Basically this series is now “Blue Beetle endangers children” in a way sidekick haters only joked about.
The Blue Beetle #37
Fox Features Publications (Spring, 1945)
I’m not quite as disappointed as I was during the Holyoke run because I can get one or two stories that work. Unfortunately the bad keeps outweighing the good, and with an anthology like this one gets the impression they were just tossing ideas out there. Longer stories might have been the way to go. Well, this issue has three stories, no O’Brine Twins, the usual bonuses, but no sign of the serial. I haven’t read it yet but it’s already feeling more like an annual or a secondary issue, but it’s continuing the same number trend. Numbering in the 1940s was weird, so who knows? Hey, I can go a week without Gloat and Saturina.
“Blue Beetle And The Great Tree Mystery” by Otis
Okay, which city is Dan Garret a patrolman in? He seems to be out of the intelligence bureau altogether, probably because the Nazis know who he is according to previous stories. I thought he was in New York or somewhere in the west, but here he’s escorting a diplomat on a ride through the Great Redwood Forest, which is apparently in California. It’s like trying to keep track of Adventure Bay at this point, since they’re right near every ecosystem on the planet, yet still have to take plane or train to other cities. The villain is called The Stump, which would be fitting if this were his motif. Instead he has thugs dressed as animals and wants to kill the ambassador to prove to the underworld to make them supreme leader or something. And apparently Dan’s powers DO come from his costume now. There is so much this comic doesn’t understand about dehydration, heat, animals, animal costumes, Dan Garret, and I could go on. It’s not that the story is terrible (it’s mediocre at best, mind you), it’s that it doesn’t have a sense of logic to it.
Joan Mason: Reporter in “Carnival Of Death” by Art Allen
I swear the opening panel looks like Joan is beating up The Spirit. So much for being a ladies man. Joan’s still trying to go on vacation. She stumbles upon Dan undercover at a traveling carnival, looking into the murder of one of the owners, and the two end up dealing with counterfeiters. The story started out good but the ending feels a bit rushed. Also, for being a Joan Mason story it seems to be Dan in charge, without the Blue Beetle coming into play at all. It’s a good idea but sadly doesn’t go very well.
“The Adventure Inside The Earth” by Otis
One problem Otis seems to have (or maybe the letterer) is doing an opening properly. If your narration is leading into the story, the title should go after it. “Little did soandso realize this would be…” is supposed to be followed by the title, not having it before the speech. Also, we’re still having the Blue Beetle pick up random kids to go on an adventure rather than just having them drawn into the story organically. This time, congrats to Virginia Belle and Douglas Richard Abbott for being this issue’s doxxed kids being taken to a life-or-death peril. I wonder if Spunky is feeling left out…nah, I don’t care. I’ll defend Scott Trakker before Spunky/Sparky/whatever. Anyway, Blue Beetle and Joan take them in the Beetlebird (some beetles CAN fly, you know) to visit a research professor because Doug got to pick the adventure and wants to know more about 100,000 years ago. Apparently Blue Beetle now has super breath because Otis really doesn’t know this character. It’s your usual secret underground land that time forgot, written by someone who can’t even get what they theorized about dinosaurs in the 1940s right. Then again we also have “ancestors” of our uncostumed cast as cavemen being attacked by other cavemen.
You know, I really want to see interviews with these kids, if any of them are still alive and remember their response to these stories when they came out. Once the novelty leaves, so does the fun and I for one would be disappointed I appeared in such lame tales. Frankly the whole issue was just “mid”, as the kids say nowadays. (Right, fellow kids?) This issue wasn’t very good but it wasn’t very bad either. They…just kind of exist without any real effort, and that may be the worst thing to say about a work. I just hope I get to be more than “mid” in my stories. Preferably toward the good side, though.
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