Midnight and the Absent Minded Corpse: pt. 2 (Smash Comics #39)

Smash Comics # 39 (January 1943)

Midnight feature (The Absent Minded Corpse)

Today's post picks up where we left off a few weeks ago.   Dave Clark has just changed into his Midnight garb and is attempting to intercept the feuding Benson brothers before they kill each.  Unfortunately, the first shot with his vacuum gun misses, and by the time Midnight can recover the pistol-packing presidents have maneuvered onto the field and are in the midst of a general melee.  When finally relocates them, however, it is too late.

Midnight quickly snags the unconscious brother and spirits him away to try and determine who has shot whom. 

Meanwhile in the press box, Gabby and Wackey are spending more time observing the finer qualities of the opposite sex than they are the football game. 

The moment of comedic confusion passed, Wackey's attentions are arrested by a drama-in-the-stands, where a young chap of Jale is hitting on a the verdant-gowned Wartmouth lass with the monkey.  This leads to some...ah...problems with his broadcasting.

Does anyone else find it odd that Jale and Wartmouth fans would be sitting on the same side, at a game which has already been explained as essentially keg of black powder nestled inside a burnin' ring of fire?

Meanwhile, the amnesiac Benson is still clueless as to his true identity.  He asks Midnight why he couldn't just pick an identity--either Sam or Dan--and stick with it.  Midnight explains that this won't work as a rich uncle had left a million dollars to Jale University because Dan was his favorite nephew.  If the man pretends to be Dan, but isn't, then Jale would get the money "under false pretenses."  However, if the man pretends to be Sam (but is really Dan) then under the terms of the will with the first beneficiary (i.e., Dan) deceased the million dollars would go to the next of kin, Sam...and therefore to Wartmouth!

One wonders exactly how Midnight is aware of this. If it was common knowledge, you'd think this would've come up earlier in Dave's explanation of why the two schools were feuding.

Just when it seems all is lost, Midnight has a seeming epiphany, grabs the poor lost Benson by the neck and drags him away announcing that he's got a solution to the problem.  

Now, I realize "jumping the shark" was not a saying in the 1940s, but given the absolutely bonkers "solution" that Gustavson comes up with for Midnight, I think we can make an exception in this case.  It's so craptastically bad that...well...just read it for yourself:

Soooo....yeah.  Remember what I said in the first post about how Gustavson's opening story descriptor really made you want to keep reading?  Well, I guess the closing page is the one that makes you really regret that you kept reading.  Is this what a comic book hangover feels like?