The DC Blue Beetle!

I picked up the recent Showcase Presents Blue Beetle volume from DC. I never got this title when it first ran in the mid 80's but I have in more recent years collected up the issues, though truth told I have never gotten around to reading them all through. With this purchase hopefully the hand nature of the phonebook reprint will encourage me to give them a proper read.

Of all the Action Heroes who DC picked up, Blue Beetle was the one least changed from his Charlton persona. What we have are the further adventures of Ted Kord as they pretty much left off nearly two decades earlier. Steve Ditko's The Question is a frequent guest-star and the other Charlton Blue Beetle, Dan Garrett gets lots of page time as well.

Here are the issues in this volume.

What put over the top on this reprint was the inclusion of the second issue of Secret Origins with some stellar Gil Kane artwork. This was a very neat series and this is one of the best issues, reprising the convoluted history of the character. Even though it preceded the series it's the last issue in the reprint.

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Thunder Agents Classics Volume Four!

More utterly wonderful THUNDER Agents action in this fourth installment of the reprints from IDW. This one showcases my favorite agent NoMan. The idea of a an old man who injects his mind into an army of potentially immortal androids and who uses a cloak of invisibility is fantastically rich stuff. Of course the other agents are around, especially Dynamo and Lightning.

Apparently Tower Comics hit a snag after the publication of the first NoMan comic and several months pass before we get another trio of comics from the company. I don't know what caused the hiatus, but I doubt it was part of some master plan.

The superhero and spy fads which sparked the creation of the THUNDER Agents was beginning to wane a bit and despite the push to expand with new titles, the folks at Tower might've begun to see the whole enterprise was becoming less tenable. We'd get only two issues of NoMan's self-titled comic, both are here in this one volume, and only one more Dynamo after the one included here.

The artwork in these is a veritable who's who of Silver Age greatness with notable efforts by Gil Kane, Ogden Whitney, John Giunta, Manny Stallman, Chic Stone, George Tuska, Dan Adkins, and of course Wally Wood. The scripting for these stories is largely uncredited, but Steve Skeates does appear many times.

It's perhaps easy to say that the high point of the Agents has already passed by this time in the series, and there's validity to that assessment. But nonetheless these are hearty Silver Age yarns, and pretty entertaining to boot with some lovely artwork as the team battles the forces of SPIDER. 

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New Blue Beetle #5 - The Destroyer Of Heroes!

The New Blue Beetle #5 featuring the Ted Kord Blue Beetle by Steve Ditko hit stands in 1967. Ditko's Ayn Rand influence had been felt on many of his projects for the last several years, one of the many reasons he left Spider-Man. That philosophy really influences this final published issue of Blue Beetle. As usual D.C. Glanzman is the writer of record though he's not really. 

In this issue the subject is art and what makes good art. Ditko suggests that art should not showcase mankind's shortcomings but inspire his best attributes. He offers up as a foil an art critic named Boris Ebar (not that subtle) who thinks mankind is weak and art should reflect that aspect. Ted Kord and his girlfriend Tracey vehemently disagree as does Vic Sage (also known as The Question). This causes an artist to assume the villainous role of "Our Man", a statue that derides man's flaws. 

The Action-Hero line is dead, making way for new Charlton ventures such as Hercules, one of my all-time favorite Charlton titles. More on Herc later this summer. 

The Question stories and the Blue Beetle lead story are linked this time as Boris Ebar shows up again in the back-up story which has the same theme. More on Ditko's Ayn Rand influence when I take a look a The Question later this summer. 

 Read the complete comic at this link. 

That's a wrap on regularly published Charlton Blue Beetle, but there's still more on the azure hero to come. 

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New Blue Beetle - The Men Of The Mask!

The New Blue Beetle #4 featuring the Ted Kord Blue Beetle by Steve Ditko hit stands in 1967. Ditko takes his hero out of the country for this latest romp. The writer of record is D.C. Glanzman who had nothing to do with the production save perhaps for some production work. 

The "Men of the Mask" are a foreign mask-wearing death cult. The Beetle pursues a man claiming to be Dan Garrett. In doing so he puts himself at risk. 

"The Beetle's Nest" is still with us in this issue, but it's hanging on by a thread. 

There is of course a Question back-up story, but more on that later this summer. 

Read the complete comic at this link. 

More Blue Beetle tomorrow. 

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New Blue Beetle #3 - The Madmen!

The New Blue Beetle #3 featuring the Ted Kord Blue Beetle by Steve Ditko hit stands in 1967.  Ditko is really hitting his stride in this wild one which centers around his gun, a gun our hero loses in battle, but not to worry, he has a tech solution which frankly makes sense for all guns and is possible today. Once again D.C. Glanzman is listed as scripter but that's a ruse by Ditko. 

The Madmen are a gang of tough robbers called the Fleeter Mob who like the Beetle, dress up to go to "work". It's hard not to see more than a bit of The Creeper in these guys. 

We are treated to a letters page once again. There's no doubt fans love this incarnation of the hero as redesigned by Ditko. 

The Question returns as the back-up feature and more on him later this summer. 

This is my absolutely favorite comic book ad. It thrilled me as a kid when I chanced on it in the few Charlton comics I had back then. Art by Ditko of course as well as Pete Morisi, Pat Boyette and Frank McLaughlin. This is the apogee of Dick Giordano's "Action-Hero" line-up. 

This issue of Blue Beetle got the Modern Comics treatment in the 70's.  

Read the complete comic at this link. 

More Blue Beetle tomorrow. 

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New Blue Beetle #2 - The Origin!

The New Blue Beetle #2 featuring the Ted Kord Blue Beetle by Steve Ditko hit stands in 1967.  This significant issue finally answers the question BB fans had been clamoring to learn -- the connection between Ted Kord and the former Blue Beetle, Dan Garrett. And we finally learn what Pago Island is. Once again D.C. Glanzman is given a writer's credit despite not being the writer, that was Ditko. 

It's likely no coincidence that Ditko was assigned to Blue Beetle by editor Dick Giordano. Coming off the success of Spider-Man, Charlton's own bug-based hero was a natural fit. 

Blue Beetle is to my eye Ditko's greatest design, even stronger than Spidey. 

We get another Question story. More later. 

The debut of Blue Beetle marks the completion of the Action-Hero line set up by Giordano. The arrival of the "Big C" corner box also marks the transition to a new attitude. The Blue Beetle is the most modern addition to this cadre of heroes, as we see Charlton make a move into a changing marketplace. 

Read the complete comic at this link. 

More Blue Beetle tomorrow. 

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