Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Stargirl season 1, episode 5 "Hourman and Dr. Mid-Nite." and episode 7 "Shiv Part One."
DC Universe's Stargirl did the character of Dr. Mid-Nite a major disservice when adapting him for television, taking away his signature weapon and replacing it with smart technology. While the goggles utilized by this version of Dr. Mid-Nite and his successor are impressive, they still feel like a downgrade from the character's original concept.
First appearing in All-American Comics #25 in April 1941, Dr. Mid-Nite is believed to be the first superhero to exhibit a physical impairment, pre-dating Marvel Comics' Daredevil by over two decades. A brilliant medical doctor and philanthropist, Dr. Charles McNider was seemingly blinded forever after gangsters threw a grenade into the home of one of McNider's patients, who had witnessed their crimes. McNider later discovered that he had not completely lost his sight and that while he was blind in a well-lit room or broad daylight, he could see perfectly well in total darkness. Determined to fight back against the gang that killed his patient and all criminals everywhere, Dr. McNider adopted the alias of Dr. Mid-Nite and became one of the founding members of the Justice Society of America.
Dr. Mid-Nite's signature weapon enabled him to even the odds in any fight. Dubbed the Blackout Bomb, Dr. Mid-Nite was able to use the compact explosives to blanket an area in an inky smoke that only he could see through. Dr. McNider also developed a pair of goggles unique to his particular form of blindness, which allowed him to see in normal conditions. The same technology was also used by Dr. Charles McNider's successors, Dr. Beth Chapel and Dr. Pieter Cross, who were the second and third Dr. Mid-Nite respectively. Being medical doctors, it was important to all three heroes to utilize a non-lethal weapon so they could remain true to their Hippocratic Oaths and the Blackout Bomb suited their needs perfectly.
While the first Dr. Mid-Nite of DC Universe's Stargirl is identified as Dr. Charles McNider, he did not make use of the Blackout Bombs that defined the character in the comics. Instead, this Dr. Mid-Nite possessed a pair of high-tech smart-glasses, worked into a special pair of goggles that he wore as part of his costume. In addition to restoring his normal sight, the goggles granted Dr. McNider various visual superpowers, including x-ray vision and infrared vision. The goggles also had a self-contained artificial intelligence based on Dr. McNider's personality and could pull information on whoever or whatever the wearer of the goggles was looking at, even identifying the people in old photographs and determining that the man dressed as Santa Claus in one photo was probably an impostor.
It cannot be denied that these smart-goggles are an impressive technical achievement and would prove invaluable to a detective-style superhero like Dr. Mid-Nite, even ignoring how they restored his sight. Certainly Beth Chapel found them impressive, finding a new friend in the Charles McNider AI (whom she called Chuck) and loving the goggles' karaoke mode. Nevertheless, it still seems that Stargirl has severely downgraded its version of Dr. Mid-Nite and rendered his codename nonsensical by taking away his power to create pockets of total darkness.