Blue Beetle
Encyclopedia : B : BL : BLU : Blue Beetle
The Blue Beetle is a comic book superhero. Thus far, four different incarnations of the semi-prominent hero have been created by three publishers.
The original Blue Beetle, Dan Garret first appeared in Mystery Men Comics #1 (1939), a publication of Fox Features Syndicate. A rookie police officer, he utilized special equipment, a strength-inducing vitamin, and the assistance of a neighborhood pharmacist to fight crime. He starred in a comic book series, comic strip and radio serial but, like most Golden Age superheroes, he fell into obscurity in the 1950s.
In the mid 1950's, Fox closed shop and sold the Blue Beetle to Charlton Comics, who published a few sporadic adventures of the golden-age character before giving him a major revamp in 1966. In Dan Garrett's revised origin, he was an archeologist who found a magical Egyptian artifact, resembling a scarab, to fight crime. The new series was lackluster, and short lived.
In 1967, Charlton Comics introduced Ted Kord, a student of Dan Garrett who took on the role when Garrett died. Kord was more of an inventor hero, using a variety of gadgets. With the rest of the Charlton line-up, he was sold to DC Comics in 1983 and appeared as a member of several superhero groups, including the Justice League.
In 2006, DC introduced a new Blue Beetle, teenager Jaime Reyes whose powers are derived from the magical scarab.
There is some confusion to who created the original Blue Beetle. His first appearance is credited to the pseudonymous Charles Nicholas[#endnote_1] and there is some debate to which person using the name invented the character, Chuck Cuidera or Charles Wojtkowski, although most comics fans have concluded it was Wojtkowski (see Charles Nicholas (comics) for more detail).
Dan Garrett
Fox Feature Syndicate
The original Golden Age Blue Beetle was Dan Garret[#endnote_4], son of a police officer killed by a criminal. This Fox version of the character debuted in Mystery Men Comics #1 (1939), and began appearing in his own 60-issue series shortly thereafter.
Rookie patrolman Dan Garret had invented a bulletproof costume (described by Garret as being made of a chain-mail which was "as thin and light as silk"), and temporarily gained superhuman strength from ingesting the mysterious vitamin 2X.
The supporting cast remained fairly stable throughout this original run, and included Joan Mason, a crime reporter for the Daily Blade who would ultimately star in her own backup stories, and Mike Mannigan, Dan's stereotypically Irish partner on the force. Dr. Franz, a local pharmacist and inventor of the 2X formula, played a large role in the first few issues, but eventually faded from the cast.
A popular character of the era, he had his own short-lived comic strip, drawn by a pseudonymous Jack Kirby and others, and a radio serial that ran for 48 thirteen-minute episodes. When superheroes fell out of vogue in the late 1940s, Fox downplayed the Beetle's superheroic aspects (his superhuman abilities were removed) and eventually relegated him to a host for true crime stories before the character went on hiatus.
Charlton Comics
Charlton Comics obtained the rights to the Blue Beetle, and reprinted some stories in its anthology titles and in a four-issue Blue Beetle reprint series numbered 18-21.
During the genesis of the Silver Age of comics, Charlton would revise Garret's character for a new Blue Beetle series. 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 found during a dig in Egypt, where it had been used to imprison an evil mummified Pharaoh. This version by writer Joe Gill and artist Tony Tallarico was played at least initially for camp, with stories like "The Giant Mummy who was Not Dead".
Dan Garret would return briefly in the DC comics, when he was resurrected by his mystical scarab to battle against his successor.
Ted Kord
The second Blue Beetle created by Charlton Comics, and later published by DC Comics, Ted Kord was a genius-level inventor and a gifted athlete. A former student of Dan Garrett, when the two were investigating Ted's Uncle Jarvis, they learned Jarvis was working to create an army of androids to take over Earth. Garrett changed into Blue Beetle, but was killed in the battle. As he died, he passed on the responsibility of being Blue Beetle to Ted, but wasn't able to pass on the mystical scarab.
As the Blue Beetle, Ted funded his adventures through his company, Kord Industries, and was chronically short on cash. With his best friend, Booster Gold, he joined the Justice League, but was considered a second stringer. For many years, the Blue Beetle was a member of one second-rate superhero group or another. In Countdown to Infinite Crisis, Blue Beetle discovered a renewed Checkmate organization led by Maxwell Lord, former bankroller of the JLA.
The Blue Beetle covertly entered Checkmate headquarters where he found a database containing information on every metahuman on Earth. However, he was captured before he could return to the JLA with the information. While in the custody of Maxwell Lord he was executed with a single gunshot to the head.
Jaime Reyes
Jaime Reyes is a teenager who lives with his father, mother and little sister; his father owns a garage. Jaime has offered to help his father out at the garage, but his father has turned him down, feeling Jaime should enjoy his childhood for as long as he can. Jaime has an acute sense of responsibility for his family and friends, though he complains about being the one to sort out any messes.
After the wizard Shazam was killed and the Rock of Eternity destroyed, the scarab landed in El Paso, Texas, where it was found by Jaime. When Booster Gold came to retrieve the scarab, it had fused to Jaime's spine while the boy had been asleep, making Jaime the new Blue Beetle. After a few minor encounters locally, he was swept up in the climatic battle with Brother Eye during Infinite Crisis. At its conclusion, he is hurled back to Earth where he discovers he has been missing for a year.
Powers of the Scarab
The scarab's bond with Jaime is vastly different from his predecessors; for one thing, the scarab never physically bonded with Dan Garrett or Ted Kord, at least while they were alive. Dan could command the scarab with a word ("Kaji Dha"); however, he died before he could pass on the scarab and tell Ted what the word was. When the resurrected Dan Garratt fought Ted while under the control of the scarab, the scarab offered itself to Ted, projecting itself as a mental image of a large robot (seemingly tapping into Ted's technological bent as opposed to the more mythological interests Dan Garratt had). Ted declined and went on to defeat Dan and the scarab and when the it did eventually come into Ted's possession again, he was unable to learn how to command it, and it didn't respond to him. Why it responds differently to different bearers has yet to be revealed.The scarab grants Jaime a number of powers. It provides him with a form of mystical sight, providing him with information in an unknown written language which operates whether the scarab is active or dormant. It is also capable of communicating with Jaime in a more comprehensible fashion, informing him of what it can - or needs to - do in a given situation.
Under certain circumstances, or at Jamie's willing it, the scarab activates, crawling out on to Jaime's back and generating what appears to be a high-tech suit. When the situation passes, the scarab deactivates, dissolving the costume and retracting back onto Jaime's spine, causing intense pain.
The suit has been seen to produce a seemingly electricity based energy cannon, and a set of dual-purpose wings/shields enabling Jamie to protect himself from energy blasts and to fly. It's also able to protect him against atmospheric re-entry (although how is unclear), as well as providing him with strength beyond that which he might normally possess, such that he can break someone's wrist by squeezing it with one hand. The scarab's 'pinchers' spark when activating one of the suit's powers, or when de-activating the suit.
Beyond this the scarab also seems to be able to manifest a range of other less specific mystical powers - it has been seen to negate the 'vibrational frequency' of extra-dimensional objects, bringing them into physical reality, and can restore Jamie's clothes after the suit is deactivated. The powers of the suit and the scarab generally can be activated either by the wearer or it appears by the scarab itself which seems capable of guiding, if not outright controlling, Jamie when the suit is activated.
It seems to be nearly as powerful as a Green Lantern's ring, an impressive feat for such a little known mystical item.
The Curse
There have been occasional hints that the Blue Beetle scarab is not as benevolent as it might seem. In Blue Beetle #18 (1987), the scarab's power was able to resurrect Dan Garrett, driving him into battle with Ted Kord - apparently intending that Ted take up the scarab and become its new bearer. Dan was able to fight off the scarab's influence, shattering it; the strain of the struggle, however, killed him once again. Who, or what, used the scarab to resurrect Dan - or whether the scarab itself did so - remains unclear.Normally, a Green Lantern ring will 'buzz' when sensing magic. When the rings get close to the Blue Beetle scarab, however, they react in various unpleasant ways. John Stewart's ring gives off sparks, as if afraid, while Guy Gardner's triggers what can only be described as a 'super-migraine', along with the impulse to kill the scarab's host. Guy describes the feeling he gets from the scarab as wrong and evil.
The scarab seeks to evade Green Lantern rings at the earliest available possibility; if it can't, then the host will most likely find themselves fighting the Lanterns.
Alternate versions
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' but not as a member of Magog's Justice Battalion, He was part of Batman's Web of Defense, and later of the HLF (Human Liberation Front). 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 by a nuclear explosion.In other media
Radio
- The Blue Beetle had a relatively short career on the radio, between May and September of 1940. Motion picture and radio actor Frank Lovejoy was the Blue Beetle for the first 13 episodes, while for the rest of the shows the actor was uncredited. The Blue Beetle was a young police officer who saw the need for extra-ordinary crime fighting. He took the task on himself by secretly donning a superhero costume to create fear in the criminals who were to learn to fear the Blue Beetle's wrath. The 13-minute segments were usually only two-parters, so the stories were often more simple than other popular programs, such as the many-parted Superman radio show.
'' A bumbling superhero (Jim Boyd) who would often make matters worse instead of better for people who he tried to help. He wore a mask, a hood with antennas, wings attached to his back, tennis shoes, boxer shorts and a T-shirt with his name "Blue Beetle" on it and they were all colored blue. Some have claimed that it is this version that somehow has limited the Blue Beetle's appearances on the animated Justice League. Others have claimed that this version of the Blue Beetle provded inspiration for the spoof-hero, the Tick. Jim Butcher's fantasy series "The Dresden Files" references this version of the Beetle repeatedly, with no mention of the DC Comics character, even to clarify which one he means.
- Blue Beetle has not appeared in the Justice League Unlimited animated series, although he has been featured in the comic book. This is due to the broadcasting rights of the old radio show; these rights expired in 2006, but the television series was cancelled that same year. Plastic Man has also not appeared on the show for similar reasons involving his animated series, though he is mentioned.
- *His spotlight appearance in animated style is Justice League Unlimited #5. He's on monitor duty for the issue, therefore, the only one to respond to a distress call.
Trivia
- In the DC comic book series Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Nite-Owl is the name of two of fictional characters. Moore's original intent was for Watchmen to use all the Charlton Comic characters; the two Nite-Owls are based on Dan Garett and Ted Kord.
Footnotes
- ↑ Three early comics creators used the pseudonym "Charles Nicholas". Jack Kirby used it only as the Fox Feature Syndicate in-house author's name for the 1940 comic strip The Blue Beetle. The remaining two creators are Chuck Cuidera (c. 1915-2001) and Charles Wojtkowski (1921-1982). According to Cuidera, speaking on a panel at the 1999 San Diego ComicCon (transcription published Sept. 1, 2000) [link], he is the Charles Nicholas who created the Blue Beetle and was the first artist of Blackhawk. Will Eisner, at that same panel, said an artist named Charles Wojtkowski (1921-1982) later took up the Charles Nicholas pen name.
- ↑ The Blue Beetle has guest-starred in comics of an independent publisher called Americomics.
- ↑ Throughout the Golden Age and during the 1967 Ditko run, the original Blue Beetle was always referred to as Dan Garret, spelled with one "t."
- ↑ Jaime Reyes is also the name of a minor character in the popular videogame Deus Ex.
Listen to
References
- [Blue Beetle entry at Toonopedia]
- [Dan Garrett 2 entry at International Catalogue of Superheroes]
- [Dan Garrett 2 entry at Toonopedia]
- [Index to the Earth-4 adventures of the Charlton Action Heroes]
- [Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Logs: The Blue Beetle]
- [Keith Giffen on the new Blue Beetle]
- [Newsarama interview with artist Cully Hamner on his design for the new Blue Beetle]
- ["Notes from a True Blue Beetlemaniac"]
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.