Blue Beetle

Blue Beetle
Dan Garrett, Ted Kord, and Jaime Reyes. Art from the Blue Beetle Companion, by Tom Feister.
Publisher	Fox Comics Holyoke Publishing Charlton Comics Americomics DC Comics
First appearance	Mystery Men Comics #1 (August 1939)
Created by	Charles Nicholas Wojtkowski
Characters	Dan Garret (a.k.a. Dan Garrett) Ted Kord Jaime Reyes

Blue Beetle is the name of three fictional American comic book superheroes published by a variety of companies since 1939.

Contents 1 Publication history 2 Dan Garret 2.1 Fox Feature Syndicate and Holyoke Publishing 2.2 Charlton Comics 2.3 DC Comics 2.4 Dynamite Entertainment 2.5 Legacy 3 Ted Kord 4 Jaime Reyes 5 The scarab 6 Alternate versions 6.1 Alternate stories 6.2 52 Multiverse 7 Other media 7.1 Radio 7.2 Audio 7.3 Television 7.3.1 The Electric Company 7.3.2 Batman: The Brave and the Bold 7.3.3 Watchmen: Under the Hood 8 References 9 External links

Publication history

Blue Beetle (vol. 1-6) The Blue Beetle (vol. 7)
Blue Beetle #4 (October 1940). Cover artist unknown; possibly Edd Ashe .
Publication information
Publisher	Vol. 1: Fox Comics (except #12-30 Holyoke Publishing) Vol. 2-5: Charlton Comics Vol. 6 & 7: DC Comics
Schedule	Vol. 1: Bimonthly through #13, #41-44 Monthly, #17-36, #45-60 Quarterly, #37-40 Vol. 2, 5-7: Monthly Vol. 3: Monthly through #4 Bimonthly, #5 Vol. 4: Monthly through #53 Bi-monthly, #54
Format	All Standard U.S., 4 color. When published, ongoing.
Publication date	Vol. 1: 1939 - August 1950 Vol. 2: February 1955 - August 1955 Vol. 3: June 1964 - March/April 1965 Vol. 4: July 1965 - February/March 1966 Vol. 5: June 1967 - November 1968 Vol. 6: June 1986 - May 1988 Vol. 7: May 2006 - February 2009
Number of issues	Vol. 1: 59 (numbered 1-42; 44-60) Vol. 2: 4 (numbered 18-21) Vol. 3: 5 Vol. 4: 5 (numbered 50-54) Vol. 5: 5 Vol. 6: 24 Vol. 7: 36
Main character(s)	Vol. 1-4: Dan Garrett Vol. 5 & 6: Ted Kord Vol. 7: Jaime Reyes

The original Blue Beetle, Dan Garret, first appeared in Fox Comics' Mystery Men Comics #1 (cover-dated August 1939), with art by Charles Nicholas Wojtkowski (as Charles Nicholas) (though the Grand Comics Database tentatively credits Will Eisner as the scripter.^[1]) A rookie police officer, he used special equipment, a bulletproof costume (sometimes) and a superstrength-inducing "2-Xvitamin", 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. The comic book series saw a number of anomalies in publication: 19 issues, #12 through #30, were published through Holyoke Publishing; no issue #43 was published; publication frequency varied through the run; and there were gaps where issues were not published, with large ones occurring in early 1947 and between mid-1948 and early 1950.

In the mid-1950s, Fox Comics went out of business^[2] and sold rights to the Blue Beetle to Charlton Comics. That company published a few sporadic adventures of the Golden Age character before revamping the hero in 1964^[3]. In Dan Garrett's revised origin, he was an archeologist who found a magical Egyptian artifact, resembling a scarab, which he used to fight crime. Charlton tried three times to use the character to carry a self-titled series. Two of the attempts retained the numbering of a previous title. These also were eventually replaced with new titles that carried on the numbering.

The new series was short-lived, and in the pages of Captain Atom #83 (cover-dated November, 1966)^[4], Charlton introduced Ted Kord, a student of Dan Garrett's who took on the role when Garrett died. Kord was an inventor hero, using a variety of gadgets. This Beetle received his own series in 1967, but the entire Charlton "Action Heroes" line of comic books ceased publication in 1968.^[5][6][7]. With the rest of the Charlton line-up, he was sold to DC Comics in 1983 and appeared with several superhero groups, including the Justice League.

In 2006, DC introduced a new Blue Beetle, teenager Jaime Reyes, whose powers are derived from the scarab, now revealed as a piece of advanced alien technology. The series was initially written by Keith Giffen and John Rogers,^[8] with artist Cully Hamner.^[9] Giffen left in issue #10 and Rogers took over full writing duties, joined by a new artist, Rafael Albuquerque.^[10] Rogers had to leave the title in issue #25, in order to concentrate on his television series Leverage^[11] After a couple of fill-in issues Matt Sturges became the main writer in issue #29^[12] but the series was cancelled, with the last issue scheduled to be #36, which will include the death of a main character.^[13] Editor Dan DiDio put the cancellation down to poor sales and said that Blue Beetle was "a book that we started with very high expectations, but it lost its audience along the way."^[14] On March 12, 2009, DiDio announced that the character would be brought back to print in June 2009 as a "co-feature" of the more popular "Booster Gold" comic.^[15] Whether the creative team would remain intact or be replaced was unclear, but DiDio indicated that the stories would pick up on dangling plot threads from the recently-canceled series.

Dan Garret

Fox Feature Syndicate and Holyoke Publishing

The original Golden Age Blue Beetle was Dan Garret^[16], son of a police officer killed by a criminal. This Fox Feature Syndicate version of the character debuted in Mystery Men Comics #1 (Aug. 1939), and began appearing in his own 60-issue series shortly thereafter.

Rookie patrolman Dan Garret originally fought crime as the Blue Beetle without the benefit of superhuman abilities.^[17]Garret later donned 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 2-X.^[18]

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 bulletproof suit and 2-X formula, played a large role in the first few issues, but eventually faded from the cast. The Beetle also had a kid sidekick in the form of Sparkington J. Northrup, a.k.a. Sparky, who originally wore a simplified version of Blue's costume, but later went into action wearing his regular clothes.^[19]

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.

In 1964, during the Silver Age of Comics, Charlton would revise the character for a new Blue Beetle series. Charlton's new Blue Beetle retained the original's name (but adding a second 't'), but none of his powers or origin. This Beetle was archaeologist Dan Garrett, who obtained a number of superhuman powers (including super strength and vision , 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.^[20] He would transform into the Blue Beetle by saying the words "Kaji Dha!" 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". The Charlton Dan Garrett version of the Blue Beetle ran only until 1966 before his replacement debuted.^[21]

Dan Garrett briefly returned in DC Comics' Blue Beetle (vol. 6), resurrected by his mystical scarab to battle against his successor. He can be seen in flashback stories.

DC Comics

The Charlton version of Dan Garrett was spotlighted in the second issue of DC's 1980s Secret Origins series, in which his origin was retold along with that of Ted Kord. Subsequent appearances by Dan Garrett (in flashback stories) include guest spots or cameos in Infinity Inc., Captain Atom, JLA: Year One and Legends of the DC Universe.

Dynamite Entertainment

In issue #0 of the Dynamite Entertainment miniseries Project Superpowers, the original (i.e., Fox Feature Syndicate) Blue Beetle appeared in flashbacks^[22]; when he will appear again in this line is not yet known. To avoid trademark conflicts with DC Comics, he's referred to in this series by the nickname "Big Blue."^[23] Sparky is scheduled to appear in volume two, as part of a team of kid heroes and sidekicks.

Legacy

Booster Gold vol. 2, #2 (2007) established that the DC Comics incarnation of the Daniel Garrett Blue Beetle made his debut on August 14, 1939. The Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle has met Daniel's granddaughter, Danielle, in Blue Beetle #9 (2007). He also met Dan himself in Booster Gold vol. 2, #6.

Ted Kord

The replacement Blue Beetle created by Charlton Comics, and later published by Americomics and DC Comics, is Ted Kord, a former student of Dan Garrett, a genius-level inventor and a gifted athlete. Kord and Garrett were investigating Kord's Uncle Jarvis when they learned Jarvis was working to create an army of androids to take over Earth. Garrett changed into Blue Beetle, but was killed in battle. As he died, he passed on to Kord the responsibility of being Blue Beetle, but was unable to pass on the mystical scarab.

Ted had the scarab for some time, but never used it. He carried it during the Crisis on Infinite Earths when he was chosen by the Monitor to protect the multiple earths, but it only reacted when he was attacked; it did not give him super powers.

As the Blue Beetle, Ted funded his adventures through his company, Kord Industries, and was chronically short on cash. He joined the Justice League and met his best friend, Booster Gold. Each was considered a second stringer, and for many years, the Blue Beetle was a member of one second-rate superhero group or another.

During the "Death of Superman" saga the Blue Beetle and the other JLA members tried to stop Doomsday's path of destruction. Doomsday displayed his near-invulnerability and, while brutally defeating the League, put the Blue Beetle into a coma.

In Countdown to Infinite Crisis, Blue Beetle discovered a renewed Checkmate organization led by Maxwell Lord, former bankroller of the JLA. Kord 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, and while in Lord's custody was executed with a single gunshot to the head. Before dying, he had used the scarab in an attempt to contact Captain Marvel, but was forced to leave it with Shazam in the Rock of Eternity when the wizard sent him back to Earth.

In the second Booster Gold series, Booster, along with Jaime, Dan, and Black Beetle in the guise of a Blue Beetle from the future, travels back in time to rescue Kord moments before his death.^[24] Ted later travels back to guarantee his own death.

Jaime Reyes

Jaime Reyes is a teenager who lives in El Paso, Texas with his father, mother and little sister; his father owns a garage and his mother is a nurse. Jaime has offered to help his father out at the garage, but his father has turned him down. He feels Jaime should enjoy his childhood for as long as he can (and should attempt to further his education). 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 a vacant lot in El Paso where Jaime found it, thinking it to be nothing but a huge bug. 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 climactic 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.

The scarab

The Blue Beetle scarab, previously believed a piece of magic, is in fact a tool of war of the Reach, an ancient race of cosmic marauders. After being defeated by the Guardians of the Universe thousands of years ago, and forced into a truce, the Reach posed as benevolent aliens lending their advanced technology to budding civilizations, with the scarab intended as a gift for that world's champion, giving him amazing powers and the knowledge of the Reach to protect his or her peers. In fact, the scarab is part of an advanced hive mind, with its own artificial intelligence covertly supplanting his wearer's own, turning it into the ultimate infiltrator, a covert agent intended to take over his own world, as evidenced when a still-damaged scarab revives Garrett to fight Ted Kord, until Garrett is able to reassert his individuality.^[25] Damaged when Dan Garrett forcibly extracted it from its charging cradle and located in a faux pyramid in Egypt, the scarab is first activated with chunks of its programming missing, giving several abilities to Dan Garrett but none of the Reach knowledge base. The combined additional damage dealt by the multiversal/chronal energies fed into it during Booster Gold's mission to protect the Multiverse, and the magic forces of the Shadow Demons, put it into a dormant state for a year, after which it wakes, enacting its full programming to turn Jaime Reyes into the infiltrator. ^[26] However, the strong will and the good nature of Jaime Reyes, combined with the still corrupted programming of the scarab, helped its A.I. to assert itself as an individual, a tool no more. Claiming Khaji Da (the combined utterance of khaji, the codeword for infiltrator, and da, its own serial number) as its own name at the end of said process, the scarab developed a strong bond with Jaime over time, helping him as a true friend, and even trying to spread the concept of individuality among its fellow scarabs ^[26].

Alternate versions

Alternate stories

• Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) was seen in Alex Ross and Mark Waid's comic Kingdom Come. He is shown with the rest of the Charlton "Action Heroes" not as a member of Magog's Justice Battalion, but as part of Batman's group and later of the MLF (Mankind Liberation Front). He would be shown later in the title in a suit of armor powered by the then-mystic scarab, working with Batman's team, before being killed with most of the other heroes by a nuclear explosion.
• The character is used as the basis for Nite Owl in Alan Moore's Watchmen.
• Though Blue Beetle did not appear in 2000s animated TV series Justice League Unlimited, he has been featured in the comic book, Justice League Adventures.

52 Multiverse

The final issue, #52, of DC Comics' 2006-2007 year-long weekly series 52 revealed that a "Multiverse" system of 52 parallel universes, with each Earth being a different take on established DC Comics characters as featured in the mainstream continuity (designated as "New Earth") had come into existence. The Multiverse acts as a storytelling device that allows writers to introduce alternate versions of fictional characters, hypothesize "what if?" scenarios, revisit popular Elseworlds stories and allow these characters to interact with the mainstream continuity. For example, the Ted Kord of the Kingdom Come limited series is said to reside on Earth-22.

Spin-offs from the series Countdown to Final Crisis would introduce more alternate Blue Beetles in 2007. Earth-19 (the Gotham by Gaslight universe), set in a Victorian-like era, has its own version of Dan Garrett who in his secret identity is the leading Egyptologist at the Gotham Museum of Natural History and wears a monocle, appearing in The Search For Ray Palmer: Gotham By Gaslight. The limited series Countdown: Arena onwards depicted three more for the first time. Firstly, an Earth-26 Blue Beetle: a swarm of sentient insects that form a man-shaped body (calling themselves "The Scarab"), as well as Ted of Earth-33, an anthropomorphic beetle, the pet of Mr. and Mrs. Kord, and Earth-39 Blue Beetle, a younger version of Dan Garrett, who has bonded with his scarab in the same way as Jaime Reyes.

Other media

Radio

The Blue Beetle had a short career on the radio, between May and September 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 voice was provided by a different, uncredited actor. The Blue Beetle was a young police officer who saw the need for extraordinary 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 simpler than other popular programs, such as the Superman radio serial.

Audio

• Kingdom Come audio drama, adapted by John Whitman based on a story by Mark Waid and Alex Ross and the novelization by Elliot S. Maggin (Time Warner Audio Books, 1998)^[27]

Television

The Electric Company

• On the PBS children's educational series The Electric Company, the Blue Beetle was a bumbling superhero (played by Jim Boyd) who would often make matters worse instead of better. He wore a mask, a hood with antennae, wings, tennis shoes, boxer shorts, and a t-shirt bearing the name "Blue Beetle.".

Batman: The Brave and the Bold

• The "Jaime Reyes" Blue Beetle has appeared in the series Batman: The Brave and the Bold voiced by actor Will Friedle^[28]. In the show's pilot episode, "Rise of the Blue Beetle!", it is mentioned that a previous Blue Beetle existed before Jaime, and was murdered by Kanjar Ro. Jaime makes another appearance in the episode "Invasion of the Secret Santas!", assisting Batman in fighting the Sportsmaster and his henchmen and inviting Batman to his family's Christmas Eve dinner. In the episode "Fall of the Blue Beetle!", actor Wil Wheaton voices the Ted Kord version of the character^[29]. In this episode it is revealed that Ted Kord (who was unable to use the scarab) died two years ago in an explosion. Dan Garrett is also seen in a flashback to Kord's origin, but does not speak. Garrett was seen lying dead, possibly from his battle against Kanjar Ro; though, the Beetle statue in "Rise of the Blue Beetle" didn't resemble Garrett and may have been an earlier, alien Beetle. He has a red evil counterpart from an alternate reality that goes by the name of Scarlet Scarab. The Reyes Blue Beetle also appears in the episode "Game Over for Owlman!"
• In the episode, "Deep Cover For Batman!", an alternate universe version of Jaime Reyes named "Scarlet Scarab" is shown as a member of the Injustice Syndicate led by Batman's evil doppelganger Owlman. Note: the "Scarlet Scarab" mentions to his suit (which is sentient) that he has the heart of a true hero. This leads Batman (posing as Owlman) to believe that he can help the evil version of Reyes--before Scarlet Scarab finishes his statement with "I keep it in a jar in the back of my closet".^[30]
• In the episode "Night of the Huntress!", Blue Beetle, Batman, and the Huntress have to stop the gangster Baby-Face and his wife, Mrs. Manface. The Blue Beetle develops a crush on the Huntress in the episode.
• Reyes' friend Paco appears in the "Rise of the Blue Beetle!", "Fall of the Blue Beetle!" and "Night of the Huntress!" episodes of Batman: The Brave and the Bold played by voice actor Jason Marsden (who is Reyes' voice actor Will Friedle's real-life best friend and frequent collaborator).

Watchmen: Under the Hood

The original (Dan Garret) Blue Beetle appears on the cover of a comic book in the Watchmen tie-in Under the Hood.

References