Midnight (real name: Dave Clark) is a

fictional character In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, Play (theatre), play, Radio series, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or b ...

owned by

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with their f ...

. A masked detective, he was created by writer-artist Jack Cole for Quality Comics during the 1930s to 1940s period fans and historians call the

Golden Age of Comic Books The Golden Age of Comic Books describes an era of American comic books from 1938 to 1956. During this time, modern comic books were first published and rapidly increased in popularity. The superhero archetype was created and many well-known cha ...

. A female supervillain alien version of Midnight appeared in the fifth season of '' Supergirl'', portrayed by actress Jennifer Cheon Garcia.

Publication history

With writer-artist

Will Eisner William Erwin Eisner (March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series ''The Spirit'' (1940–1952) was no ...

retaining rights to the masked-detective character the Spirit, Quality Comics publisher "Busy" Arnold, who published the comic-book version of this newspaper character, desired a hedge in case Eisner were killed or incapacitated during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Arnold directed Jack Cole to create a similar character, which became Midnight.Midnight
at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Archived
from the original on February 19, 2016. Midnight debuted in ''Smash Comics'' #18 (

cover-date The cover date of a periodical publication is the date displayed on the cover, which is not necessarily the true date of publication (the on-sale date or release date); later cover dates are common in magazine and comic book publishing. More unu ...

d Jan. 1941). The character became popular enough to become the cover feature with ''Smash Comics'' #28 (Nov. 1941), a position he would hold for nearly eight years until the title's cancellation with issue #85 (Oct. 1949).

Fictional character biography

Dave Clark

Dave Clark is a radio announcer in Big City. He is an actor in a show named "The Man Called Midnight", about a masked crime fighter. After witnessing the collapse of a twelve-story building, he finds out that it had collapsed as a result of deliberate criminal negligence on the part of its builder, Morris Carleton. Clark decides to fight Carleton and force him to admit responsibility. To do this, he puts on a domino mask and assumes the identity of Midnight himself. After succeeding, he chooses to continue to fight crime as "Midnight, the eerie friend of the needy". In ''Smash Comics'' #21, Midnight encounters the intelligent talking monkey Gabby. By the end of the story, the death of the scientist responsible leaves Gabby in Midnight's care, and the monkey becomes Midnight's sidekick. In ''Smash Comics'' #23, Midnight and Gabby face off against

mad scientist The mad scientist (also mad doctor or mad professor) is a stock character of a scientist who is perceived as " mad, bad and dangerous to know" or " insane" owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly a ...

Doc Wackey who, once captured, is talked into reforming and joins forces with Midnight. Doc Wackey and Gabby would continue to serve as Midnight's sidekicks (and often

comic relief Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension. Definition Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic epis ...

) for the remainder of Midnight's run on the title. According to ''Jess Nevins' Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes'', Midnight "fights ordinary gangsters, the magician Chango (whose spells are in

Pig Latin Pig Latin is a language game or argot in which words in English are altered, usually by adding a fabricated suffix or by moving the onset or initial consonant or consonant cluster of a word to the end of the word and adding a vocalic syl ...

), the femme fatale Circle, the maniacal Laughing Killer, the Men from Mars, the Amazonian Robustia, and others". Midnight was killed in ''Smash Comics'' #36, where he went to Hell at his own request so that he could attempt to fight the Devil himself. Midnight was resurrected at the end of the chapter thanks to a mad scientist. Eventually two more colorful characters joined the gang, inept private detective Sniffer Snoop and his pet Hotfoot, a baby polar bear. Like the other Quality characters, Midnight was bought by

after Quality Comics folded in 1956, but has not been extensively used. Like most other Golden Age heroes, he made an appearance in

Roy Thomas Roy William Thomas Jr."Roy Thomas Checklist" ''Alter Ego'' vol. 3, #50 (July 2005) p. 16 (born November 22, 1940) is an American comic book writer and editor, who was Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibl ...

' ''

All-Star Squadron The All-Star Squadron is a DC Comics superhero team that debuted in ''Justice League of America'' #193 (August 1981) and was created by Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler and Jerry Ordway. Although the team was introduced in the 1980s, its self-titled series ...

'', which Thomas used to feature every Golden Age character owned by DC. He also worked with the Freedom Fighters for some time. In his sole post-

Crisis A crisis ( : crises; : critical) is either any event or period that will (or might) lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affair ...

appearance, a revised version of Midnight's origin written by Thomas and drawn by

Gil Kane Gil Kane (; born Eli Katz ; April 6, 1926 – January 31, 2000) was a Latvian-born American comics artist whose career spanned the 1940s to the 1990s and virtually every major comics company and character. Kane co-created the modern-day vers ...

was published in ''

Secret Origins ''Secret Origins'' is the title of several comic book series published by DC Comics which featured the origin stories of the publisher's various characters. Publication history ''Secret Origins'' was first published as a one-shot in 1961 and c ...

'' #28. His base of operations was

retcon Retroactive continuity, or retcon for short, is a literary device in which established diegetic facts in the plot of a fictional work (those established through the narrative itself) are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subs ...

ned into

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. Midnight has not appeared since, and nothing is known of his fate after the 1940s.

Midnight II

A new Midnight was introduced in the 1990s in '' Ms. Tree Quarterly'', but whether this Midnight has any connection to the original is unknown.

Jack Sheridan

Jack Sheridan first appeared as Midnight in the backup story of "Bug! The Adventures of Forager", "Midnight in the Phantom Zone" by James Harvey from issues #3 to 6. Jack Sheridan's biography seems to be identical to that of Dave Clark's, referring to his job as a radio presenter, actor in "The Man Called Midnight", as well as his association with Doc Wackey and Gabby. Additionally Jack refers to his time in Hell at which point the reader is referred to ''Smash Comics'' #36. He is said to be equipped with a "vacuum gun", a "2-way radio" and a "suit equipped with light-receptive

vantablack Vantablack is a brand name for a class of super-black coatings with total hemispherical reflectances (THR) below 1.5% in the visible spectrum. The coatings were invented by Ben Jensen, who first publicly unveiled them in July 2014, and commerci ...

filaments". This iteration of Midnight is not traditionally heroic, as he mentions that he has multiple vices and seeks monetary compensation from a homeless man for his assistance. Midnight enters the Phantom Zone against his will, handcuffed to criminal Sally Mae, to save her gang's leader, who became lost within. They are guided by a Kryptonian named Dig. For reasons which are unclear, it was necessary for Midnight to sacrifice himself so that the other three in his party might leave the Phantom Zone.

Other versions

* In the Elseworlds miniseries '' JLA: Destiny'', by John Arcudi and

Tom Mandrake Tom Mandrake (born 1956) is an American comics artist, perhaps best known for his collaborations with writer John Ostrander on several series, including ''Grimjack'' (from First Comics) and ''Firestorm'', ''The Spectre'', and ''Martian Manhunter'' ...

, a version of Midnight exists in a world where Superman and

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book '' Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939 ...

do not exist. This version of Midnight, named William Cole, is a former detective with the

Gotham City Police Department Gotham City ( ), or simply Gotham, is a fictional city appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, best known as the home of the superhero Batman and his allies and foes. Created by writer Bill Finger and artist Bob Kane, th ...

and a senior member of Thomas Wayne's Justice League of America, formerly the Justice League of Gotham, as Midnight.

In other media

A female version of the character appeared in the fifth season of '' Supergirl'' portrayed by Jennifer Cheon Garcia. This version is an alien villain with vortex-based abilities and was imprisoned in the

Phantom Zone The Phantom Zone is a prison-like parallel dimension appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. It is mainly associated with stories featuring Superman. It first appeared in ''Adventure Comics'' #283 (April 1961), and was created by ...

. Ma'alefa'ak steals Kryptonian technology from a museum and uses it to free Midnight from the Phantom Zone. In her first encounter with Supergirl, Alex Danvers, Brainiac 5, and Martian Manhunter, Supergirl suspected that she will come after her because her mother Alura sent different villains to the Phantom Zone only for Martian Manhunter to admit that he was the one who banished her to the Phantom Zone for leading a

White Martian The White Martians are one of three fictional extraterrestrial races native to Mars in the DC Comics' shared universe. White Martians, also known as Pale Martians, appear in the comics of the DC Universe, chiefly ''JLA'', '' Martian Manhunter' ...

attack. When Midnight attacks an evening party held by Lena Luthor, Kara uses her new suit created by Brainiac 5 to stop a black hole caused by Midnight. Afterwards, Midnight is sent back into the Phantom Zone using a Phantom Zone projector.

External links

Midnight by Jack Cole from ''Smash Comics'' #32 originally copyrighted in 1942 by E.M. Arnold

References

{{GoldenAge Golden Age superheroes Comics characters introduced in 1941 Quality Comics superheroes DC Comics superheroes Fictional actors Characters created by Jack Cole