August 1964
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| Owlman uses his Illumina-Gun in "Crisis on Earth Three" (Justice League of America #29) |
April 1967
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| The Owl uses his Owl-Gun in Dell Comics' The Owl #1. |
September 1967
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| Dr. Mid-Nite uses his Cyrotuber in "Crisis Between Earth 1 and Earth 2" (Justice League of America #47). |
The Ga-Ga Gun (or its equivalent) was quite simply an idea whose time clearly had come. But has it gone? I have never seen repeated uses of such a device.
I must agree with the assessment that Dr. Mid-Nite's blackout bombs were a threadworn device, even in the '60s. I find Dr. Mid-Nite more interesting when the character's uniqueness in being a brilliant physician is relied upon narratively more than his uniqueness as a (daytime) blind person. Giving him a a wider variety of weapons based on his knowledge of this weaknesses of the human body seems like it would keep the character much more interesting in a contemporary context.
3 comments:
I forget where I saw it, but apparently, in the earliest tellings, Charlie MacNider is blind during the day because his eyes are too sensitive. He's not blind because his eyes don't work; he's blind because everything registers uniformly as "off the charts bright". Doesn't cause him pain, but he can't see unless you make things sufficiently dim (and as HJF1, I know all about "sufficiently dim").
So yeah, I'm with you, Dr Mid-Nite should devise weapons that rely on human biology. I submit his specialty ought to be messing with people's senses and nervous systems.
- HJF1
... also I suddenly realize that Dr. Mid-Nite's goggles are probably what today are known as "transition lenses". Probably more opaque at their darkest than modern transitions, and probably react quicker to light changes. I don't know what technical wizardry produced them, but those were the days Batman was building robot duplicates, so this is the last thing I should complain about.
- HJF1
I think the modern Dr. Mid-nite has a wider arsenal. I'm talking Pieter Cross, not Beth Chapel, though she absolutely should. I seem to recall anesthetic darts, which make sense. And half-moon shurikens, which make less sense. But I like the idea of devices that make criminals dizzy, or sick, or unconscious. Give the character a theme. Plus Hooty should make a comeback. Owls are vicious and birds in general are super-protective.
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