Midnight and the Hollywood Hacker (Smash Comics #34)

Smash Comics # 34 (July 1942)

Midnight feature (untitled)

by Jack Cole

The July 1942 issue of Smash Comics saw Midnight and his entourage bound for Hollywood where Dave--in his civilian role as a radio announcer--is assigned to broadcast the movie premiere of one Miss Joy Devine.  Wackey, for his part, is overcome oogling the various starlets he spies in the glamorous city, while Gabby simply wants to be released from the confines of the 1940s pet carrier to which he's confined.

Side note:  For unexplained reasons, Ms. Devine's name is always set off in a distinct cursive lettering throughout the story.  It's curious.  I have no explanation for this.  Anybody able to enlighten me?

As Dave & co. stroll down a sunlit avenue a gun battle suddenly breaks out between cops and criminals.  After a quick dash to the bushes and a switch to the black side of his suit (which still doesn't look black) Dave Clark is replaced by Midnight, masked man of mystery!  

Midnight wastes no time leaping into the fray, first disarming (via the vacuum gun) and then pummeling them.

Unfortunately for our hero, the sudden off-panel shouts of "Cut! Cut! CUUUUUUT!" are prelude to the revelation that he's not halted a robbery, but merely wandered into and thoroughly-screwed up a movie scene.

Humiliated, our hero apologetically walks off, berating himself for being so foolish.  At this nadir of self-confidence, Wackey spots the famous Joy Devine about to be murdered.  Still stinging from his last rebuke from the agitated movie director, Dave assumes this is another set and is nonchalant about responding.  When Wackey protests that if this is just a movie, why is her attacker burying a dagger in Devine's back; Clark replies confidently that it's surely a simple prop with a blade that retracts back into the handle.

Sadly, once the deed is done and Dave approaches to applaud Devine on her very convincing acting, he discovers to his horror that this was no act!   Joy Devine has been brutally murdered--and he just watched it all happen!

Despite his shame at having let a murder take place before his very eyes, Dave begins switching back into his Midnight garb as Gabby pursues the killer.  The crime fighters assume this will be pretty straightforward as they both got a good look at the assailant's face.  

When the trio locate the man they witnessed knifing Devine, he protests his innocence.  Before Midnight can get to the bottom of this, a guillotine is dropped on their suspect cleaving him in two.    Again, Midnight & co. spot the killer's killer and set off in pursuit.  After following the latest blademaster through a door, however, Midnight again loses his man.  Seemingly, the killer has vanished into thin air!

We repeat this cycle of the killer being killed twice more, before Midnight is finally in pursuit of the actual killer. There's a slip in Cole's storytelling here as Midnight accuses one of the men of having "sprung the death trap on Jones," when there is nothing in the earlier part of the story indicating who any of these men are.  As it turns out, on the final page  we learn that the post-Joy Devine victims are as follows:  Director Buzzbe, Cameraman Jones, and Thompson the agent.

When Midnight tries to seize his final suspect with the trusty vacuum gun, its suction slips right off the killer's bald head.  Curious at this atypical equipment failure, Midnight examines the suction before announcing that he believes they'll get one last chance to nab the murderer at the premier of Devine's last movie, Love a la Carte.

Later at the screening, as movie-goers gush over Devine's talent and performance, one non-descript man begins to seethe with rage.  At last he bursts through the film screen berating the crowd for attributing to Devine what he sees as the true achievement of his own talent as a make-up artist.

This time, when Midnight fires the vacuum gun it successfully seizes the impromptu rhetorician, hoisting him up to the balcony seats.  Midnight thrusts a murder confession into the man's face and demands that he sign it. Again, this was just poor writing that cropped up all-too-frequently in the Golden Age.  There's no reason this guy should sign the document.  So far, there's no evidence of anything except his jealousy of Devine.  (People don't go to jail for being jealous.)  Even if he did sign Midnight's document, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that a coerced confession from an unofficial vigilante might not exactly hold up in court. 

For utterly inexplicable reasons, the make-up man admits to the quadruple homicide.  Having done so, he asks how Midnight knew he was killer.  (Umm...I would guess that your public rant at the movie premier might--at least--raise some suspicions?) 

In order to illustrate our hero's "brilliance," Midnight explains that when his vacuum gun failed to seize the killer (on the previous page), he noticed the suction cup still had traces of (grease-based?) face putty on it, at which point, "I just put two and two together."

Uhhhhh...okay, Midnight?  I'm pretty sure there's more than one make-up guy in Hollywood.  Also, I'd be really surprised if face putty is that difficult to come by.  It's not exactly oxycontin, so is there any reason to assume that someone could've acquired face putty who wasn't employed as a make-up artist?