No use! No one would ever believe this Dr. Mid-Nite adventure! I'll burn it -- lest someone get hold of it! And yet -- I've got to get it off my chest somehow! Even if I talk aloud -- to myself! 
- — Dr. McNider, throwing his notes into the fireplace
All-American Comics #90 is an issue of the series All-American Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of October, 1947.
Synopsis for Green Lantern: "The Icicle"
Alan Scott's on hand as a cruise ship rumored to be carrying both noted scientist Joar Mahkent and notorious gangster Lanky Leeds is coming into Gotham City. He and the rest of the onlookers are astonished when suddenly the bay freezes around the ship, and while investigating as Green Lantern, he finds all the passengers frozen solid. The hero discovers the body of Dr. Mahkent, implicating Leeds, but is knocked out when a woman pistol-whips him. When he comes to, GL finds a note left to him with an address.
He has no time to look into it, as a new arch-villain has embarked on a career of brazen robberies: the Icicle. After the Icicle slips through his fingers, Green Lantern looks into the address and finds the villain's hideout. Inside he comes upon the body of Lanky Leeds, proving the gangster isn't the Icicle. This leaves Green Lantern puzzled: if the Icicle isn't Leeds or Mahkent, who is it?
The hero's discovered and tossed into a quicksand pit under the building, along with the woman who knocked him out on the ship. She introduces herself as a secret agent, and explains that Lanky Leeds did indeed try to steal Mahkent's invention, the freeze ray used by the Icicle, and she'd been forced by the frosty fiend into knocking out GL to keep from blowing her cover.
GL's power ring dies then, but fortunately he's skilled at climbing walls unaided and gets them to safety anyway. After a recharge, GL speeds to the building the criminals said they were going to rob and confronts the Icicle again. Their weapons seem evenly matched, so GL plays possum and pretends to be frozen until his enemy comes close enough for him to rip off the Icicle's mask, revealing Dr. Mahkent underneath. He'd used a sheath of ice to somehow make it look like Leeds' body was his on the ship. To avoid capture, the Icicle jumps 200 feet into the Gotham River below.
Appearing in Green Lantern: "The Icicle"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Lorna Dawn (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- Icicle (First appearance)
- His henchmen
Other Characters:
- Lanky Leeds (Single appearance; dies)
Locations:
- Television City
- Equinox Insurance Building
Items:
- Green Flame of Life Power Ring
- Icicle's Cold Gun (First appearance)
Vehicles:
- S.S. Atlantania
Synopsis for "Mutt & Jeff"
(newspaper strip reprints)
Appearing in "Mutt & Jeff"
Featured Characters:
- Mutt
- Jeff
Synopsis for Dr. Mid-Nite: "The Haunted Chessboard"
In his elegant apartment, Dr. McNider and young Alice King, daughter of his late friend Mr. King, reminisce about their annual chess games. A chess board is on one table, as if in mid-game. She leaves, and McNider checks his chessmen; the white king has a small sword sticking in it! He looks again, the white king is missing, then looks again and one black knight's head is sheared off! He gets a frantic phone call from Alice, who has been followed to her home, and he hears her being attacked!
McNider suits up as Dr. Mid-Nite, and sprints to Miss King's home, in another apartment building, and breaks in via the fire escape. On a bare table before him, his own chess board suddenly appears, with an arrangement of pieces on it, then vanishes again. Mid-Nite makes a guess about the meaning of the arrangement, and he sprints to "King's Castle," which was a nickname for the late John King's home. The house has been closed since King's death, a year earlier, but Mid-Nite slips inside. On a pedestal amid the dust-covered furniture, he finds the sheared-off head of the black knight piece from his own apartment. Then he is attacked by a familiar old enemy, Dagger Dax, with two backup gunmen. They get a lucky break and Mid-Nite gets knocked out.
Mid-Nite awakens in King's Castle's dungeon, tied to a ceiling fan. Nearby is Alice, tied to a wall, being harshly questioned about Mr. King's missing papers. Mr. King was a state's attorney, but had never managed to prosecute Dagger Dax, but Dax is really worried about these papers anyway. She knows nothing about any papers; Dax gives up. He turns on the fan, to set Mid-Nite whirling about, while he plants a dynamite bomb and prepares to depart with his gang. Then Dr. Mid-Nite throws a black-out bomb and escapes from the fan, then fights all three thugs. This time he beats them, and he soon has them trussed up and Miss King untied. Then from the ceiling fan falls a manuscript! It's a sheaf of notes with documented evidence, from a year earlier, all of it indicting Dagger Dax for some earlier crimes.
Dax confesses. McNider returns home, where his chess board and its missing pieces, have been returned. McNider lights a pipe and ponders whether the ghost of his late friend Mr. King was behind these manifestations. He decides not to write up the case as a "Dr. Mid-Nite" story.
Appearing in Dr. Mid-Nite: "The Haunted Chessboard"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Dagger Dax
- two hench thugs
Other Characters:
- the late Mr. King (Mentioned only)
- Alice King
Locations:
Items:
- Mid-Nite's Infra-red Goggles
- Mid-Nite's Blackout Bombs
Synopsis for Black Pirate: "The Land of Little Men"
Appearing in Black Pirate: "The Land of Little Men"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Locations:
- 17th Century
- The Land of Little Men
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Hop Harrigan: "The Mystery of the Royal Blue Jet"
Appearing in Hop Harrigan: "The Mystery of the Royal Blue Jet"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- "Nitro" Jones
- The Mauler
Other Characters:
- Al Mason
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- Dr. Mid-Nite
- This story is narrated by Dr. McNider, talking to himself out loud.
- Dr. Mid-Nite gets head-konked unconscious, with a pistol butt.
Trivia
- Dr. McNider smokes a pipe.
- Dr. Mid-Nite, Justice Society teammate of The Spectre, doesn't believe in ghosts, but now he has doubts about that.
See Also
Links and References
