Midnight 

Affiliations: Freedom Fighters,
All-Star Squadron
Civilian Identity: Dave
Clark, Radio News Announcer
Base of Operations: Big City and San
Francisco
Tools & Weapons:  Midnight's favorite
weapons are his secret vacuum gun
(which throws a suction cup that is connected to a self-winding reel of
fine silk cord strong enough to hold a man's weight) and his .45 (which he
has loaded with sleep-darts).
Associates: Midnight is pal of
brilliant yet eccentric and absent-minded
scientist/inventor Doc Wackey; a talking monkey, Gabby; humorous detective
Sniffer Snoop; and the latter's pet baby polar bear Hotfoot.  He has been
seen socially with Danette Reilly (Firebrand).


Created by Jack Cole

Origin:

The man called ... Midnight, "eerie friend of the needy", is actually David Clark, an ordinary American, announcer for radio station UXAM in Big City, Michigan. He received much of his training as a semipro boxer during the Great Depression. When Clark saw the catastrophic collapse of a 12-story building, and learned that it as well as a nearby dam had been erected with criminal negligence by the Carleton Construction Company, he began to entertain the idea of becoming a mystery man himself, to protect the working classes from the excesses of the corrupt ruling class when night's inky blackness descends. He overpowered the evil Morris Carleton and got him to confess his responsibility for the faulty construction of the dam and building over a loudspeaker that broadcast his confession to the surrounding area. Midnight's next case involved graft and maltreatment in an orphanage. Midnight has since joined the Freedom Fighters in San Francisco to help protect it from an Axis invasion of the West Coast.

Midnight:

You see a tall man with a husky build. His hair is black and tousled, he has a strong jaw and a dimpled chin and an easygoing smile. He is wearing a stylish black business suit with a black tie, a blue fedora (with a black hatband) and no socks. A black domino mask seems grafted onto his face.

Mush History:

Midnight's first encounter with the All-Star Squadron took him to Turkey along with Manhunter, Phantom Lady, and Tex Thompson. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted from his spot announcer position to that of war correspondent, and spent the next several months in London, reporting on the Blitz. During this time he travelled to Spain with several of his old allies from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, in order to put an end to a training ground for Axis superhumans that had been founded there. Since his return he has been a very active participant in All-Star cases. He briefly attempted a stint in tights (inspired by Sandman and the Crimson Avenger) but quickly abandoned it for the standard suit. He was very active in the battle against the Superman Revenge Squadron. Midnight fell from a cliff and was killed as a result of a rough and tumble bout with a baldheaded crook known as Cyclops Ceylon; although death took something out of him, he got better, and has since returned to the living.

Midnight has run several TP's. Among them:

  • Crisis on Earth-J {Prolog to Ultra and the Artifact Blues}
  • Return of the Flash's Rogues Gallery
  • An All-Star Halloween or The All-Hallow's Eve Squadron
  • Attack of the Black Menagerie
  • Showdown at the Fairground
  • Les Redentors vs. Brigada de Toro
  • The Ultimate Man
  • The Reign of the Superman
  • The Johnny Quick Revenge Squad {Prolog to Dreamscape}
  • Homage to Catalonia
  • Days of Past Futurity
  • The All-American Squadron
  • The Death of Midnight, pt. 1
  • The Death of Midnight, pt. 2
  • The Boulder Dam Sabotage Case
  • The Death of Midnight Epilogue: The Vatican Library Under Siege
  • Project Habukkuk
  • An Ambush of Tears
  • The Danner Diaries
  • Tea and Sympathy
  • By Gabby Betrayed!
  • The Canister
  • In the Belly of the Beast
  • The Gold, the Jade, the Heir
  • Berlin Days (Part 2 of The Last All-Stars Story)
  • Everything is Impossible
  • All-Stars through the Looking-Glass
  • Spider and I
  • Ne'er A Rose Without A Thorn
  • Robot Carnival: A Tale of Earth-2
  • "The gambler, by the state Licensed ... "
  • The Charlatan Sky
  • Unhappy The Land That Needs Heroes
  • Black Panther
  • Return of the Arch-Mages

    • Bibliography:

  • Mike Benton, Masters of Imagination, "Jack Cole"
  • Ron Goulart, Focus on Jack Cole (for more info, cf. this page on the Death Patrol)
  • Jeff Rovin, Encyclopedia of Super Heroes, "Midnight"
  • Roy Thomas & Gil Kane, Secret Origins#28, "The Secret Origin of Midnight"

    Midnight would like to thank Eric Newsom for the design of this page.
    Another Midnight site can be found as a sub-section of Wes Tumulka's Spirit page.