Real
Name: Dave Clark
Midnight
Real
Name: Dave Clark
Identity/Class: Normal human
Occupation: Radio Announcer for UXAM
Affiliations: Doc Wackey (scientist); Gabby (monkey), Sniffer Snoop
(detective)
DC version only Danette Reilly (girlfriend, Firebrand), Freedom Fighters
Enemies: Big-Hearted Bosco, Carleton Construction Company, Chango, Circe, Cyanide Cindy, Cyclops Celon, Laughing Killer, Men from Mars, Robustia, the Squid
Known Relatives: None.
Aliases: None.
Base of Operations: initially New York; later Big City, Michigan; later San Francisco
First Appearance: Smash Comics #18 (Quality Comics, January 1941)
Powers/Abilities: As well as being an excellent fighter (he trained as a semi-pro boxer during the Depression), Midnight employs a "vacuum gun" which fires a suction cup on the end of a superstrong silk line, and a .45 pistol, which he often loads with sleep darts.
History: When radio announcer Dave Clark witnessed a building collapse, only to discover the disaster and others like it were down to deliberate criminal negligence on the part of the builders, Carleton Construction Company, whose connections protected them from being investigated, he swore he would do something about this injustice. He took the identity of Midnight, a radio character whose voice he had provided (while filling in for an absent actor), and in this role forced the owner of the company, Morris Carleton, to confess responsibility for the poor constructions over a loudspeaker heard for miles around. He worked with Doc Wackey, a reformed villain and scientist, and Gabby, a talking monkey.
Comments:
Created by Everett Arnold, and written by Jack Cole. Unashamedly inspired
by The Spirit. Arnold had worked with Spirit
creator Will Eisner in selling the Spirit to newspapers in the early days,
and according to Eisner was worried that the Spirit creator would be drafted
and killed, leaving him nothing to replace the creator-owned character (which
is a little bizarre, given Quality had the Clock,
who was probably the inspiration for the Spirit to begin with). Hence the
development of Midnight. The character was sufficiently successful to graduate
to being the cover star as of #28, where he stayed until #85 in October 1949,
after which it was retitled to Lady Luck.
Like all of Quality's line of characters, he became the property of DC when Quality folded in 1956. While some of the Quality heroes returned to the comics relatively soon after this, Midnight would have to wait nearly thirty years, until 1984, when he returned in the pages of All-Star Squadron.
CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with
Midnighter, member of the Authority.
Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.
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