Fifty years ago this month was a big one for the Charlton universe, such as it was. The second issue of Steve Ditko's Blue Beetle revealed the connection between Ted Kord and his predecessor Dan Garrett. This shouit out to an old series, defunct and supposedly forgotten really gave these Charlton comics a sense of being part of a larger whole. The seeming death of a superhero was still a big deal back when this issue struck the stands and not the tiresome cliche it has become in modern comics lore. Likewise in Captain Atom where up front we get a perfectly fine Ditko and Mastroserio adventure with out titular hero against a worthy opponent, the Firey-Icer, but in the back up series by Dave Kaler and Jim Aparo featuring Nightshade which revealed her origins and tied into the Judomaster comic by having her taught by a grown up Tiger, the Scarlet Smasher's WWII partner. Judomaster and Tiger take on The Acrobat in their own comic by Frank McLaughlin. Charlton offers up its usual gaggle of war books as evidenced by this potent cover for Fightin' Army. Ghostly Tales gives us a stunning cover by Rocke Mastroserio featuring Mr. Dedd as he invites one and all into the Haunted House.
More to come next month.
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Yes, I recall (somewhat vaguely) the Ted Cord/Dan Garrett mystery, though I never was hip to how the entire thing played out and was resolved. I recall at some point the hint/suggestion by Giordano that Ted Cord might somehow be complicit in the death of Dan Garrett(?) Rip: did you explore this in an earlier blog post? I’m curious how that all went down now….Always love these old Charlton cover posts BTW…Thanks
ReplyDeleteI have not done a close review of the Blue Beetle series. I've meant to do that for years, but never get around to it. Maybe sometime soon.
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