Who was the first Dr. Mid-Night / Dr. Midnight you ever read about?

[Stingo]

Charles McNider was the first Doc I was aware of...Actually, when I first began reading comics at the tender age of four, Charles was the ONLY Dr. Mid-Night in the DC Universe. At the time he was on the much missed fabled and legendary Earth Two. The title I first came upon him in was All Star Comics # 58. Yes, I am old.

[MajorHoy]

Charles McNider was the first Doc I was aware of...Actually, when I first began reading comics at the tender age of four, Charles was the ONLY Dr. Mid-Night in the DC Universe. At the time he was on the much missed fabled and legendary Earth Two. The title I first came upon him in was All Star Comics # 58. Yes, I am old.

Dude, All-Star Comics #58 doesn't make you old. That only came out in 1975/1976.



All-Star Comics #57 (cover-dated March 1951) would qualify you for "Geezer" status.

[SJNeal]

The OG, McNider, back in the '92 JSA series.

I'm a little embarrassed to say I've never even heard of Beth Chapel...

[skyvolt2000]

The OG, McNider, back in the '92 JSA series.

I'm a little embarrassed to say I've never even heard of Beth Chapel...

Don't feel bad she was DEAD by the time that 92 JSA series started. I have her first appearances and death issue.

[Jim Kelly]

Beth Chapel was distinguished by knowing how to spell "midnight." Not sure why those other doctors couldn't spell it. I remember my surprise when I discovered that there had been both a Captain Midnight and a Doctor Mid-Nite in the 1940s. And then I discovered that there had also been a Midnight.

[andersonh1]

The first Dr. Mid-Nite I ever read was Charles McNider, but I didn't know who he or the JSA were at the time. The first time I ever saw the character was at the end of the second issue of the Martian Manhunter American Dreams prestige format series. I knew it was a big reveal, as if it should have been someone well-known, but I'd just started reading DC, so I had no idea.

[codystarbuck]

Don't feel bad she was DEAD by the time that 92 JSA series started. I have her first appearances and death issue.

She was barely alive in Infinity Inc. She was thrown out there; but, Roy didn't really do anything with her and he was the only one even interested. She became cannon-fodder in Eclipso, along with Mark Shaw and the Will Payton Starman. They got to come back, sort of. She hasn't.

[Timber Wolf-By-Night]

She was barely alive in Infinity Inc. She was thrown out there; but, Roy didn't really do anything with her and he was the only one even interested. She became cannon-fodder in Eclipso, along with Mark Shaw and the Will Payton Starman. They got to come back, sort of. She hasn't.

Payton got fodderized in the summer series of DC Annuals making up the Eclipso storyline that re-invented Eclipso and preceded his series. Ironically, the last storyline in Payton's book featured Silver-Age-style Eclipso as the villain. Payton's death got-sort-of-but-not-really undone by James Robinson in the pages of his STARMAN, Jack Knight, in which Robinson retconned that the hero who we thought was Payton had all along been an amnesiac Prince Gavin, the Starman Steve Ditko created in a revival of ADVENTURE COMICS that was killed off in one panel of CRISIS, and that the real Payton had killed by the energy rays that supposedly turned him into a superhuman but were really Gavin arriving on Earth instead. (I always had the impression Robinson wrote the Will Payton Starman with one hand on the keyboard and the other hand pinching his nose shut.)

Getting slightly back to Chapel, fodderizing her, Shaw, and all the other heroes on that mission, as well as Payton and the three JLE members (Crimson Fox, Amazing Man II, and Blue Devil) that Robinson would years later have killed off by his new Mist (the original's daughter) to make her seem a credible threat were all done years before Dan Didio was hired, but the practice, no matter when it's practiced, has always irritated me. "Your book gets cancelled, you get killed" has always seemed incredibly short-sighted to me, especially when Marvel has the likes of Stingray, Razorback, and Captain Ultra still around in its deep background whenever anybody wants to use them even if only for a cameo, not to mention mean-spirited (like the writer killing them off is saying, "God, I can't believe Writer X wasted resources creating this POS," when you know they've got their own pet creations that nobody else wants to use). Seriously, how the hell have the likes of Adam Strange or Zatanna not been incinerated in one panel yet?

[nx01a]

Dr. Cross in JSA was my first. I quite liked him.
His take down of Johnny Sorrow was great.


...and this made me smile...

[Jim Kelly]

I've always been miffed with the people on the JSA comic for bringing in Pieter Cross as Doctor Mid-Nite--in that this guy's origin was in a prestige format three issue comic that I never bought, because those kind of comics were too expensive. I sill have never read those comics, so I never knew the whole story behind this guy. And I doubt that many people had read the prestige format series. I feel like if you're going to make a character from an obscure comic important to your super-hero team, then you should make that material available to the readers.

[MajorHoy]

I've always been miffed with the people on the JSA comic for bringing in Pieter Cross as Doctor Mid-Nite--in that this guy's origin was in a prestige format three issue comic that I never bought, because those kind of comics were too expensive. I sill have never read those comics, so I never knew the whole story behind this guy. And I doubt that many people had read the prestige format series. I feel like if you're going to make a character from an obscure comic important to your super-hero team, then you should make that material available to the readers.

They have made it available . . . those three issues have been collected into a tpb edition (which was where I read them since I wasn't collecting comic books regularly back then).
A new edition of that was recently released in late 2013 with a U.S. cover price of $14.99; it looks like amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com have it available for $10 - $11 at present.

[James Hunter]

I've always been miffed with the people on the JSA comic for bringing in Pieter Cross as Doctor Mid-Nite--in that this guy's origin was in a prestige format three issue comic that I never bought, because those kind of comics were too expensive. I sill have never read those comics, so I never knew the whole story behind this guy. And I doubt that many people had read the prestige format series. I feel like if you're going to make a character from an obscure comic important to your super-hero team, then you should make that material available to the readers.

If you ever get the chance to read it (I read it in TPB about 10 years ago or so myself), its well worth the read so I highly recommend you look for it.

[Jim Kelly]

Thanks. I'll put that DOCTOR MID-NITE TPB on my amazon wishlist--but it's really late in the game to read it now. I see the original TPB came out around the time when JSA was on the stands, but I didn't get it. I imagine that 1) my LCS didn't order in a lot of copies 2) the price was even higher in Canadian dollars than the cover price 3) I wasn't willing to pay more than twenty dollars back then 4) and I wasn't yet using amazon to get my books. However, I still think my point stands. With Doctor Mid-Nite and with Mister Terrific, they were putting these guys in the JSA that most readers knew nothing about. They could have done a better job of establishing them in the JSA comic, rather than expecting readers to find those other comics.

[cyclops1983]

Dr. Pieter Cross was my first Doctor Mid-nite due to the JSA book...which was amazing! He had such great moments in that series. Hopefully he'll somehow come back with Rebirth and the rest of the JSA.

[phantom1592]

This was the series that I was introduced to the REAL JSA. A friend was a golden age fan, but this was my first intro. Always liked the originals.

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Now... to be honest, I really think that Pieter was a BETTER character. But just because of the writing. The way he focused on being 'the doctor' and using medical knowledge and drugs in combat to exploit people's weakness'?? That was just brilliant. It's the kind of thing that they SHOULD have done more with McNider. Same powers, same knowledge.... but McNider was treated more like Daredevil by focusing on the blindness/dark bombs then they did the 'Doctor' part.

I would love for a modernized Earth-2 JSA with all the originals back but with modern storytelling and artwork.