Captain Atom #83 (1966)
script by Gary Friedrich
“concept and art” and cover by Steve Ditko
After leaving Marvel Comics, Steve Ditko went back to Charlton Comics to work on a character he helped create, Captain Atom…
…as well as creating new characters.
The first of which is Blue Beetle; it’s often forgotten that while Ditko is responsible for the concept behind the character, the script was by Gary Friedrich (who wouldn’t start working at Marvel until a couple years later).
We begin with a criminal known as “Killer Koke” going on a crime spree.
I can’t help feeling that he looks familiar.
But the unnamed city is under the protection of a superhero hiding in a very incospicuous vehicle.
His ship’s Sonic-Radar™ picks up a hint of the next robbery, so Blue Beetle springs into action.
This Blue Beetle doesn’t seem to have anything in common with the original one, but there is a quick acknowledgement he’s not the first.
This result into, what else, a big dumb Ditko fight.
He’s taken down by…uhm… actually I’m not sure?
It looks like they threw something at his knee; judging by the following panel, a smoke bomb?
It’s cool that the mask doesn’t come off, but maybe try to shoot him? The mask doesn’t cover his mouth, that ought to do some damage!
The criminals flee to avoid the cops, so Blue Beetle calls his “bug”.
No idea why it’s in quotation marks, where they worried we’d confuse it with an actual bug?
Blue Beetle doesn’t look scary, but I’m betting the criminals are terrified of him when he can do this!
And so we end with the criminals being arrested…
…a formal acknowledgment of the original Blue Beetle…
…and the promise of new adventures.
Bonus: if you thought Ditko was recycling Spider-Man tropes… the cover story (with plot and pencils by Ditko and script by David Kaler) begins with this:
Historical significance: 6/10
It will take forever, but Blue Beetle will become an important part of the DC Universe… but his importance will fluctuate, and this issue only has the most basic stuff.
Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.
Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
With just 7 pages, there isn’t much time for anything beyond great Ditko artwork. In fact there’s basically nothing else: Blue Beetle is incredibly generic here and could be replaced by any tech-based superhero.
How close is this to the modern character? 3/10
The look is obviously there, but he has no personality. His real name of Ted Kord isn’t even said until the following issue.
Blue Beetle would continue to be the backup feature on Captain Atom for three more issues, before landing his own regular series… which would only last a total of 5 issues, ending in 1968.
His connection to the original Blue Beetle is revealed in the second issue.
Ted helps the original in a case against his evil scientist uncle (!!!) and he’s present for the original’s death, and kind of out of nowhere accepts to become his successor.
Kind of weird to have a Ditko character motivated to avenge the victims of his uncle, isn’t it?
He doesn’t even inherit the magic scarab of the original, he just uses his family’s fortune to make himself a superhero.
Blue Beetle definitely wasn’t a hit, considering his post-1968 appearances are:
- 1974’s Charlton Portfolio #1, which included the story that should have been published in Blue Beetle #6 if it hadn’t been cancelled
- 1981’s Charlton Bullseye #1
- 1983’s Americomics #3 and Americomics Special #1
The latter is from AC Comics, meaning that for a while Blue Beetle was VERY close to being featured on Femforce.
Adding to the 4 issues of Captain Atom and 5 of his own book, up until 1985 Blue Beetle showed up in only THIRTEEN books.
So I can’t help feeling that DC Comics acquired the rights to the character exclusively because he was bundled with the other Charlton heroes, and he would make his DC debut in 1985 right on Crisis Of Infinite Earths #1.
It’s not a bad idea to introduce him as the underdog, but Crisis doesn’t give him much to do.
Despite being chosen to represent Earth-4 for no stated reason. Honestly it would’ve made a lot more sense to have Captain Atom in this role.
As you’re probably aware of, the original pitch for what would become Watchmen was based on the Charlton heroes.
Considering just how little personality Blue Beetle had up to that point, I wonder if his equivalent Nite Owl was more of an influence on the source material than anything else.
Despite being such a minor character before, Blue Beetle really got the spotlight in both Justice League and Justice League International…
…especially given the shenanigans he got involved with, thanks to his heterosexual life partner Booster Gold.
I couldn’t POSSIBLY cover his entire story between 1986 and 2005… but I guess he was too much of a goofball to survive the grimdark era of DC Comics.
So he gets brutally murdered by Max Lord.
You know, I stopped reading many DC books around this era.
Whenever I get the chance to check out what was being published at the time and I find good stories… then something like this happens, reminding me why I dropped them.
I’ve come back to some of them, but… yeesh, that was a terrible time.
Being dead didn’t stop Blue Beetle from showing up all over the place, since… well, his heterosexual life partner is a time traveler.
I’ve lost track of Ted past the Booster Gold series. I know he’s been resurrected, maybe even more than once.
And of course by this time there’s a third Blue Beetle around, who doesn’t have much of anything to do with his predecessor.
When you think about it, Blue Beetle is one of the weirdest legacy superheroes. There are other superheroes who share the name of a previous one despite being very different characters, but they’re typically not considered true successors.
But Blue Beetle? We have a pulp crimefighter with a magic amulet, followed by a science-based tech hero who is a mixture between Spider-Man, Batman and Iron Man, followed by a teenager with an alien high-tech superweapon armor attached to him.
And yet SOMEHOW they make it work!
