Blue Beetle
|
|
Template:Superherobox The Blue Beetle is a fictional superhero published by DC Comics. The first Blue Beetle was created in 1939 by Fox Features Syndicate; the rights to the name and character were sold to Charlton Comics who soon introduced their own Blue Beetle. Along with the rest of Charlton Comic's "Action Heroes", DC Comics would buy the rights to the character. DC's Blue Beetle is arguably the more popular and well-remembered of the characters to bear the name.
| Contents |
Fox
The original Golden Age Blue Beetle was Dan Garrett, son of a police officer who was killed by a criminal. The Fox Features version of the character first appeared in Mystery Men Comics #1 (1939), and began appearing in his own series shortly thereafter. In Fox's continuity, he invented a bulletproof costume and gained superhuman strength from a mysterious vitamin. This version of this Beetle, like many other low-powered vigilante-type superheroes, bore many similarities to Batman, and had his own short-lived comic strip and radio serial. When superheroes fell out of vogue in the late 1940s and 1950s, Fox downplayed the Beetle's superheroic aspects (his superhuman abilities were removed) and eventually relegated him to a host for true crime stories before he was finally put to rest.
Charlton Comics
Dan Garrett (Golden Age)
Charlton Comics obtained the rights to the Blue Beetle, reprinted several of the Fox created stories in some of their anthology titles, and gave him briefly his own title in 1955 (numbered #18-21).
Dan Garrett (Silver Age)
During the genesis of the Silver Age of comics, Charlton would revise the character for a new Blue Beetle series in 1964-1966. It ran a total of ten issues numbered 1 thru 5, then 50-54. Charlton's new Blue Beetle retained the original's name, but none of his powers or origin. This Beetle was an archaeologist who obtained a number of superhuman powers (including enhanced strength, flight and the ability to generate lightning) from a mystical scarab he fought in Egypt. This version was by writter Joe Gill and artist Tony Tallarico.
Ted Kord
Charlton's next Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, was created by Steve Ditko in 1966, and first appeared as a back-up feature in Captain Atom #83. This Beetle was a genius-level inventor and a gifted athlete, sharing much more in common with Fox's original Beetle than Charlton's earlier reimagining of the character. This Blue Beetle's signature equipment is his large bug shaped aircraft which he enters and exits typically with a cable that is suspended from the cockpit. He also generally eschewed personal weaponry outside a pistol that makes a blinding flash of light and later, a strong airblast to gain the advantage when he closes for hand to hand combat.
Ditko is best known as the co-creator (with Stan Lee) and original artist of The Amazing Spider-Man at Marvel Comics. While Blue Beetle and Spider-Man have some similar characteristics, such as being wise-cracking, acrobatic, arthropod-themed urban heroes, they evolved into very different characters. Both characters are accomplished inventors (Ted Kord is considered one of the premier minds of the DC Universe), great athletes and skilled acrobats. Both characters also have strong (if sometimes ill-timed) senses of humor that they use to mask their insecurities--more in the case of the Beetle, who has no powers of his own and has to deal with occasional weight gain. On the other hand, the Beetle has none of the angst associated with brooding vigilantes like Batman. Unlike Spider-Man, Blue Beetle is a team player and a loyal friend; Beetle is the only hero who put up with the narcissistic pretty-boy superhero Booster Gold when the two were paired in the Justice League.
The Ted Kord Blue Beetle ran as a back-up in Captain Atom #83-86 before getting his own title which ran from #1 thru 5. A sixth issue was produced, but published in the Charlton Portfolio. The Question ran as a backup series in the Blue Beetle, and the fifth issue had a sort of team-up between the two.
In the second issue of his title, an origin was given, linking Ted Kord to the previous Blue Beetle. In this story, Ted has been a former student of Dan Garrett, and when they were investigating Ted's Uncle Jarvis, they learned the uncle was working to create an army of androids to take over the Earth. Dan Garrett changed into Blue Beetle, but was killed in the battle. As he died, he passed on the responsiblity of being Blue Beetle to Ted, but wasn't able to pass on the mystical scarab. There was a hint that one android was still left in statis, but this was never resolved.
In the early 80s, Charlton published the first issue of its Charlton Bullseye comic, which had a team up of the Blue Beetle and the Question. Later, AC Comics would publish a story intended for Charlton Bullseye in Americomics 3, and a one-shot of a team up of all the Charlton Action Heroes produced before Charlton sold the characters to DC.
DC Comics
DC acquired all the Charlton heroes in the mid-'80s, and used the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event to integrate them all into the DC Universe. During this period Blue Beetle had his own series, written by Len Wein. Also published during this time was Secret Origins #2 (cover illustrated by Gil Kane), which explained the origins and careers of the Ted Kord and Dan Garrett Blue Beetles in the post-Crisis continuity. They would also follow up on the hinted android in status from the Charlton series, having this android pretend to be Dan Garrett, but Ted Kord stopped him.
Ted Kord is sometimes shown as an industrialist, the owner of Kord Industries; more often he is short on money, leading to his entering "get-rich-quick" schemes with Booster Gold.
A brief appearance in JLA: Year One showed the young Ted working in Kord Industries R&D, where he designed the JLA HQ security system. Upon meeting the heroes he thought "Screw the family business. I want to be one of those guys", possibly explaning the company's fluctuating status since he took over. In recent comics, it has been implied that Kord Industries has become a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises, headed by Bruce Wayne aka Batman.
BB is probably best known as the wisecracking member of Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis's comic five-year run on various Justice League of America titles (notably Justice League International), where he was partnered most memorably with fellow third-string DC hero Booster Gold. After Giffen and DeMatteis left, Justice League America continued to run until #113. Dan Jurgens tied the "Death of Superman" storyline into JLA, in which Doomsday left Blue Beetle in a coma during his murderous rampage. Beetle and Booster both subsequently joined the short-lived Justice League offshoot known as Extreme Justice.
After the JLI glory days, Blue Beetle entered a period of relative obscurity. A miniseries titled The L.A.W. (Living Assault Weapons) reunited Blue Beetle and the other heroes acquired from Charlton, but the series was universally panned. Beetle appeared for a time in Birds of Prey, since he was a favorite of Birds of Prey writer Chuck Dixon. In particular, Birds of Prey #25 is a homage to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen, which features the Nite Owl (a character that was heavily based on Blue Beetle) and the Silk Spectre (a character who similar to Birds of Prey cast member Black Canary).
Since Beetle has had health problems (including a career-long problem with weight fluctuation and, more recently, heart disease), Dixon's plan was for Tim Drake, the current Robin and a fan of the Beetle, to hang up that mantle for a while and replace Ted Kord as the Blue Beetle--a plan that failed to materialize when Dixon left DC for CrossGen Comics.
In July 2003, Giffen, DeMatteis, and original JLI artist Kevin Maguire reunited for a six-issue miniseries called Formerly Known As The Justice League, where many of the original JLI characters teamed back up and started a new superhero team out of a storefront office. Beetle, who has grown in maturity, was an important member of this new team, the "Super Buddies" (see Super Friends). A sequel series, I Still Can't Believe It's Not The Justice League, was initially slated to run as a second miniseries but will instead run in JLA: Classified #4-8.
Blue Beetle was seen in Alex Ross and Mark Waid's comic Kingdom Come. He is shown with the rest of the Charlton 'Action Heroes' as a member of Magog's Justice Battalion, but apparently left before the death of Captain Atom. He would be shown later in the title in a blue beetle armor outfit, powered by the mystic scarab, working with Batman's team, before being killed with most of the other heroes at the end.
Both the original Dan Garrett Blue Beetle and the Ted Kord Blue Beetle were adapted in the famous comic book Watchmen as The Nite Owl. The original BB was the basis for the original Nite Owl, while the Ted Kord BB was the basis for the second Nite Owl.
In many stories and character entries, it is noted that "Ted" is an abbreviated form of "Theodore". Dixon, through Barbara Gordon, has clarified that "Ted" is actually short for Edward. A similar truncation exists for Ted Kennedy and Edward Kennedy.
In the 80-page special Countdown to Infinite Crisis, published on March 30 2005, Blue Beetle discovered a renewed Checkmate organization led by Maxwell Lord, former bankroller of the JLA. He attempted to escape after discovering Checkmate's database of superheroes, but was shot in the head and apparently killed by Lord.
Earlier in the same story, it was revealed that Ted Kord had come into possession of the mystic scarab which powered the Dan Garrett version of the Blue Beetle. The wizard Shazam took the scarab upon encountering Kord, fueling speculation about the possibility of the character's return during DC's Infinite Crisis series.
External Links
- Original Blue Beetle entry at Toonopedia (http://www.toonopedia.com/beetle1.htm)
- Dan Garrett 2 entry at International Catalogue of Superheroes (http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/b/blubeech.htm)
- Dan Garrett 2 entry at Toonopedia (http://www.toonopedia.com/beetle2.htm)
- Ted Kord Blue Beetle entry at International Catalogue of Superheroes (http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/b/blubeet2.htm)
- Ted Kord Blue Beetle entry at Toonopedia (http://www.toonopedia.com/beetle3.htm)