Getting to Know the Blue Beetle!

Don't worry... I'm still going through Action Comics, but I started in on this, the first issue of the Golden Age Blue Beetle and it's one of those huge 68 page jobs.  You got a lot for your dime back in the day!

I would tell you the origin of the Beetle, but it took the first ten pages of the thing just to get finished with all the background stuff, so I'm not at all sure I'll get it right.  Basically, his mom died, his dad was a police officer killed in the line of duty, became a cop... and I'm not at all sure why he's going with the "Blue Beetle" motif yet.

He does, however, change his clothes a lot:

I'm not at all sure why that is.  These were in different stories, so I'm thinking the creators were just playing around with the looks of it.  The hat-wearing version was a pretty obvious rip-off of the Green Hornet, who had been created a few years earlier.  He also pretended to be a crook to get in good with a criminal gang, which was a familiar plot device for Green Hornet fans.  We'll see if that ever happens again.

But he invented the cell phone, so there's that:

Meanwhile, I've got to say that the Blue Beetle had the least intimidating calling card ever:

I don't know why hardened criminals got so freaked out at that.  I'd just think it was another bug that hit my windshield and ignore it.  Spider-Man's "Spider-Signal" was scarier than this.  When it comes to the intimidation factor, this guy isn't exactly Batman.

This is why someone felt perfectly justified in doing this:

But he's a B-List character, so it's my sacred duty to see if I can plod my way through his comics!  And do it, I shall!

See you Monday!