The early concept art for Attack On Titan just looks off.
The Blue Beetle #34
Fox Features Publications (September, 1944)
Well, so far the stories have been improving. Most of the stories have been about Dan and his friends, and the writing’s been good…not counting the supposedly funny stories like the one-panel comic strips or the O’Brine Twins. Sadly both are back, as is a serial that gets continued next issue but isn’t the last comic in the list, which already seems like a mistake, with another Blue Beetle story and a Joan Mason tale coming after it.
The Blue Beetle> “The Menace Of K-4”
That was the Nazi team from the previous issue. We were warned they’d be back, and here they are. I wonder if there’s a page missing from the Comic Book Plus scans of this issue? It’s already missing some of the inside cover. That’s the thing about those older comics. They weren’t printed with re-reads in mind, and parents thought they could just get rid of them. I even gave up a comic because mom needed wrapping paper for my cousin’s birthday gift. Anyway, K-4 turns out to be a girl forced to help the Nazis with the Gestapo holding her family prisoner. Why? She doesn’t really do anything. Maybe that’s explained in the missing page? There’s no “the end” and the ending is kind of abrupt. It was a decent story until then. Also, Blue Beetle gets Joan kidnapped. Good going, Dan. I can see why you were recruited by the FBI.
After the lame GI joke page there’s a contest where some lucky boy or girl can win the chance to appear in a Blue Beetle comic. I’ll be curious to see if that comes about in a few issues. Sorry, it’s too late for you to enter.
The Blue Beetle> “The Threat From Saturn” chapter 1: “Spawn Of Saturn”
This is an odd place to put your serialized story when it’s going to be through at least the next issue, but here we go. This is one of those weird adventures, and one where science takes it hard. Alien prisoners launched from planet Saturn come to Earth, looking to steal human bodies. They first try Mike and Joan but Blue Beetle shakes them out, and later they unearth two bodies who must have just been buried because they aren’t the slightest bit decomposed. Poor Professor Scope gets beat up by Gloat and Saturnia (really worked hard on those names, did you?) more than once, and the story ends on a rather decent cliffhanger. We’ll have to wait for next issue to see what happens. This is one of those stories Sasha from Casually Comics on YouTube should be checking out. It’s dumb in all the fun places.
Joan Mason: “The Missing Portrait”
…which is also missing the opening page or pages, and the text story before it. There’s enough to tell what the story is about and this time the abrupt ending can be blamed on the writing. Apparently a Nazi undercover as a diplomat was forced to have his portrait painted and Joan gets roped into the mission to get it back, even getting tricked by another Nazi. I’m not sure the missing pages would elevate this past the “meh” it is right now.
Since I can’t put up with the O’Brine Twins (unprofessional, I know), let’s get to the final adventure.
The Blue Beetle: “Visitors From Hades”
This one has…I guess you could call them augmented men being used by the Nazis. Blue Beetle manages to defeat them and their bank robbery attempt because Nazis were known to pull bank heists in New York City? This one also ends on a cliffhanger, like the K-4 story from last issue concluding this issue. So we essentially have two cliffhangers.
overall thoughts
This issue was kind of mid. The missing pages wouldn’t have fixed that. It’s just not their best work, and yet still more interesting than the Holyoke run because at least they’re trying to tell good tales of Blue Beetle and friends. Effort counts for something.
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