Myra Mason
Residence: New York City
Occupation: Nurse later administrative assistant/secretary
First Appearance (Golden Age): All-American Comics #25 (April 1941)
History
Myra Mason was likely born in the lat 1910's thought little is known of her early life. It iss know that by 1941 she obtained her nursing license and had been working for Dr. Charles McNider for some time. In April of that year, a police officer barged into McNider's office and urgently requested his services: A witness against Boss Moroni had been critical injured and needed immediate care. Taking the case, McNider rushed to scene but Moroni's men were lying in wait and threw a grenade through the window, killing the witness and the officer and blinding McNider. As he recovered, Myra re-dedicated herself to McNider, offering to be his personal nurse during his recovery. His medical career ruined, McNider decided to devote his effort writing crime exposes and Myra offers to abandon her nursing career and being his "eyes", writing and editing his efforts. Unknown to Myra, the accident had left McNider with perfect night vision, which he then uses technology to allow him perfect vision. The advantage he has in darkness inspires him to become the adventurer Dr. Mid-Nite, who ultimately brings Moroni to justice (All-American Comics #25).
Initially, McNider focused on barn burner exhortations against local crime lords. He dictated these works to Myra who dutifully typed them up and also reads the daily papers to McNider as fodder for future material. Myra becomes infatuated with stories of Dr. Mid-Nite but McNider dismisses his existence as an urban legend or a publicity stunt of some sort for months on end. Even after Myra gets her first glimpse of him at a movie premiere that is targeted by Mob Boss Steve Fink (All-American Comics #39), McNider continues to scoff. Over time, Myra continues to encounter Dr. Mid-Nite in remote places, leaving her to suspect he was her secret guardian angel (All-American #45 and 47). By 1942, Dr, Mid-Nite has joined the Justice Society (All-Star Comics #8) and McNider's denial of existence begins to cease. Eventually, Mid-Nite is so familiar with Myra that he tells her in on instance whenever he sees her, she is cooking up trouble (All-American Comics #70). By 1947, McNider had changed his writing to a crime magazine entirely devoted to the exploits of Dr. Mid-Nite (All-American Comics #86), much to Myra's delight. Whether Myra ever suspected that Dr. Mid-Nite and Charles McNider were one in the same has never been documented, even casually.
The relationship between McNider and Myra is not entirely unclear.
While she was a steadfast companion,including traveling with Dr. McNider
to his summer home (All-American Comics #28), to medical conferences
(All-American #96) or even Mexico (All-American Comics #70), at no point
are they referred to as lovers nor she as McNider's girlfriend. She
entertains other suitors including Gus Dempster, who is so frustrated
with Myra's career with McNider than he tried to have the doctor framed
(All-American Comics #49). She seems to disappear for nearly a year from
McNider's employment without explanation in 1946-1947 (All-American
Comics #77-84) and when she reappears she has a friend, Jimmy, who gets
swindled by Dr. Light but their relationship is also unclear
(All-American Comics #89). It is likely that if there was ever interest
between McNider and his employee, it was never consummated.
After years of working together, Myra's life and the work of Dr. Mid-Nite became increasingly intertwined, esp after her mysterious absence in the mid 1940's. Some of these occurred when McNider's fiery prose attracted retribution from underworld. When Big Shot Barnes invades McNider's home, Myra uses shadow play to make Barnes think Dr. Mid-Nite is coming, nearly get in shot in the process (All-American Comics #87). When Boss King retaliated with a print publication, the case ultimately gets Myra and Dr. Mid-Nite kidnapped (All-American Comics 95). Her proximity to Dr. Mid-Nite also caught her up with the hero's costumed adversaries including being kidnapped by the Unsinkable Bandits (All-American Comics #96) and hypnotized in attempted murder by Dr. Light (All-American Comics #89). Probably the most outrageous was her recruitment by Wonder Woman recruited her to become a female Dr. Mid-Nite in an assault on Brain Wave (All-Star Comics #15), Whether she knew why Wonder Woman identified her is not clear.
The last recorded activity of Myra Mason on Earth-Two was in the Fall of 1948, in which she is involved in solving the Case of the Talking Shadows when The Great Ludwig, a traveling silhoutte performer, was using his shadow play for crime (All-American Comics #101). Her later activities and eventual fate on Earth-Two remained to be revealed.
Earth-One
No Myra Mason is known to exist in the 20th century in the Earth-One timeline but a similarly named character exists in the 22nd century as the paramour of the Space Ranger (Showcase #15). Any connection with a 20th century ancestor is unknown.
Earth-0
The history of Myra Mason is thought to be largely similar to her Earth-Two counterpart. One exception is that her adventure with the Justice Society has been alleged to be fictional, tho whether this true or not is unclear (Starman Vol. 2 #69).
In this timeline, Dr. Mid-Nite has a long-running adversary in Vartan Kevork, known as the Shadower. In 1953, the Shadower either deduces that Mid-Nite is Charles McNider or targets McNider over something he has written, leading him to track Myra Mason and murder her (revealed in JSA #40). It takes Mid-Nite a decade to avenge Myra's death and even then, Kevork torments him from prison with correspondence. The Shadower's existence was never documented in the Earth-Two timeline and whether Myra had similar fate there is unknown.
Appearances
Adventure Comics #25-57, #59-62, #64-67, #69-73, #75-76, #85-87, #89, #91-93, #95-98 and #101
All-Star Comics #6, #8, #12 and #15
All-Star Squadron #7