Another Midnight Feature...Or Is It? (part 1) -- Smash Comics #58 (APR 1945)

I gotta give it to Gustavson (or whoever wrote this) the feature splash page is intriguing!

The main story begins--as the last several have--in Dave Clark's home, where the insufferable Sniffer Snoop actually asks a good question!

Show of hands -- Who else has been wondering
the same thing?

Dave goes on to "explain" that one Vince McGonigle has been bragging about having a "sure-fire way" to kill Midnight.  Dave's staying in costume because he wants to be ready for anything.  When Sniffer goes off on his typical monologue about how he could protect Dave, collar McGoniglce, etc., a frustrated Gabby storms off to see what Doc Wackey's up to. Our monk friend finds the inventor putting the finishing touches on yet another "greatest and most useful invention."  This turns out to be not much more than two mirrors, with flashing lights, attached to the ends of a fan.

Ta Daa--...wait...what?!

Eager to put Sniffer in his place, the two summon the still-pontificating "detective" into the room, ostensibly to check the balance on the mirrors.  Of course, Sniffer's immediately hypnotized, at which point Gab and Wackey exact their revenge.  They make Sniffer act like a dog...and seem to have designs on making him pose as an old woman. 

Gabby dashes off to get the old dress, while Wackey--inexplicably--decides that maybe one of the mirrors is out of line and he should check it.  Naturally, he too is hypnotized.  Midnight comes into the room a moment later to check on everyone and...well, you can guess what happens.  Gabby returns to find both his pals (and Sniffer) out of it.

To my recollection, this is the first instance
of Gabby have a signature tag line.  In earlier
stories, Midnight used the phrase, "Red Fire!"
a lot, but we haven't seen it in quite some time.
I'll be curious to see how many more times
Jupiter Pluvius! crops up.

Meanwhile, in the secret hideout of Vince McGonigle we finally learn the specifics of his "sure fire" tactic for killing Midnight.

In what is a glaring plot hole (given the earlier explanation that Dave was sitting around in his Midnight outfit so that McGonigle wouldn't realize Dave Clark was Midnight.

pg. 4

Yet here we find an anxiety-ridden Gabby still in the room (seemingly shortly after discovering his pals are hypnotized) and who should suddenly come through the window?

pg. 8

(Sooooo...I guess Midnight's civilian identity isn't all that "secret" after all?)

Anyhoo...once McGonigle's gang are inside, they praise Bixby for having (they assume) given Midnight the evil eye, "right through the window."  For unexplained reasons, the crooks decide it "ain't safe" to kill Midnight and his pals here in the apartment of Dave Clark.  Instead, Bixby orders the hypnotized trio to start walking to an as-yet undisclosed location where the coup de grace will be delivered.

Since Gabby remain unhypnotized--and is breathing out threats (however ineffective)--the crooks toss him in a footlocker.  McGonigle decides not to kill the simian sidekick because, "somebody's gotta tell around that it was me that was too tough for Midnight..."

On the way to the appointed execution, we get the in-story rationale for Midnight's eventual triumph.

Arriving at what appears to be a non-descript warehouse, McGonigle directs his prey down into the basement and backs our heroes up against a wall.

Is this it for beloved Midnight?!
Is Big City to be plunged into an unchecked reign of terror?!!

Resist Ragnarok Like There's No Such Thing as a Broken Heart: Leir's 9th appearance

The Mighty Thor #425 (OCT 1990)

Today we come to the ninth appearance of Leir in the Marvel canon.  Not surprisingly, once again we find our crimson-maned champion within the pages of The Mighty Thor.  This particular issue tries to wrap up a number of threads.  First, we see the resolution of the impending threat of Ragnarok.   Ragnarok was supposed to be the final battle between the powerful Elementals Surtur (the Fire Demon) and his counterpart Ymir (the Frost Giant).  In previous issues is was revealed that Odin had possessed Surtur the Fire Demon in an attempt to use his power to forestall the prophesied End. As this story begins, the two Elementals are engaged in a ruinous battle in Asgard.

Meanwhile, Thor, Hercules, and Eric  Masterson are wrapping up a cosmic sojourn in which they witnessed the birth of a new celestial, met the High Evolutionary's New Immortals, saw Hercules "restored", the High Evolutionary made comatose, and Thor and Eric finally separated.  After everyone has said their obligatory goodbyes, the poignant moment is interrupted by a dimensional warp out of which comes Lady Sif, Caber, and our man in Avalon--Leir!

After updating Thor on the current threat to Asgard, Sif and the Celts transport Thor & co. back to the Realm Eternal.

 

While the Asgardians fight a futile rear-guard action to save their home, the Vizier tells Thor the last remaining hope--isn't there always just "one last chance"?--to save Asgard will be for the Prince of Asgard to retrieve the Twilight Sword from the Dimension of Death.

Naturally, the attempt to do so will threaten Thor's very life, but he doesn't hesitate to go.  At this point we have the dramatic "I'm going off to war" scene between Thor and Lady Sif.  Given their passionate kiss and Leir's obvious distaste for the spectacle, I can only assume that the good Lady finally admitted to Leir that she'd just been using him all along and wouldn't really marry him.  (Regardless of how arrogant Leir can be at times, ya gotta feel some sympathy for the guy here.  He basically went on an inter-dimensional jaunt and got roped into fighting Elementals for a girl who dropped him like a hot potato for her old flame.)

Not cool, Sif...not cool at all.

After breaking the seal between his lips and Sif's, Thor heads into the Dimension of Death where he promptly gets old and has to fight a bunch of bat demons...or something.  Meanwhile, back in Asgard, Leir doesn't get much opportunity to lick his emotional wounds.  Fortunately for him, Leir is more 1930s alpha male than 2000+ hipster.  Does he sit around crying in his mead?  Heck no!  He picks himself up, dusts himself off, and jumps right into the middle of life-threatening battle!

 

This page gave me an epiphany about why Leir may not have caught on.
Essentially, he was Hercules' classic character, mixed with Thor's power,
a few extra inches, and a handlebar moustache.  I guess it made sense
when Marvel was trying to "mature" Hercules.

Despite their bold (or foolhardy?) actions, fortunately for Herc and Leir someone on the battlefield had the sense to recognize, "the better part of valor."

While Caber's busy keeping his buddy alive, Thor triumphs over the Death Dimension's bat demons thanks to the timely assistance of mere mortal Eric Masterson.  (I know...don't ask questions, just go with it.)

Thor and Eric successfully retrieve the Twilight Sword and return to Asgard. The Sword turns out to be little more than a macguffin, as it really isn't the mechanism for defeating Ymir and Surtur that we've been led to expect (but I won't spoil that aspect of the story for you, in case you want to read it yourself).

Everything wraps up nice and tidy, complete with the obligatory celebration panel.

 

(On a side note:  I think this was a missed opportunity to make the otherwise annoying Eric Masterson a compelling and sympathetic character.  Allowing Eric to die in order for Thor to complete his mission would've made a nice wrap-up...but that's a topic for another day).

The Death of a Dummy (part 2) -- Smash Comics #57 (FEB 1945)

Last week, we were introduced to Egbert the Dummy.  Today, we conclude the story of Egbert's thrilling adventures with Midnight, champion of Big City justice.

Assuming himself secure in his hideout, crime boss Killer Kride is laying into his lieutenants.  This comes as quite a shock to the duo, who anticipated being praised for bumping off snitch Iggy the Pig.  They learn Kride wasn't ready for Iggy to be killed because "the Pig" was the only person who had the list of Kride's safe deposit boxes.  Though Kride's organization had millions of dollars of stolen loot, now no one knows where it is!

Wackey and Gabby first discover that Egbert has been stolen, and then, that their supposedly "one-of-a-kind" dummy was anything but!  

I guess the Hero's Code is like the Pirate's Code?

Midnight arrives outside Kride's hideout to the sounds of the latter's continued ranting.  Midnight demands the list of safety deposit boxes, and Kride (predictably) orders his thugs to, "take him!"  The pro forma fight ensues wherein Midnight--despite being both outnumbered and out-gunned--easily wins.  Kride pleads that if Midnight wants to beat the truth out of somebody, he ought to start with the henchmen.  Ever so slowly, our hero begins to piece together what must've happened:

After dropping the henchmen off with the local cops and essentially saying, "Lock these guys up, and I'll tell you why later!" Midnight hauls Kride back to Dave Clark's apartment, where our hero searches in vain for his pals.  This quest is interrupted by a phone call from Gabby begging Midnight to come bail them out of jail!  With Midnight momentarily distracted, Kride tries to make a break for it out a nearby window.  This is a mistake.

Midnight next hauls the now-unconscious Kride down to the police station with the intentions of: (A) dropping off the crime boss with the cops, and (B) finding out where Sniffer Snoop had placed the body of Iggy the Pig and finally locating the safe deposit box list.

As soon as Midnight enters the station, however, a bevy of cops spot him and assume he's just, "another wize guy with a dummy!"  (No word on why none of Big City's finest seem to recognize Midnight at point blank range.) Apparently, the Big City PD rank-and-file took pranking pretty seriously, because it looks like every cop in the precinct bum rushed our hero!  Once things settle down, one apologetic flat foot offers this explanation for their behavior:

After being showed the stockpile of "dummies," everyone (except, of course, Midnight) is shocked to learn that one is the actual corpse of Iggy "The Pig" Ratso (yes, we finally learn Iggy's last name on the last page).

We end with the cops making a gentlemanly agreement with Midnight to bury the story about how a precinct full of law-officers couldn't tell the difference between a corpse and a dummy.

The Death of a Dummy (part 1) -- Smash Comics #57 (FEB 1945)

Smash Comics #57 (FEB 1945)

 The story starts with Wackey and Gabby buying a lifelike dummy from an apparently Jewish(?) shop-owner.  It seems they intend to use the dummy to stage a fake murder scene in Sniffer Snoop's bed so as to, "scare that prattling parasite into hunting a new house to haunt." When Gabby decides that the ketchup they've already spread across the back of Egbert the Dummy doesn't makes for a gorey-enough scene, Wackey suggests they swing by the local grocery.

Meanwhile, a frantic green-clad man (who we later learn is named "Iggy") hurries to a meeting with Midnight.  Unfortunately, Iggy's back has an unfortunate encounter with a shiv, courtesy of two ne'er-do-wells who smugly announce, "Iggy ain't gonna rat on us no more."

The grisly deed done, one thug worries that because a cop saw them enter the alley when Iggy's body is found the fuzz will know exactly who's responsible.  The fretful felon's companion explains that all they have to do is hide Iggy's body somewhere else.  Of course you've guessed by now that the nearest car is the lately-abandoned conveyance of Doc Wackey.  When the thugs open the door and find Egbert the Dummy, they decide to exchange Iggy's very real corpse for Egbert's very fake one.  That way, "...in case we was seen wit' Iggy we can claim it was a dummy all da time!"

We next shift to Midnight, Sniffer Snoop, and Hotfoot walking down the sidewalk.  Our fedora-ed paladin is concerned because his informant, Iggy the Pig, never showed up with the list of Killer Kride's safe deposit boxes.  As they stroll past Doc Wackey's car, Midnight is shocked to discover a corpse inside!  Sniffer initially sloughs the discovery off, explaining that he overheard Wackey and Gabby planning to trick him by using a dummy.

Satisfied, our hero strolls off to continue his search for Iggy.  Sniffer, meanwhile, hauls the "dummy" out of Wackey's car and back home to, "rig up a trick or two of my own!"

While brooding over the mystery of Iggy's disappearance, Midnight comes to the conclusion that Kride must've found out about Iggy's intentions and, "shut his mouth permanently!"  Midnight concludes the only thing left for him to do: