Popularity gets you admitted to some clubs. In the Justice Society of America, it got you expelled.
Talk about your reverse snobbery!
Actually, editorial policy decreed that when a character became successful enough to earn a comic book title devoted solely to his adventures, he must step aside so the JSA spotlight could shine on some other superhero.
So it was that in All Star Comics 8 (Dec. 1941), Green Lantern became an “honorary member” like Superman, Batman and the Flash, and Dr. Mid-Nite stepped in. Hourman took a “leave of absence,” giving up his place to the superhero who’d supplanted him on the cover of Adventure Comics — Starman.
“By 1941, the takeover of the American comic book by superheroes was well advanced,” noted comics historian Don Markstein. “In fact, Starman, a creation of writer Gardner Fox (The Flash, Doctor Fate) and artist Jack Burnley (a DC regular who had already drawn Superman, Batman and other high-profile features), was no less than the third of that genre to head up DC’s Adventure Comics.”
Millionaire amateur astronomer Ted Knight fought crime with his Gravity Rod, which proved to be a pretty fair stand-in for a “power ring.”
Created by writer Chuck Reizenstein and Stan Asch, Dr. Mid-Nite first appeared in All-American Comics 25 (April 1941), a comic book headlined by a champion of light, the Green Lantern. The green-caped and red-vested Dr. Mid-Nite became its champion of darkness, wielding blackout bombs and assisted by his helpful owl.
With infrared goggles of his own design, the hero was able to see in daylight as well. Like the Shadow, he made the very darkness an ally.
Though technologically savvy, McNider wasn’t very creative with names — he called his owl “Hooty” and sported a nom de guerre that sounded almost exactly like his own name.
But the real origin of his name was a wink at a radio melodrama then being broadcast that boasted an audience in the millions: Captain Midnight.
Michael Fraley wrote: I loved Dr. Mid-Nite as a kid, and I could never understand why he didn't get a bigger push. I didn't realize until many years later that reinvented as Marvel's Daredevil, he would become a major star.
ReplyDeleteI replied: That's an excellent point. You could also call both of them a variation on both the Black Bat and the ORIGINAL Daredevil, who was mute.
Michael Fraley wrote: Yes, Stan replaced one disability for Daredevil with another. As far as powers went, Marvel was a superhero recycling bin. It was what took them beyond generic guys with powers that gave them life.
I wrote: The super powers had all been used up by 1960 anyway. Only variations on a theme were left.
Michael Fraley wrote: Yep, it would have been easy to have said that superheroes were a done deal, as in “been there, done that.” I'm sure that many people *did* say that. Why bother? But they had a resurgence in spite of all of that.
I repled: Superheroes have been with us since Gilgamesh, and will be until the end.