Smash Comics #29: The Return of Chango the Magician

Smash Comics #29 sees the return of a classic Midnight villain:  Chango the Magician!

In his prior appearance, Chango was depicted as a failed vaudeville entertainer who resorted to crime to exact vengeance against the "fickle" public.  This story shows how the villain has evolved (or, rather, devolved) into a more bloodthirsty personality.

The evidence smacks the reader in the face on the second page.  Chango throttles  Judge J. J. Farnsby, leaving his corpse in the bed, and pilfering the cash in the dead jurist's safe.  Since Chango passed through the wall in order to kill Farnsby, it begs the question why he couldn't simply have passed through the safe and seized the cash without the need for homicide.  I hypothesize it's because Chango has developed a taste for murder.  He likes the rush of exercising the power of life and death over others.

While reporting on Farnsby's murder for UXAM radio news, Dave Clark (alias Midnight) sends a coded signal to his companions, Gabby the talking monkey and Doc Wackey, to begin an investigation.  Gab heads out to case the Farnsby residence but as fortune (or is it Providence?) would have it, he collides with a pedestrian who turns out to be Chango's henchman.  When, in a moment of thoughtlessness, Gabby yells "Why don't you watch where yer--" it piques the interest of the enterprising criminal, who immediately "monkey-naps" Gab because his boss (who is now masquerading as "The Great Swami") "could use a freak like you!"

When the henchman presents Gab to his boss, the simian sentinel is--predictably--unwilling to serve as a performing monkey.  In the attempt to make him talk, the henchman hits Gab hard enough to surreptitiously turn on the latter's wrist radio. This is how Midnight is alerted that Gab has been captured--and that he's being held by Midnight's old enemy, Chango the Magician!

Using the wrist radio and visoscope, Wackey is able to zero in on Gabby's location and then surveil what's happening.  This leads to the revelation that Chango is running a fortune-telling scam (in the persona of the Great Swami) where he lures people in to tell them their fortune, then hypnotizes them and gets them to reveal where their valuables are kept.

Keeping with his action-oriented nature, our hero crashes through the door of Chango's hideout and the standard donnybrook ensues.  Alas! While Midnight is distracted dealing with the henchman, the Mad Magician seizes the initiative--transforming our hero into a dog!

Fortunately for Midnight and Gab, the exercise of Chango's power seems to require ongoing focused concentration.  In order to transform Midnight into the crime-fighting canine, Chango had to relax his hypnotic hold on Gabby.  The monkey, then, launches his own attack, which in turn distracts Chango allowing Midnight to revert to his true form and renew the fight. Sensing he's lost the momentum, Chango teleports away, henchman in tow.

Midnight, however, is not giving up.  He and Gabby head to the home of "the Swami's" last known customer, Omar Smythe.  Midnight intends to use his old strategy of impersonation.  He'll pose as Smythe in the latter's home, in the hopes of catching Chango in the act of robbery.

Sure enough, at the stroke of Midnight Chango enters the room through the wall and Wackey (who's been overwatching the entire operation through the visoscope) springs the trap.  Midnight and Gab take to pummeling Chango.  Their strategy is to ensure the villain can't focus and bring his magic to bear.  Once they assume he's been knocked groggy, they let up.  This turns out to be the critical error, as Chango regains enough sense to escape by passing through the floor.

  
Cole treats the reader to a classic ending wherein Midnight and Gab break the fourth wall--the former to pledge that, "someday we're going to nail [Chango] right!" and the latter to raise suspense and tension in the reader by retorting, "If he doesn't nail us first!"