“Mickey, did you leave the water running in the tub?”
November 11, 2023 12:00 pm
“Mickey, did you leave the water running in the tub?”
The Blue Beetle #33
Fox Features Publication (August, 1944)
Let’s see. The first issue back at Fox was a bust but the second one was mostly good. I wonder what this issue has in store? On the downside the O’Brine Twins are still here but the rest of the stories with more than one page is either Blue Beetle or Joan Mason, so at least most of the comic knows who they’re supposed to be focusing on, namely Dan Garret and friends.
Interesting that Fox is back to Dan being a rookie patrolman after Holyoke had him quit to join the war effort as an intelligence officer. Except the FBI is still using him for intelligence work after Dan’s friend is killed in a neutral Tangier. Apparently the place draws spies and Dave Morris (so not the guy Dan befriended in the Holyoke comics when he started in intelligence) got suckered by a greedy informant who took money from the other side. He drags Spunky (still going by that, eh?) in as part of his cover but Spunky doesn’t get to wear his costume. There were superheroes around this time who had uncostumed sidekicks but you’d think the kid would go away back to Sparkington and Spunky becoming his sidekick name. Why was this kid brought back from Holyoke…or is this a leftover from their run? No, this was actually a pretty good story. I guess Fox kept the sidekick but dropped the secret identity.
A professor creates a formula that produces a duplicate of someone injected with it, including their clothes because that’s totally how cloning used to work. The sad part is they don’t really do anything with this. Dan is accidentally injected and creates a double who takes the name Sonny (they banter about being father and son) but it’s only used to fool the bad guys into thinking the Blue Beetle is dead. They don’t go out with one as Dan and the other Blue Beetle to protect his identity or double-team the bad guys. One of the baddies tries to sell the formula to the Japanese and the other Nazi agent kills him for it as if all the Axis couldn’t benefit. (Then again nobody would be surprised if the Nazis turned on all their Axis members once it was all over, even Italy.) It’s a good plot that wasn’t well used. Also it made me miss Dr. Franz. He wouldn’t creating a cloning formula.
This is what Holyoke should have done. Let Dan go off to the FBI with the Blue Beetle but let Joan and Mike still solve crimes until the war is over and Dan can be a cop again. (Though why they’re still calling him a rookie cop I’m not sure.) This time Joan and the surprisingly competent Mike Mannigan are looking into a crooked orphanage selling food on the black market. I’m sure something like this happened during World War II and the Great Depression, but this leaves the kids malnourished and the friend of the kid who escaped ends up dying before the story is over. I’m usually against killing kids in stories but this is one of those rare events where it actually benefits the story. This is what the Silver Age Lois Lane stories should have been like…though I’m sure Sasha Woods of Casually Comics would disagree. It wouldn’t have been nearly as fun to make fun of.
We’re just going to forget the O’Brine Twins exist. I can’t bring myself to read their misadventures. They capture a Nazi sub after they get captured. Moving on.
Sooooo……this story happened. An underwater city whose history Dan oddly knows about rises again. This second-rate Atlantis goes to a newspaper office because comic writers apparently believe that one lone newspaper company has more authority than the government (look how many time villains go to J. Jonah Jameson or Perry White instead of the mayor) and demands 100,000 slaves. Dude, the Great Depression’s fallout is still going on and World War II is happening. Just offer food and shelter for all the people in tent cities and you’ll have more than enough WILLING workers. This is not the dumbest part of the story, as they attack New York when their “offer” is refused, and they attack using tidal waves, giant water bombs that are actual bombs, and even draining the water from the city and the people (which causes them to freeze in place….’kay), but Blue Beetle and his size-changing power defeats all of that. I’m also starting to notice that the Beetle symbol that shows up just seems to be appearing rather than him shining the symbol or leaving a little beetle calling card. The cover story ends up at the end…because it’s easily the weakest of the lot.
Outside of that and the O’Brine Twins there are some pretty good comics. The “minute mystery” is still way too short to get into and I haven’t been reviewing the text stories because there are so many comics to already get through if I want to do something other than review this comic all day. It’s nice that this comic is fun to read again.
Posted by ShadowWing Tronix
Categories: Yesterday's Comics
Tags: Dan Garret, Fox Features Publication, Joan Mason, Mike Mannigan, Sparky/Spunky, The Blue Beetle
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