The Midnight story for Smash Comics # 28 begins with our hero intercepting a gang of bank robbers. Actually, he was waiting on the roof of the very institution they robbed. Suctioning them one by one with the vacuum gun as they make their exit, Gabby dispatches each one with a 2x4 as Midnight reels them in.
With all but one of the thugs knocked unconscious the reader is prepared for a two page story. At the last moment, however, the lone remaining bad guy hurls a vial of nitro at a water tank, flooding the roof and reviving his buddies.
In the chaos the criminals flee to a getaway car on the street. Initially, I thought this bio-mechanically awkward panel depicting Midnight entering his own convertible was going to be the weirdest of the comic...
but I was wrong...soooooooo very wrong.
After pursuing the baddies out of the city, the heroes are shocked when their quarry ditch the Duesenberg for a boat. Yes, a boat in the middle of the woods! Oh, but it gets better friends. I'll let Midnight explain it to you:
Our intrepid heroes track the bad guys to an abandoned castle. While seeking access they are captured. An unnamed (but freakish-looking) leader announces that the bank job was merely a ruse to trap Midnight so he could not interfere with the "great things" planned for the gang's future.
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| Seriously, what's going on here? Is this supposed to be some sort of anti-Japanese caricature; or is it just a case of terrible artwork? |
After bragging about the inescapable nature of his trap, the chief felon despatches his underlings to seize "every dollar" in Big City. Adding insult to injury, he announces he'll be keeping Gabby as his own personal pet.
The justice monkey, however, isn't going to take this lying down. When the crime boss tries to buy Gabby's loyalty with an orange, the littlest crime fighter hurls it right back in his face. In his anger, the thug tries to hit Gab with his "liquefying ray," but manages only to hit the chain he'd been using to restrain Gabby. After a clumsy lunge at Gabby, the bad guy plummets out a window and into the castle's moat of electric eels, thus bringing his role in the story to a sudden end.
The furry sentinel grabs the hand-held ray and scours the castle for Midnight. Upon freeing him, Gabby relates the scoundrels' plan and the two head off to save Big City from a fleecing.
Meanwhile, the liquefying ray is being used to great effect on both animate and inanimate targets.
When Midnight and Gabby catch up to the land-faring pirates, stopping them is literally as simple as Gabby flashing their boat with the hand-held liquefying ray--which for reasons utterly unexplained causes the land-boat to explode, rather than liquefy?!
Yep. The question marks from Gabby and Midnight pretty much say it all. I'm guessing Cole must've been really busy and up against a hard deadline on this one. The only adjective that seems appropriate to describe this deus ex machina ending is "craptastic."
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