Blue Beetle #50 featuring the mystical Dan Garrett Blue Beetle hit stands in 1965. The series picked up the numbering of Mysterious Worlds. Joe Gill is the writer and Bill Fraccio and Tony Tallarico are still in charge of the artwork as the series moves to a new home. That team also takes up the challenge of supplying the cover art.
In this colorful adventure Blue Beetle battles the crimson Mr. Crabb and his mechanical Scorpion. The threat is to the oil supply and Beetle gets involved as Dan Garrett and then as his superheroic self.
The house ads are hyping the adventure and superhero series that Charlton is launching. In this ad we see Captain Atom resurrected and Blue Beetle gets a logo mention. Sarge Steel and The Fightin' 5 will get a look in the coming months as will Son of Vulcan, one of Charlton's earliest Silver Age efforts in the arena. I might even get a chance to revisit Charlton's brief but contentious handling of Tarzan.
Charlton is still trying to connect with its readership in much the same manner as Marvel and DC, but with each issue the effort shows less and less support graphically. The editors address the bizarre numbering change, a commonplace in Charlton lore.
Read the complete comic at this link.
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Let's face it, Charlton just didn't have the "pizzaz" that Marvel and DC had. The layouts and art seemed always to be bordering on second rate. Although I like Mr. Crabb, it's villains like this that just didn't compare with the "Big Two".
ReplyDeleteThe art is not comparable to the smooth material from DC, but it's not that far off some of the stuff Marvel was doing on strips like Giant-Man and Thor before "King Kirby" was tapped to layout everything they shoved in front of him. That said it does have a charisma that I find appealing.
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