DR. MID-NITE
SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)
“The original Doctor Mid-Nite, Dr. Charles McNider, lost his sight to a grenade, and fought crime alongside the original Justice Society of America.”
Before Matt Murdock’s debut as Daredevil in 1964, the premier visually impaired vigilante was Dr. Mid-Nite, a golden age DC hero who first appeared in 1941. In contrast to Murdock, who was truly blind (albeit with greatly increased senses otherwise), McNider’s vision returned in the dark, allowing him to still see at night or through use of special darkened lenses. What does that mean? Mostly, it means that sick-ass goggles were a standard part of his costume design, and who doesn’t love that? Toy makers certainly do, if the decent number of Dr. Mid-Nite figures out there is anything to go by. Here’s another one!
THE FIGURE ITSELF
Dr. Mid-Nite is the final figure in the 14th assortment of McFarlane’s Super Powers line, where he’s figure 72 in the overall line-up. He’s the third of three JSA members in this set, seen here in his classic costume. The figure stands just under 4 3/4 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation. Mid-Nite is built on the line’s original Superman base body, admittedly not one of my favorites, mostly due to the kind of oversized nature of it. McNider was classically shown to be of a more average build, so I’d have more expected the Flash-style build. It seems to have been largely chosen because they had the cuffed boots for it, used by Black Adam in this same assortment. It’s worth noting that the Starman from the three pack was on the same mold, and McNider did pass himself off as Ted in-universe for a while, so there’s at least some internal consistency there. He gets a new head sculpt and a belt add-on piece. Sizing aside, it all fits together pretty well, and I do especially like the head sculpt, which manages to get Mid-Nite’s classic look down pretty great. It’s all topped off with a cloth cape piece, and its honestly one of the best capes in this last run of figures. There’s just something about the particular material that hangs really well on the figure. The color work on this figure is appropriately bright and eye catching, which I always do like. The paint application’s generally okay, though there’s some notable slop and bleed over around the goggles on the head, which I don’t love. Otherwise, though, it all works out okay. Mid-Nite includes no accessories, which isn’t all that odd for the line, but I do kind of wish they’d included his pet owl Hooty.
THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION
I quite like the JSA in general, but Dr. Mid-Nite’s always been a particular favorite of mine, going back to the old DC Direct PVC collection figurine. I’ve picked up a few of his other figures over the years, but, with the advent of adding more JSA members to the Super Powers line-up, he’s certainly been high on my list. He was by far the figure in this set I was most looking forward to. While I’m not crazy about the choice of base body, I do still love the final product, and he’s absolutely my favorite of the set.
