The Black Dragon versus Dr. Mid-Nite

Have you been thrilling to the wild adventures of the Justice Society of America repeatedly clashing with the insidious Axis organization, the Black Dragon?  Well, worry not; Dr. Mid-Nite is here to put a stop to that! Nobody can stop a party faster and more thoroughly than the benighted knight.  Thrill as Dr. Mid-Nite, alone of all the JSAers, actually READS HIS ASSIGNMENT OUT LOUD.

Out loud TO HIS OWL.
Imagine that your most boring history teacher got promoted to vice-principal.  And had an owl.

For the record, x-rays were discovered by German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895, but comic books gotta do what they gotta do.  They also do not "heal wounds".

That's the Purple Ray, and it was invented by Wonder Woman, who, like Batman, is a scientist.

Note that Dr. Mid-Nite (and his creative team) don't think you are smart enough to follow his tediously slow line of thought and so uses panel arrows.

Like, forty cakes terrible.

Dr. Mid-Nite is clueless! But he comes up with a plan to lure the Black Dragons to him, and you, young man, are going to listen to every details of it before you can go back to class.

Mid-Nite's ventriloquism hobby was fun, but he never managed to convince anyone that Hooty could talk.

Mid-Nite takes advantage of the fact that all doctors' handwriting is so bad that no one can tell them apart.

And... could he only do that with the lights off?

Next, we rejoin Dr. Mid-Nite back at home where -- HO-HUM -- the Doctor is even boring himself. 

How bad it is when the OWL find you too boring to listen to?

Oh, good, the police! Maybe the po' will liven things up.

"The doctor will see you now. Um.. figuratively, I mean."

Sigh. Let's take our time reminding everyone that Dr. McNider is blind. Or is supposed to be blind.  Or is blind except when it's dark. Honestly, I could never make any sense of it.

"Well, you're stupid and I'm blind; perhaps my secretary can help us."

O M G JUST READ THE WHOLE FORMULA OUT LOUD.

Okay, that's not how "formulae" work but, whatever, Golden Age science.

It's sequences like this that make you appreciate truly Golden Age writing mastery such as you find in Batman stories.  In a Batman story, this would have taken three panels MAX:

1. Batman says, "Hm, but I have an idea!"
2. Next panel you seek the fake headline that the newspaper has placed at Batman's request, perhaps with a caption telling you, the reader, that it is fake;
3. final panel would be the panel of the target reading the headline.

Lest you imagine that I'm exaggerating:

"Knights of Knavery", Batman #25 (Oct-November 1944).
"One doesn't wear court emeralds with tweed; it simply isn't done."

Of course, in "Knights of Knavery", it's a classic Batman gambit; Batman is actually relying on the Joker and the Penguin being too smart to be fooled by the fake article.  But Doc Mid-Nite is no Batman and the Black Dragon is no United Underworld.

As repeatedly established, they are fiendish but not especially bright.

So Doc's plan to lure the Black Dragon to him seems to be working and he makes himself an easy target by NOT going into hiding.

Did Myrna ever figure out that McNider wasn't blind?  I bet she was FURIOUS.

Are they really going to take this long to show the Black Dragon kidnapping a blind man?

You bet they are!  I think McNider's specialty must be sleep science because he sure is an expert at making readers nod off.

In case you are wondering, Hooty is a rare Chekov's Owl.
If you see him loaded in the first act, you just know it's going to go off in the third act.

 At least we are spared the entire ride to the far off sanitarium.

"ACH!"? Oh, no, there's going to be an evil German scientist as the shadowy mastermind, isn't there?

Ach.
For the record, NO ONE is named "Smallheimer". Not on our Earth, at least.

Finally, through in the same dungeon with the missing scientist, Dr. McNider makes the switch to Dr. Mid-Nite under the cover of darkness.

So, Dr. Mid-Nite has finally arrived at his goal.
You know, the thing Starman did in the FIRST PANEL of his story.

Ack.

Dr. Mid-Nite reappears just in time to prevent Dr. Smallheimer from y-viscerating Dr. Stander with The Y-Ray.

Exactly how Dr. Stander intended to use a Death Ray to save lives remains unclear to me.

Look out, Mid-Nite!

I'd like to think Dr. Mid-Nite's punches only generate black stars because it's thematic, but I'm probably overthinking it.

For a doctor, Mid-Nite is AWFULLY ready to die:

"Well, I am a brilliant inventor, you costumed kook, and I have no desire to die before I have even DISCOVERED the Z-ray."

THEY ARE DOOMED. ALL IS LOST. NOTHING CAN SAVE THEM!

Except...

You know, very few things are more hilariously humiliating than getting hit in the head by an owl.

All the villains get y-cinerated by the errant Y-Ray.

To his credit as a doctor, Dr. Mid-Nite does actively regret not being able to save them.
It's a nice touch.

Then, as in so many stories of stolen inventions, the inventor decides to destroy the Y-Ray machine to prevent it from every falling into the wrong hands again.

Again, how Y-Rays can save lives remain unclear. Maybe he's going to target cancer cells?

So, with some tedious subterfuge, a few punches, and Chekov's owl, Dr. Mid-Nite has completed his assignment.

Tomorrow, we will awaken from our Mid-Nite slumber to embrace the sad and soulful Spectre as he looms forward toward his assignment: recovering Reagan's Rocket-Bomb!

The Ga-Ga Gun

 August 1964

Owlman uses his Illumina-Gun in "Crisis on Earth Three" (Justice League of America #29)

April 1967

The Owl uses his Owl-Gun in Dell Comics' The Owl #1.

September 1967

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.

Who Should We Have Demonstrate the Periscope....

 Oh, I know...

THE BLIND GUY.

Per Degaton, Part 5: Appleby, Stanley, and Braun!

Dr. Mid-Nite, a physician, deputed himself to go protect the Scientists of the World, because the team's physicist and chemist had real work to do and because it would make too much sense to leave the team physician guarding the crucial old man who's been shot twice and in the hospital.

"I'm sure glad my magic see-in-the-dark-goggles and black-out-bombs aren't affected!"

Fortunately for Charles, the Scientists of the World have gathered THEMSELVES together for him, discussing what's to be done about The Change.  They've given themselves the most awesome assignment of all; let's just INVENT EVERYTHING AGAIN.

Golden Age scientists are really cool.  Professor Appleby was rebuilding society while Robert Robinson was just dulling the pain with cocaine and morphine.

Unfortunately, gathering together makes them a target so large, even Per Degaton can't miss. Kale, naturally, has the perfectly sensible plan to run with in the Diabolical Forces and quickly kick all their butts.  But that's not what happens. Why?

Because Degaton has to be a ****.  

Imagine having a strong, supportive, intelligent, devoted man played by Anthony Carrigan by your side and then continually negging him.  You truly deserve the dustbin of history, Per.

P.D. can't stop himself from waving his big "D" in front of the Scientists of the World; as a Lab Assistant, he feels they've always looked down upon him as a mere dishwasher.

When actually they never really noticed him at all.

Then he has to do his big "I am Keyser Sozey" reveal <eyeroll>. Drama queen.

"I'm done gloating and revealing my plans pointlessly, Kane! 

You can go ahead and be effective now! And make it snappy, before an enfeebled academic punches my face in!'

Dr. Mid-Nite and the ACTION SCIENTISTS spring into combat against Degaton's Diabolical Forces.

"We're not afraid of you; we're used to fighting IGNORANCE!"

Almost immediately, Degaton starts to get tossed around like a rag doll because he's nothing but an armchair general, but he's saved (as usual) by an underling.

Note the irony of a "blind" hero being felled by a light-giving candlestick while leading the scientists who illuminate the world's truths. Deep.

Naturally, the scientists get their bunsens burnt without Dr. Mid-Nite to lead them, because that's one of the conventions of the genre.  

These are the greatest of science's herds:

Appleby, Stanley, & Braun.

Trio of boffins, much greater than nerds,

Appleby, Stanley, & Braun.

Widely excelling in more fields than Hubble,

Making society rise from the rubble –

Names that are heavy with gravitas double:

Appleby, Stanley, & Braun.

Ah. Appleby, Stanley, and Braun; 1947's greatest Chemist, Physicist and Biologist!  You here on Earth Prime may not recognize their names, but there's hardly a piece of terrestrial comic book science that doesn't trace its roots to their work in one form or another. Plant-creatures, Chemo, responsometers, animorphs, freeze guns, Night Girl's hair; all the formulas, devices, and phenomenon we hold dear owe at least some debt to one or more of them.

And Degaton worked for all of them!

DON'T YOU REMEMBER ME?!

Actually, NO, they don't remember him, or at least they certainly do not act like they do or say anything about it.  This is why I love Golden Age comics. A BIG DEAL would be made of that in a modern comic.  In a Golden Age comic they just let it sit there uncommented on for you to notice or not, since it's not crucial to the plot.  The fact is, Degaton feels ignored because EVERYONE IGNORES DEGATON.  

"Now you three will be assistants to me!"  Comic book irony.

But ignoring Degaton is no longer a luxury they can afford, as he forces the three greatest minds of 1947 to devise an ingenious deathtrap out of whatever crap is in the room. Why? Because 

(a) he is probably embarrassed to try to do it himself in front of the greatest minds of his time and former bosses and 

(b) Degaton is a ****.

Degaton is not without self-awareness.  He knows he's a crappy deathtrap-deviser, but he is a good manager who delegates to specialists more talented than he, like Kale and Appleby, Stanley, & Braun.

Well, that's as low-rent --I mean, elegant-- as a death-trap gets, but if Appleby, Stanley, & Braun say IT CAN'T FAIL, then it might as well be one of Euler's Laws of Motion.  

"Earl-- he kept saying BASEMENT! He was trying to warn us!"

Fortunately, this is Appleby, Stanley, & Braun here; they are not only brilliant enough to devise an escape-proof deathtrap out of random crap, but brilliant enough to give Mid-Nite a clue how to escape it anyway, right in front of stupid Degaton's ugly face, showing why THEY were the superscientists and HE was the assistant.

  I am absolutely certain Penelope Pitstop did this escape once.

Let's see whether you can guess what's in the next panel, showing what's happening in the other room where Degaton took Appleby, Stanley, & Braun.

Hint: DEGATON IS A YOU-KNOW-WHAT.

Another guessing game! Even though The Change is so severe now that PAVEMENTS have disappeared (as the Flash noted several chapters ago), what technology remains?

BLACKOUT BOMBS!

How terribly convenient!

So, just as in all the other chapters, the JSAer encounters Degaton, is put in a death trap which they escape, but then they accomplish their essential mission, although Degaton escapes. 

Why are they at an isolated cabin at the outskirts of the city? Look, it doesn't really matter at this point, there's so much plot, reading a JSA story, it's like eating Thanksgiving meal three times a day, just keep eating, keep moving, you have to work off the calories...

But this time we return to the hospital, where Professor Zee (still under guard by Wonder Woman, Johnny Thunder, and Green Lantern) is revived by the life-giving penicillin retrieved by Jay and reveals the historical event that Per Degaton altered to cause The Change.

But you knew that already.

The clue was given us in the first panel of the story: the Macedonian shield with the inscription of thanks, that's GENERATING this entire story, you'll recall. If there's a Macedonian battle that would have changed history broadly enough to undo all of modern technology--which is, it goes without saying, entirely the result of Western Civilization, which is, naturally, entirely the result of Alexander the Great's ten-year floruit--it's the Battle of Ἄρβηλα, at which the Macedonians finally defeated the Achaemenid Empire of Persian King Darius III. 

In 1947, any ten-year-old would have figured that out.

Now, that they know what event they need to fix, they just need a way to get there.  But, of course, Degaton has the Time Machine, stored in the only possible place.  

Sure, Alan. Go yourself. After all, you're the one dressed for stealth.

Oh, I get the JSA's game now: the niche players do field work, but the real heavy-hitters (Wonder Woman, Johnny Thunder, and Green Lantern) are held back for the endgame action.

So now Alan has HIS assignment. Sneak in stealthily, in his red green gold ballet outfit and purple green queen of the universe cape while glowing with incandescent emerald flame, and retrieve the Time Machine.

What could possibly go wrong?