Blue Beetle

Blue Beetle
Blue Beetle
	File:BlueBeetle03.png Ted Kord, as the Blue Beetle
Publication information
Publisher	Originally Charlton Comics; Currently DC Comics
First appearance	Captain Atom #83
Created by	Steve Ditko
In-story information
Alter ego	Edward "Ted" Kord
Team affiliations	Justice League, Extreme Justice, The L.A.W., Super Buddies
Abilities	Incredible genius-level intellect. Used numerous gadgets which included suction pads, sight-enhancing lenses and a protective costume. His BB gun had several functions such as reflectors and a grapnel device. He was a capable hand-to-hand combatant and stealthy acrobat. Blue Beetle's ship, the Bug, is filled with weaponry and can fly at 600 mph.

The Blue Beetle is a superhero published by DC Comics. The first Blue Beetle was created in 1939 by the pseudonymous Charles NicholasTemplate:Fn for Fox Feature Syndicate; in the 1950, the rights to the name and character were sold to Charlton Comics, which soon introduced their own Blue Beetle. DC Comics would later buy the rights to the character along with the rest of Charlton's "Action Heroes" stable.

Fox Feature Syndicate

The original Golden Age Blue Beetle was Dan Garrett, son of a police officer killed by a criminal. The Fox version of the character first appeared/debuted 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 the Beetle, like many other low-powered vigilante 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 through 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 writer 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 in later years 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 through 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 responsibility 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 stasis, 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 stasis 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 explaining 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, and the two quickly became best friends. 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.

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 instead ran in JLA: Classified #4-9.

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.

In many stories and character entries, it is noted that "Ted" is an abbreviated form of "Theodore". Dixon, though Barbara Gordon has clarified that "Ted" is actually short for Edward. A similar truncation exists for Ted Kennedy and Edward Kennedy. Template:Spoilers

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. This possibility was dashed when it was asked in the WizardWorld convention if Kord would ever return; DC's answer was no. "There was a breeze blowing through his brain, and he was incinerated." Greg Rucka stated. "How much clearer can it be?" [1]However, whether there will be a new Blue Beetle to replace Kord remains to be seen.

In Day of Vengeance, after Shazam was killed by the Spectre, Kord's scarab landed in El Paso, Texas.

Infinite Crisis

It is speculated by some fans that Booster Gold will take up the mantle and powers of the Blue Beetle due to his current hunt for the scarab in the second issue of Infinite Crisis. It has been announced that writer Keith Giffen will write a new Blue Beetle series in the coming year, but said that Ted Kord would not return as the Blue Beetle. DC Comics has confirmed a new series will commence in March 2006, immediately after the conclusion of the new Crisis.

Footnotes

Template:Fnb 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) [2], 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.

Template:Fnb 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. The Watchmen were all version of Charlton characters. Chuck Dixon pays homage to this in an issue of Birds of Prey.

Template:Fnb The Blue Beetle has guest-starred in comics of an indepedent publisher called Americomics.

External links