The Time Gabby and Wackey Saved Iceland... (Smash Comics #32)

 

Rather atypically for the Midnight features,"War Over Iceland!" (March 1942) picks right up where the story from Smash Comics #31 left off.

We begin with Doc Wackey's elation upon learning the government has granted him a patent for his latest invention, "the atom reviser." The reviser was unnamed in Smash Comics #31, but it served as the macguffin which drove that particular story.   

[To catch up the new readers, the atom reviser allowed one to rearrange the atomic structure of anything--essentially transmuting any substance into any other substance.]


When Dave congratulates Wackey on the news (which, I remind you, Wackey was seemingly overjoyed to receive) he notes, "You'll soon be a millionaire what with royalties and all!"  That seems logical enough. Immediately, however, Wackey echoes the familiar war-time propaganda of selflessness and sacrifice for the national good, going so far as to declare:

If Wackey wasn't going to try to profit off of the invention, then why's he so excited about the patent being granted? If it's all going into the wise and benevolent hands of the government anyway, then why would he need a patent?

Unfortunately, before Wackey can effect his noble purpose, a mysterious gent in a brown suit and hat breaks into the lab and steals the reviser.

As the thief and his ill-gotten gain are hauled away by a dirigible, Gabby scrambles up the rope and succeeds in boarding the airship.  When the thieves notice their "hitchhiker," Gab is promptly tossed into the hold as a captive.

Gabby-as-conveniently-located-prisoner really became a regular trope for the Midnight tales. Usually, he's imprisoned with little to no supervision (because the criminals typically believe him a "mere monkey." Thus left to his own devices, Gabby proceeds to either radio Midnight with the villains' location/plans (as he does in today's story) ; or else frees Midnight from his own captivity, enabling the hero to finally defeat the bad guys. Here's a few examples:
 

"Here He Is! Midnight (with Gabby the Talking Monkey)" Smash Comics # 23

"The Circus Mystery" Smash Comics #24

"untitled" Smash Comics # 28

"Return of Chango" Smash Comics # 29

"untitled" Smash Comics # 31

Returning to our current story, onboard the dirigible Gabby has learned that the thieves are actually Nazi agents who intend to use the atom reviser to conquer the tiny country of Iceland.  (It's slightly annoying that we never receive any explanation for how these Nazis learned of Wackey's invention or knew where to look for it--I thought Midnight and his pals were supposed to have a "secret" lair?!)

Smash Comics #24

Smash Comics # 25

Smash Comics #29

Smash Comics #30

Smash Comics # 31

As the dirigible nears its island target, the balloon releases its helium and settles into the icy North Atlantic, at which point we discover it's not only an airship, but also a high speed ocean-going vessel.

The craft is spotted by Icelandic soldiers who scramble to defend their island home.  Unfortunately, they can little imagine the power about to be unleashed against them.  The Nazis use the reviser to transform all the defenders into candy! 

Because...it's the Golden Age and kids like candy...I guess?

The Nazis sweep across the island using the power of the reviser to conquer it without having to fire so much as a single bullet.  At this point, they throw their own little celebratory Oktoberfest and release their "mascot" Gabby from confinement.  Gabby takes the opportunity to repeat--verbatim--a line from the previous issue.

Smash Comics # 32

Smash Comics # 31

About this time, a German soldier comes charging in to announce that a "strange plane" is approaching the island.  Gabby immediately concludes--for no apparent reason--that this must be Midnight and Wackey.

Taking advantage of the chaos to slip out of the barracks, Gabby aids his pals by slinging mud in the eyes of the Nazis just as they're about to fire the atom reviser at the plane.  This buys our heroes the time to lay down a smoke screen, land their plane, and then proceed to their standard problem-solving method of beating the poo out of bad guys. 

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a lot of "strategy" involved in Midnight and Wackey's assault. No matter how tough the guy is, he's going up against a whole squad (or division, or something) of Nazi soldiers with his fists, a handgun, a monkey, and a septua+ generian...I would think some sort of strategy would be in order. This is not really a "let's-play-man-to-man-defense" situation.

Despite the fact that Midnight seems to be getting the best of the Nazis in the initial donnybrook, a wiley knife-wielding villain takes Wackey hostage and threatens to run him through unless Midnight surrenders.  Of course, our noble hero does so. 

After trussing up Midnight and Wackey, the portly one-eyed commander Von Kamp engages in the classic villainous gloat by revealing the long-term plan:  within 24 hours German reinforcements will arrive to "take over the island"and the reviser will be spirited away to the Fatherland to provide needed materials for the Nazi war machine.

(I guess stealing the atom reviser and effecting the conquest of Iceland weren't exactly "send your A-team" types of assignments. Of course, Cole's writing on this story wasn't exactly A-team material either, since the commander's name is spelled two different ways within the same story!)

 The single loose end left untangled by the Nazis, is Gabby.

On the one hand, I'm glad to see Team Midnight is finally trying to put together some sort of strategy for defeating this numerically-superior force. On the other hand, it's disturbing that the monkey sidekick has to be the one to come up with such a plan...and that no one questions the need to flesh out any details past "hey, I can set off this dynamite..."
 So after Gab distracts the lone soldier left to guard this critical piece of war-fighting technology the Nazis have inexplicably left outside, our heroic monkey (apparently) knocks out the guard and seizes control of the reviser, using it to transform the Nazis pouring out of the iron hut into molasses. 

While this is going on, Midnight applies a vicious spearing tackle to the gut of the lone guard left in the iron hut. (Seriously, these Nazis have a problem of guard hubris...one guy to guard the reviser...one guy to guard the masked American crimefighter.)

Gabby then frees Midnight and Wackey, who proceeds to restore the Icelandic army in time for them to prepare for the coming German fleet.  Understandably, the soldiers have questions about what happened to them, but Midnight insists there's no time for explanations because there's a German fleet en route to the island "due any hour."

Wow, Midnight!  That does sound serious.

However, one whole panel after warning the soldiers Nazis will be arriving "any hour," we learn that the soldiers had an "all-night vigil" waiting on the Nazi fleet.  Maybe this time discrepancy is explained by the relatively primitive nature of technology in the 40s. Maybe weather tracking and radar were such that you couldn't be any more specific than "a Nazi fleet will be here sometime in the next 24 hours" ; But this whole story has featured a machine that has an almost Cosmic Cube level ability to transform anything into anything else, so it's a little hard to buy that argument.

In any event, the drive to get the island's defenders restored and its turrets manned seems somewhat pointless, since the moment the German ships actually show up, Wackey just turns them into dynamite with the reviser and blows the whole fleet sky-high while it's still at sea.  

The story closes with Wackey and Dave having rushed back to Washington D.C. for a press banquet in Doc's honor...at which he falls asleep.   

So...yeah...this was a weird one. Lotta plot holes...not much that Midnight himself actually contributed to defeating the bad guys...and to top it all off, the story goes on about 2-3 panels beyond where it should've causing the whole story to end on a terrible anticlimax. At least, that's my assessment...but what say you?