Pages

The Death and Damnation of Midnight: pt. 2 (Smash Comics #36)

Smash Comics # 36 (October 1942)

Midnight feature (The Death of Midnight)

art & story by Jack Cole


Last Monday, we left Midnight having just spurned the romantic advances of the Devil's Wife.  

(Now then, aren't you sorry you missed that? Okay, we'll forgive you; but if you want to ensure such a terrible oversight never occurs again, you can sign up to follow the blog on the right hand menu.)

Enraged that he's spurned her advances, Mrs. Satan threatens to grant her husband's wish to unleash a German conquest of America.  In the meantime, she dispatches her army of Hadean imps to "torture [Midnight] into madness."

Back on earth, Gabby and Wackey have tried to carry on in Midnight's absence, but the super septuagenarian and the simian sentinel are wracked by depression until they're interrupted by a mysterious character.


The mystery man's appearance is all the more curious since, I assume, this melancholic jag is taking place within the supposedly "secret lair" of Midnight and his fellows. 


The interloper asks whether Gab or Doc would be willing to trade their own lives for Midnight's. Doc quickly agrees, but before he can ask what relevance that could possibly have, the cackling stranger announces "It's a deal!"

Later that night, the trio gather at Midnight's grave for a (presumably unsanctioned) exhumation.



The effects of depression on normal cognitive process notwithstanding, it's more than a little unbelievable that Dave's best friends would not only agree to--but actually participate in--the desecration of his grave with no real explanation of what's happening or how any of this will supposedly bring Midnight back.

Meanwhile in Hades, Midnight gives a rousing speech to the souls of the damned calling on them to rise up and overthrow the Devil in order to save America from this diabolical Nazi invasion.  



The hastily-formed rebellion quickly seizes the upper hand in the ensuing struggle.  The Devil is beaten into submission by Dave and is on the verge of halting the invasion when Mrs. The-Prince-of-the-Power-of-the-Air launches her own attack on our hero.
Before she can make good on her intention, however, a heavenly hook reaches down through the dome of Hades (like a celestial "grab-a-toy" vending game) and plucks Dave out.
At this point, the story abandons the goings-on in the unseen world of the damned.  I, however, can't help but be curious about the fate of Dave's co-conspirators.  I would suppose they wound up getting a pretty rough go of it.  As Omar Little says, "You come at the king, you best not miss."

When Dave asks why he's suddenly been removed from Hades, the only explanation given by the St. Peter-esque figure is, "Your time on earth isn't up yet. In fact, you're due there now, so hurry!"

Back in the land of the corporeal, Gab, Wackey, and the mystery man have exhumed Dave's body and appear ready to perform their own Doctor-Frankenstein-Do-It-Yourself-Home-Revivification. 


Again, I'm seriously disappointed that Gab and Wackey apparently have no problem green-lighting this without any real explanation or evidence that this guy--whose name they don't even know!--can pull off what he promises.  

Fortunately for our heroes and the world, the next panel depicts Midnight "waking up" as from a nap and commenting on the strange "dream" he'd had. Midnight inquires how the war is going, and Wackey reports that just when all seemed lost, the Nazi expeditionary force was "turned back into the sea, as if by magic!"  

The issue ends on a cliffhanger, as the mystery man again reminds Wackey and Gab of their bargain and pledges he will be back next month to collect!  



I figure this must've been quite the "hook" to get little human imps to part with their shekels in November of 1942.  It's over three-quarters of a century later and I'm a grown man, and even I'm eager to see what happens in the next issue!

Side Note:  Don't forget to vote in the FTF poll this week on who would win a fight between Black Crow and Camaleao Cinzento.


FNF (Round 1): Camaleao Cinzento vs. Black Crow

Our inaugural Friday Night Fight pits Cadu Simões & Ricardo Marcelino's Camaleão Cinzento (Grey Chameleon) against Marvel's Black Crow.

Black Crow (as depicted in Captain America #292 (April 1984)

Background Info on Black Crow



Setting
This fight takes place on a habitable exoplanet with an an average surface temperature of about 73° Fahrenheit. The combatants stand on a flat area strewn with diverse bluish stones.  There is a large body of water in the distance.  The air is warm and humid and the sky is overcast.

The stones are covered in a climbing plant with tiny leaves shaped like arrowheads. A strange creature with a scaly black hide, clawed feet, and a dimetrodon-like fin growing out of its back feeds on the the plants.

Next Step
So here's how this will work.   I'm going to embed a poll in the sidebar giving everyone a chance to vote on who they think should win.  Next Friday, I'll respond to the votes (assuming there are any) with my judgement on who would win and why.  Finally, whichever character has the most votes will advance to the next round.  Everybody clear?  


1st Annual "State of the Blog" Post

Year 1: the rearview mirror


How this blog came to be

Today's post represents attainment of a personal goal that, while perhaps small, nonetheless represents a lot to me.  Due to a variety of factors, exactly one year ago I decided I needed a project of some kind over which I would exercise total creative control.  Since I'd always enjoyed superheroes, that something wound up being the blog you're reading.

I knew when I started that gaining attention would be difficult.  There were (and still are) a lot of comic blogs and websites out there.  In seeking to find a relatively under-served niche, I started thinking about what most of those blogs seemed to be doing, and asked myself, "What would I want to do differently?"

It struck me then--and still does--that most of the others heavily emphasize either: (1) supposed "behind-the-scenes" histories of particular artists, writers, etc. in the industry; or (2) up-to-the-minute industry news.  I wasn't that interested in the former category--at least not enough to devote the majority of my scarce research/reading time to looking up biographical facts.  Similarly, I don't care for most of what I've seen turned out from the "major" publishers since about 1989, so trying to go the "up-to-the-minute" route seemed a waste of time that would only leave me frustrated in the end.

So what did I care about?

In-depth character knowledge

Thanks to sites like The Digital Comic Museum there are a wealth of public domain Golden Age stories available online.  Being a child of the 80s, most of these stories are totally new to me. The bulk of my writing pretty quickly became synopses of existing stories.  Thus far, I've focused on the Golden Age adventures of Midnight, a hero I always thought looked cool...but didn't really know much about.

Original fiction

In July I introduced a regular Friday post I called "Fiction Foundry."  The idea was to give myself an outlet to try writing my own superhero fiction.  While it's been fun, it's also been very slow-going...and frankly, it just hasn't generated much interest from readers.  While I will continue to do my own writing, the specific form this will take will be changing in the blog's second year.

Web comic reviews

One of my goals was to provide some additional free publicity for good web comics I run across. I think this is needed because, frankly, there is a whole lot of junk out there.  (I suppose it's the necessary curse that goes with the blessing of lowered publishing barriers).

To help enhance the objectivity of an inherently subjective activity, I instituted a rubric reflecting 8 vectors of value that are particularly important to me.  It represents the kind of information I really like to know before devoting time to a story, so I thought others might appreciate it as well.  

While I've not necessarily gotten a whole lot of views for those posts, they are the ones that have generated the most comment from readers.  Bottom line, I still think they're worth it.  I'm going to attempt to get more reviews posted in the next year. 

Bi-weekly posting

I guess everyone who starts blogging regularly learns a few things about themselves along the way.  One of the most important is to get a realistic perspective of how much writing you can produce how consistently.  After a year of floating between one and three posts per week, I finally settled into a twice-a-week pattern that seemed to fit pretty well with my other obligations in life.

Year 2: the crystal ball


Bye bye "Fiction Foundry"; Hello "Friday Fights"

Fridays will no longer be devoted to the "fiction foundry" series.  Instead, I'll be trying out a speculative series that will (hopefully) be fun an interactive (hint, hint!).   I'm tentatively calling it, "Friday Night Fights."  The basic idea is that each week, we'll conduct a "Who would win?" poll for two specific characters, as they are depicted in specific stories and within a given setting.  At the end of the week, we'll tally the votes (or if there are none, I'll just pick a winner and attempt to justify my decision), and declare a winner!  They'll then advance to the next round.

Friday Fights will be a true multiverse.  We'll be dealing with open source characters, Golden Age public domains, Marvel and DC properties, independent characters, etc...so now's the time to unlock your inner fanboy/fangirl.  Your favorite characters (and their creators/owners) are counting on you.  Don't let 'em down!


Social media expansion

Since discovering a whole bevy of cool Facebook pages and groups dedicated to superheroes and comics of all types, I decided Year Two would be the time to launch one for the Spring Road Superhero Review.  I'm hoping this will provide another outlet for attracting new readers and building our little online community. 

Conclusion

So that's it in a nutshell, friends.  If you've got other recommendations or things you'd like to see on the blog, please feel free to contact me anytime.  And if you're out there reading this thinking about starting your own creative project, let me encourage you to go ahead and take the plunge.  Life is short.  You should give yourself permission to do some stuff just because you enjoy it and it feeds your soul.  

The Death and Damnation of Midnight: pt. 1 (Smash Comics #36)

Smash Comics # 36 (October 1942)

Midnight feature (The Death of Midnight)

art & story by Jack Cole


"Two guys walk into a comic publishing house and one says to the other, 'Say, I bet you can't write a weird superhero story with our lead character that's borderline blasphemous.' And the second guy says, 'Hold my beer.'"  

While I can't confirm the Midnight feature in Smash Comics was born this way, that's certainly how I envision it.

To catch any new readers up, here's the situation.  Last issue Midnight was reintroduced as the Quality Publishing's new lead character in Smash Comics.  Now that you've made a guy the new lead, what's your next story?  His death, of course!!  

 
We open with an evocative splash page.  (On the left an inset of Gabby breaks the fourth wall to inform us that the Midnight feature has now been expanded to nine pages in response to reader feedback.)

Near the top of the splash, just above the grinning visage of the Prince of Darkness, the potentially-triggered reader is forewarned to not "really believe" the tale that this about to unfold.

I can only guess this was to head off any potential outrage from parents or Werthamites-in-waiting

The story proper begins with Midnight in hot pursuit of a heretofore unmentioned criminal, Cyclops Ceylon. After the Homerically-themed miscreant violently head-ons a tree with his getaway car.  The seemingly uninjured prey clambers up the side of a nearby escarpment.  Naturally, the indefatigable Midnight bounds right up after him like a mountain goat.

Cole next deploys yet another comfy old trope--a titanic fist fight at the edge of a precipice.


fight fight atop an oil derrick, Smash Comics #26


car crash followed by mountain pursuit & death, Smash Comics #21

Unfortunately, this time both Midnight & his quarry tumble over the edge of the cliff to their demise.  

So the biggest thing that strikes me here is that as the death of Midnight makes "worldwide" news and a "nation" mourns, it's odd that no one apparently looks underneath the mask to find out who this late hero of justice was in real life.  No intrepid journalist shares this info.  No one bothers to put Dave Clark's real name on the headstone when he is buried; and apparently no one at UXAM has noticed that their erstwhile colleague is not showing up anymore for work.
Midnight's soul apparently has the courtesy to remain with his body until after burial, and then ascends to that great celestial help desk in the sky, staffed by a slender old man with a long white beard.  Though offered an express pass to the front of the heaven line, Midnight explains that he'll prefer to take what's behind Door # 2

Ummm...okay.  Granted that I'm not the hero of Big City, but I would think that signing up for an eternity of hand-to-hand combat with the Prince of Darkness armed with nothing more than a domino mask (and maybe a vacuum gun?) would sound a bit reckless.  
On a side note, I can't help but wonder how many Christian mommas and daddies across America might've started having second thoughts about the "innocent fun" of comics after reading this story.  I mean, this seems diametrically opposed to a rather straightforward sentiment from the Bible:


...when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” (Jude 9)
Midnight next takes a heavenly slide down to Hades (Yes.  You read that right...a slidewhere Satan proudly shows off a variety of Dantesque torments meted out to history's villains.  Midnight comments that "misery sure is up your alley!" but the Devil responds that he's not actually responsible for coming up with this poetic tortures.  Midnight then inquires about the identity of the true the sadistic mastermind.

At this point, Cole reverts to a battle-of-the-sexes trope that would almost certainly result in a torrent of opprobrium were it used today.  For the entity more evil...more conniving...more manipulative...more sadistically skilled than the Prince of Darkness himself was...his wife.



Not only does Satan reveal that his wife is the real power behind the throne of evil, Mrs. Beelzebub not sooner shows up than she cuckolds the hubby by coming on to Midnight.  (The whole thing is reminiscent of Joseph and Potiphar's wife!)

Fiction Foundry 32

Next to the doorway, a small ugly crater pock-marked the dry wall.  A conspicuously dust-free circle on the pastor's desk marked the void where his souvenir ceramic lamp from the Holy Land had rested for as long as Mike could remember.  The conclusion was pretty obvious:  the lamp had been slung across the room (apparently at Mike's head) with such force that it left a hole in the wall, and its remains now littered the floor.  

Liberty Lass: a webcomic review

Synopsis Review


Liberty Lass is an unapologetic celebration of patriotism, cast in the Comics Code compliant style of Bronze Age. Creator Steve Vincent's love for Bronze Age comics goes so far that he even has a fictional company--the Cosmic Comic Company--that "produces" the title. Liberty Lass is a character originally generated for the online gaming world, City of Heroes. Currently, Vincent has produced five full issues of Liberty Lass.




Issue 1: Birthright, part one: self evident truths introduces us to U.S. history nerd Abigail "Abby" Madison who, while en route to get a simple chocolate shake, happens upon the attempted robbery of an armored car by the Rapscallions, a trio of super villains.  The leader, Jackal, initially promises no harm will come to bystanders, but makes clear this is contingent on "not trying anything stupid."

It being the 21st century and all, one young woman in the crowd attempts to use her phone and this is interpreted as the aforementioned "something stupid."  When one of the Rapscallions lashes out at the girl, Abby heroically shoves her to safety; but proves a step too slow to save herself.

Abby is engulfed in flames.  Shockingly, she emerges from the flames, her clothes immolated--with the curious exception of the fabrics covering her breasts and genitals.   

[Good ole' Comics Code. Are the average person's undergarments made of asbestos in this fictional world?]

The villains assume Abby must be a "super" and launch a full force attack. Through this engagement, Abby discovers she possesses superhuman strength and the ability to fly, as well as extreme durability. Though she puts up a good fight for a novice, in the end Abby is rescued by the timely arrival of Shield of Dawn--the world's premiere superhero team.

The villains subdued, Shield of Dawn leader Dr. Synapse offers to scan Abby's mind to determine more about her suddenly-manifested powers. He notes her signature is unusually strong and that he's only known one other person with that sort of signature. He writes down an address and offers to introduce Abby to this mystery person if she will meet him there. Somewhat tentatively, she agrees.

At this point, Abby scuttles on home where she is able to change into a new set of clothes just before her mother walks through the front door. Unsure how much to to reveal, Abby elects to keep her newfound discovery to herself...for now.

The next day at Eldredge Prepatory, Abby is grilled by her friends Jackson and Deena when they learn that she was present at the site of the "big superhero battle" the previous day. Again, Abby hesitates but ultimately determines NOT to reveal her newfound identity. Here follows the stereotypical angsty self-questioning, "Will I have to start telling lies and half truths to everyone I know?"

The first issue ends with Abby meeting Dr. Synapse outside a nursing home. Upon entering, the Dr. introduces her to a man named Lincoln Hamilton. It is revealed that the octagenerian [who, frankly, looks like he should be in his forties] reveals that he was once the superhero known as Liberty Man--the original superhero!

While I initially planned to provided synopses for each of Liberty Lass's chapters, Internet connectivity problems have complicated that.  Rather than postpone this review any longer, I decided to cut the issue synopses off, offer my overall ratings, and "move on down the road."  Here's hoping YOU give Liberty Lass a read and maybe even a subscription!

Sustainability - 4
Vincent's kept churning out content for going on three years now.  This leads me to believe he'll be able (and willing) to keep it up. 

Language - 4
The (from my perspective) excessively sensitive may object to some of the flash back language (e.g., when Lincoln Hamilton refers to having fought "the krauts" in WWII, or his tendency to address Abby as "little lady")

I've not run across anything along the lines of what you'd traditionally consider a "curse word."

Violence - 5
As with MOST, The "violence" in here is not much to worry about.  It seeks to adhere to the old Comics Code Authority standards. 

Sexuality - 5
For as far as I've read through the comic, I've not seen anything would cause me to worry about excessive sexuality.

Political Leanings - 4
As indicated above, this comic is thoroughly steeped in classic American patriotism.  It makes not apologies and not attempt to  hem and haw on that topic.  If you like that, then you'll likely love Vincent's work.  If you don't, then my rating scale won't go low enough for you.  Personally, as a fan of the late 80's Captain America, I'm more in favor of this than not.  So I give the comic a 4 on this point.




Morality - 3
Though I do like the proud patriotism--primarily because it's so atypical in today's superhero comics environment--I back off a bit on the morality score because the tone Vincent strikes seems to me to flirt with being "excessive."  I would feel comfortable bumping up the morality score a bit more if in future issues Abby exhibits a clear-headed objective assessment of her country's greatness and its flaws.
 

Artwork - 2
My weak scoring on art has more to do with the fact that this particular style (pure CGI, or whatever I should call it) is just not really my "cup of tea." 

Storytelling - 2
While I do appreciate the patriotic tone of the storytelling, thus far its complexity and sophistication could be better.  However, practice does make perfect, and given Vincent's dedication to stay after it, I have no doubt he will continue to improve.

Overall Rating: 3.6

Fiction Foundry 31

Mike wasn't really sure what had happened.  All he knew was that one minute he was at the door...and the next he was lifting himself off the top of the pastor's overturned bookshelf--on the other side of the room!

Mike's gaze panned across the room seeking some explanation, but no one else appeared to understand either.  Mary's rage had broken--presumably under the force of confusion--though her face was still red, her breathing quick and deep.  Desmond was rocking back-and-forth like a pendulum on speed.  Mike suddenly became aware of a biting chill in the room, and instinctively crossed his arms in an effort to warm up. 

Pastor Leedle said nothing.  He just sat there staring transfixed at a million ceramic shards strewn across the floor.

Bulgarians Assemble!

Having a little technology trouble right now, so I'm having to veer away from my intended post for today.

Fortunately, the Internet is a pretty fruitful place for mining interesting superhero content.  In this case, I was a little surprised to discover that many of the same heroes who valiantly struggled against Hitler and Stalin back in the day, are continuing their fight through the agency of some creative Bulgarian nerd-patriots.






Fiction Foundry 30

But I'm sure that yoga will fix me right up.  It'll probably make me walk again.  Thank you so much for that insightful advice!  Did you master neurology during your extended nap-time?!!"

Mike was so stunned by Mary's response that, initially, he just sat there and took it.  He knew she was angry...but this felt like...like a raw, visceral hatred ; and it wasn't just directed toward disability, but toward Mike himself.  The realization hit him like a sledgehammer.

"I think this was a mistake," the boy finally said as he rose from his chair and moved toward the door.

"A mistake!! Is that what is was, Mike?!!! Well, then, everything's okay so long as it was a mistake!!!!"  (Mary was fairly screaming now. )

Leedle vainly tried to calm the situation down, as Mary continued to scream. The crescendo came just as Mike reached the office door.

Looking back, this would prove to be a moment that altered the lives of everyone in that office.