midnight!

When Klaw returns to finish the job, Midnight and his pals explode into action.  But speaking of exploding, this sure doesn't look like the guns were "emptied."

I guess you could explain this as there being one already chambered round,
but...

 Following the obligatory donnybrook with decent action panels like this one:

following the tussle, Midnight is shockingly magnanimous about Twerk's contribution before suddenly noticing the prof's absence.

Gabby finds Twerk hiding out under a piece of furniture.  Upon his emergence, in grand Snoopian fashion, the professor takes to self-righteousness.

Twerk finally comes clean that this was all part of his attempt to get "authentic material" for his book on trouble.  (We confirm, as well, that Twerk intentionally did not fully unload the criminals' guns.)

With Wackey's rage obviously on the rise, Twerk frantically pleads that his interrogators remember that he did help them capture Killer Klaw as promised.  Midnight replies that since it's getting so late, perhaps it'd be a bit too dangerous for the good professor to await a street car all by his lonesome.  He suggests that Wackey provide an appropriate "escort" to Twerk.

Two Crime Kings Walk Into a Bar...

Midnight Meets Hammer-Head Horgan & Smear-Face Schmalz
Smash Comics #54 (AUG 1944)

Despite the image of the first page, this story really feature two conflicts: (1) that between Hammer-Head and Smear-Face, and (2) the long-standing one between Midnight and Sniffer Snoop.

Gustavson begins the story by introducing us to the feuding underworld personalities of Hammer-Head and Smear-Face.  When the two accidentally bump into one another on their birthdays, the weapons come out and the gangland fighting begins.

If this is how Smear Face carries his shotgun, I think natural selection may solve Hammer-Head's problem for him.

As fortune would have it, Dave Clark is working in a nearby radio station.  Doc Wackey and Gabby come bursting in to inform their pal that the two gangsters are having a shoot-out on the street.

Dave immediately charges toward the danger, changing into his Midnight costume (which apparently now involves nothing more than putting on the domino mask) en route.  When his pals are reticent to jump in the middle of a gun fight, Dave explains there's nothing to be afraid of once the bad guys notice them, as neither Smear-Face nor Hammer-Head ever manage to hit who they're shooting at. 

That's quite a kick for a "non-powered" hero.  If a man's back strikes a telephone pole with enough force to snap it in two, wouldn't you think he die from massive thoracic injuries?

Though he's successful at breaking up the street fight, in the hub-bub, Smear-Face and Hammer-Head slip away.  After hiding out in the same nearby building, the gang leaders realize they share the same birthday and decide to bury the hatchet. (Because...it was the Golden Age? 😕)

Meanwhile, back on the corner of First and Main, Midnight and pals are cursing their luck.

When you use comics to teach obscure anatomy...

During the impromptu after-action report, Midnight and Sniffer renew their feud over the best method of fighting crime.  Sniffer insists that Midnight has failed to capture the criminals because he tries to solve everything with fists instead of brains.  Midnight counters that the fists are essential.  Eventually, Sniffer makes a $20 wager that he can catch Smear-Face and Hammer-Head--using nothing but his own cleverness--before Midnight does!

Walking away, Sniffer appears to be suffering pretty serious gambler's remorse.   Fortune smiles on the deer-stalkered detective, however, when he bumbles across the drunken twosome in a nearby dive.

Despite being three sheets to the wind, the tyrannous twosome recognize Sniffer as, "da li'l rat da worksh wish Midnight." Though it takes some doing, Sniffer eventually persuades Hammer-Head and Smear-Face they've confused him with his identical twin who's turned honest. Their murderous attentions deflected away from Sniffer, the two quickly resume a heated debate over who is the true "mashtermind" of Big City criminality.   

In the effort to win his bet, Sniffer convinces the two that rather than fight each other, they simply agree that whoever knocks off Midnight first is the true King of Crime.  To ensure that there's no after-the-fact challenges to the new nefarious nobility, Sniffer proposes that both gangsters write out a complete list of their crimes which will then be deposited with Sniffer for safe-keeping until after Midnight's out of the picture.

This seems comical right up until the moment, Sniffer decides to just leave Midnight in the dark for a few days about the fact that he's encouraged a couple of murderous low-lifes to specifically target Big City's premiere masked hero!

Fortunately for Dave Clark, with the light of dawn comes the retreat of the pink elephants.  Hammer-Head and Smear-Face wake up, realize they've been had, and decide to join forces to get Sniffer...and to retrieve their signed confessions.

Now if Hammer-Head can figure that Sniffer works with Midnight...
and Sniffer also is liable to be hanging out with Dave Clark...
now what could be the secret identity of Midnight?

Thinking he's about to enjoy a day of watching Midnight run himself ragged, Sniffer decides to hide the signed confessions at the house before heading out.  A suspicious Gabby, however, has been spying on Sniffer and once the latter leaves, our favorite talking monkey discovers the confessions.

Seemingly, no sooner does Sniffer turn a corner on the side-walk than he's running for his life from Hammer-Head and Smear-Face.  Back at the house, Sniffer finds Dave Clark relaxing in his arm chair in full Midnight attire (because...isn't that what every superhero does during his/her down-time?) Claiming to have been shot, he begs Dave to save him from the gangsters.When the bad guys enter the room, Midnight and Gabby commence their obligatory pummeling, while Sniffer rolls around on the floor seemingly convinced he's near death!

Once the thugs are subdued, an oddly high-looking Sniffer announces that he's won the competition.

This panel really makes you wonder how he got the name "Sniffer".

After producing an envelope that is supposed to contain the signed confessions.  (The careful reader will note we got a serious plot hole here as the confessions were supposedly left under a pillow.)

PLOT HOLE ALERT!

Once this particular shark is jumped, I guess Gustavson didn't feel any particular need to have a consistent narrative.  Midnight bursts into hysterical laughter because the "confessions" are all blank.  (Okay...but didn't we see writing on the sheets on previous pages?)

I guess you could argue Gabby swapped the real confessions for blank paper,
but the story never actually depicts or reports that.  Furthermore, it's never
explained why Sniffer would produce "confessions" from his jacket that he
supposedly left underneath a pillow?!

While the house-call doctor removes bucket-shot from Sniffer's rear (Whaddaya know?!  I guess Sniffer really did get shot!) Midnight informs the self-appointed world's greatest detective that his uncorroborated confessions would never have held up in court anyway.  In contrast, the slugs being pulled out of his bum at the moment would make their guns and would therefore constitute evidence of attempted murder!  And so, in nice Golden Age fashion, we have the following tri panel wrap-up:

Midnight and His Pals Turn Back the Hands of Time! (Part 1) -- Smash Comics #52 (APR 1944)

Smash Comics #52 (APR 1944)

The opening splash page leaves me with the impression this will be one of those rare (but sometimes well-executed) stories that attempts to teach a little "real history" in the midst of an entertaining superhero story.  Let's see how well Gustavson pulled it off.

The opening panels rehash the "Dave-Clark-just-wants-a-relaxing-evening-at-home-but-his-permanent-houseguests-won't-shut-up" trope.  Dave's grousing is interrupted by Wackey boisterously announcing his latest invention:  time pills.

Sniffer reliably questions whether Doc's invention will work; and Doc--just as reliably--seizes the bait and tells everyone to take a pill while he thinks of a time in history they'll all visit.  (Dave, incomprehensibly takes the pill--so much for a quiet evening reading the paper--but decides to put on his domino mask "just in case.")

Doc explains that the pills take a bit to work, and Sniffer complains of his "fiddling while Rome burns"...so you know where this is going.  That's right, they wind up in ancient Rome.  (Now, as Wackey explained the pills originally, you'd think that everyone who'd taken a pill would travel to a different point in time based on what they were individually-thinking about...but it was the Golden Age, so I guess nobody cared about gaping plot holes.)

Now a believer, Sniffer asks how the crew will ever get back home, to which the seemingly apoplectic Wackey announces they'll just take another pill and think of home.  Before they can do so, however, some Romans passing by in a chariot, terrified at the sight of a talking monkey, flee afoot and leave their conveyance behind.  Gabby suggests he and his pals take advantage of this and "see the Tiber for a dime."  To which his confederates--again without much discussion or explanation--suddenly agree.

As the reader sees Gabby and his ride-share companions passing through an arch into Rome, it seems Gustavson realized he needed to shoe-horn an in-story explanation for upcoming dialogue.

"Sure.  That sounds very plausible." -- no one ever

Midnight Meets Selwyn the Savage -- Smash Comics #49 (JAN 1944)

"Midnight Meets Selwyn the Savage"
Smash Comics #49 (JAN 1944)

Story begins with Midnight pursuing one "Killer Mike" on a train.  When the criminal leaps from the moving conveyance (coming up surprisingly unharmed) he thinks he's given our hero the slip for good.  Mike immediately treks in the opposite direction, to the small burgh of Winksville.

All these years, I thought the expression was "hip to so-and-so"
And I thought it didn't start until the 60s or so.  The things you learn from comics!

In Winksville, Mike happens upon a all-night diner where Gertrude (the waitress) and Selwyn (the diminutive short-order cook) are listening to a radio program entitled Sandow the Savage.  Gertrude rebuffs the advances of the love-besotted Selwyn, explaining that she considers him a "worm," and that she's only interested in a man, "whose strength will make me swoon."

About this time, Mike enters demanding burgers and roughing up Selwyn when the latter attempts to explain that the diner has run out of burgers.  Predictably, Gertrude is immediately taken with the dangerous gangster.  Killer Mike then decides maybe ole' Gertie is up to his standards and he romantically proposes they go back to the Big Town and get "spliced."

Again with weird 40s slang! I guess it came from electrical work, but the word "spliced" makes me
think more of getting cut-up, than getting twisted together.

Selwyn spends time crying over a barstool before he takes new courage and decides to march himself to the Big Town and take back his girl.  (Curiously, Selwyn doesn't seem to pick up that Gertrude wasn't "his girl" in the first place, nor does he ever seem to question whether she's all that irreplaceable.  Oh well...I guess this is what passed for a "storybook love" in the 1940s).

As it turns out, Selwyn's dad was a friend of Doc Wackey's (because...apparently everyone was) so he seeks the old codger out.  To underline the mousey nature of Selwyn, Gabby answers his knock at the door and is uncharacteristically boorish in his reception.

Shocked by the sight of a talking monkey (understandably so, I would think) Selwyn makes the mistake of so-expressing himself and Gabby responds like such a punk you'd think he was a modern-day SJW leading a crusade against "microaggressions."

When he finally gets to meet Doc, Selwyn relates his sob story before asking the elderly inventor if he can take him, "to places where tough gangsters hand around...so I can learn to be like them?"

Sure! Why not?  Who better to know all the dives for the seedy underworld than a septuagenarian scientist? 😏

However unlikely that sounds, it is indeed the direction writer Paul Gustavson takes us.  Quickly Doc and Gabby leave a note for Midnight before hauling little Selwyn off to the improbably-named "Bucket of Blood."

Naturally, when he finds the note, Midnight immediately decides to follow.  While en route, the Bucket of Blood's unsavory "contents" are concerned that a couple of approaching patrolmen mean to frisk them, so they force Selwyn to hide all their guns, knives, brass knuckles, short-range nuclear warheads, etc. on his person...confident that the po po would never suspect him of any foul intent.

After the Fuzz has come and gone, who should waltz into the ole' Bucket of Blood but Killer Mike and his new fiancee.  Selwyn says "Hello" to Gertrude, on which pretense Mike decides he needs to kill the little man.

Unfortunately for this would-be bruiser of Big City, Selwyn is inspired by the words of Doc Wackey (and the near-endless supply of handguns he's still toting) to fight back.  Midnight shows up and joins the rhubarb.

Gertrude, meanwhile, comes across as disturbingly emotionally unbalanced.  In the space of about two seconds, she abandons her erstwhile disdain for Selwyn and is all over him after watching how ready he is to kill a man.

Could Gertrude be the
grandmother of Harley Quinn?

 Upon receiving a bosomful of affirmation, Selwyn hops back into the fight to assist Midnight (and apparently leave a mound of corpses.)  Our hero has to settle down the littlest sidekick.

Ole Dave must be shockingly charismatic, because despite being charged by a bar full of dangerous killers wanting their gats back, all it takes is Midnight's simple request to forgo the gun play, and Selwyn immediately agrees to give up his one advantage.

Also, Selwyn suddenly becomes shockingly adept at
close-quarters combat (if not necessarily at gun safety).

After Midnight and Selwyn (mostly Midnight) mop up the ne'er-do-wells, our hero instructs his nerdy neophyte pugilist to plant evidence...because, that's how you promote law and order?

With friends like this, who needs enemies? (Part 1)

Smash Comics # 47 (October 1943)

The story opens with a trio of criminals discussing how no one has claimed the $1 million bounty on Midnight's head when one, Brain Baroni, announces that he intends to claim the reward.

His compatriots are--understandably skeptical--until Baroni explains that his plan is to get to Midnight, "through his friends."

On that ominous note, we leave this issue's bad guys and drop in on said "friends' having a most un-friendly debate about relative levels of crime-fighting competence.

You know, you don't have to let Sniffer stick around, Dave-o.

This latter-day Lincoln-Douglas debate is briefly interrupted by Doc Wackey demanding quiet so that he can complete his latest invention. (Gee...I wonder if this mystery invention will wind up resolving some conflict in the story?)

The Wackey interlude completed, we return to Sniffer scolding Dave for his ingratitude. Sniffer asserts that he's taken proactive steps to preserve his sparring partner's life. When Dave inquires as to the precise nature of this salvific boon, Sniffer announces that he's created "an exact double" to decoy would-be Midnight murderers.

While our protagonists resume their debate, outside the Dave Clark house Brains Baroni and entourage are plotting to bum rush the radio announcer (whom they've pegged as a "friend" of Midnight) and compel him to lead them to Midnight.  They're delighted, however, when it seems their quarry has dropped right into their hands.

When the smoke clears, the thugs are certain they've cut "Midnight" clean in half with their gunfire.  Brains and Stiletto are already busy planning how they'll spend the $1,000,000 bounty when the terrified Bruisesr announces:  "MMM-M...M-M-M-Midnight! H-He's alive!"  At this news all three of the would-be assassins take off in a wild sprint, bursting through a picket fence in the process. This makes the immediately following panel all the more curious:

Presumably the three knew what Dave Clark looked like (since they were
planning to kidnap him.)  Dave is clearly not in his costume.  So why
would these hardened criminals see Dave and assume he's Midnight?