Midnight Meets Wild Bill Hiccup -- Smash Comics #51 (MAR 1944)

Smash Comics #51 (MAR 1944)

This week's Midnight adventure is, sadly, another lackluster tale.  From the title, I was a little curious.  "Maybe this will sort of be a genre-crossing story  part-Western, part-superhero" I hoped. Sadly...that was not to be.

The story begins in the familiar setting of Midnight's (apparently no longer secret) lair.  Wackey is dreaming of ways to get rid of Sniffer Snoop.  Sniffer is...making me dream of ways to induce selective amnesia, so as to forget that Sniffer Snoop was ever created.

While the troupe is all hanging out, Dave is relaxing in full get-up and with his domino mask on.  (Because...don't you routinely lounge around the house in a full suit?)  This domestic scene is interrupted by a knock at the door followed by a collapsing corpse with a note specially addressed to Midnight from the gangster Owl Ousler.

The note warns our crime-fighter, "have nothing to do with Burping Billy!"  Before our heroes have time to ponder who this gaseous William might be, he arrives at the door.  After noting that Burping Billy is only a nickname, the visitor reports that he real name is Bill Hiccup.

Sure thing, Mr. Hiccup.  That sounds much more plausible and real than
Burping Billy. 😏

The introductions don't get a chance to advance much, however, before a spray of bullets (apparently fired by singularly inaccurate marksmen) pursue Bill through the open front door.  Once the door is closed, everyone suddenly relaxes back into normal conversation.  (I guess the house is bullet-proof...or nobody'd ever heard of home invasion in 1944...or something?)

Bill reveals that the shots were fired by thugs in the employ of Owl Ousler.  The dead man was a hired hand out at Hiccup Hollow, where he and Hiccup were held hostage by Ousler's gang.

Upon receiving the explanation he has demanded, Midnight utters a rather eye-catching bit of 1940s rhetoric.

Gabby:  Hey Doc, what's happening?
Doc:  Oh nothing, Gab.  Midnight's just speaking in tongues again.

Sniffer announces that Owl has obviously seized the farm because he intends to raise black market meat.  Unconvinced, Midnight decides to investigate.  En route to the farm, Bill asks (and Midnight incomprehensibly obliges) to stop by a sporting goods store so he can pick up some fishing tackle.  When Bill emerges from the store with a butterfly net, it signals to the reader that something strange is afoot at Hiccup Hollow.

No sooner does the heroic band cross a footbridge onto the Hiccup ancestral lands than Bill lurches into the air with his net in the effort to snag a fish!  Before anyone has time to question this occurrence, a shot rings out striking Sniffer on the buttocks; which causes the detective to proclaim he's been the victim of assassination.

Our heroes dive into the nearby creek in an unsuccessful bid to escape Ousler's thugs.  When the suddenly (and inexplicably) brave Hotfoot charges the gun-wielding goon, ostensibly because he thinks the man push Midnight and the gang into the creek, his would-be impact is cut short by a belch-induced levitation such as we earlier saw from Burpin' Bill.

Seizing the opportunity afforded by this distraction, Midnight charges into the thugs and begins laying them out like cord wood.  Once he's finished with them, the entourage notices Bill is missing.  A cry from the heavens reveals that he's in danger of floating away (due to the fear evoked by the gun battle preventing him from burping).  A quick deployment of the handy vacuum gun brings Bill back to earth.

Midnight suddenly announces he's near to figuring out what's going on.  He then inquires as to whether or not Bill has been drinking the creek water.  When the flatulent farmer affirms that he drinks water from some bubbling springs that also feed the creek--and just so happens to Owl's camp--Midnight demands to be taken directly to the mobster's camp to "sew this case up!"

Doesn't it seem more likely that gangsters
who've taken over a homestead would be living
in...the house!?

With nary an explanation to his bewildered comrades, Midnight fires the vacuum gun at the criminals' tent and ever so gently tugs the corner of the said tent over the spring's waters; whereupon the tent inflates like a balloon.

Startled ne'er-do-wells dangle from the tent poles breathing out threats against a decidedly unimpressed Midnight.  Instead our hero coolly replies that if they make even on phoney move, he'll dump them into the water.  (Not sure exactly how he'd do that, but whatever...we'll go with it.)  The terrified goons announce they'll drop their guns, but Sniffer distrusts them and decides to "help" out by firing on the balloon-tent.  Naturally, the tent immediately deflates and the bad guys are dumped into the spring water.

In the ensuing melee, Sniffer exhibits uncharacteristic bravery by charging up and socking one of the thugs who immediately starts flying off into the wild blue yonder.  We get the "explanation"  of what's happened in the closing panels, as Midnight uses the vacuum gun to reel in the  zepplin-esque gangster.

And that's it. 

Yeah...this one left a lot to be desired.