“That’s what I forgot. My scuba gear!”
The Blue Beetle #40
Fox Feature Syndicate (Winter, 1945)
You know, if this was coming out seasonally instead of monthly, you’d think they’d have more time to come up with better stories than I’ve been seeing lately in this series. That should go double for the ones actual kids were guest-starring in. You want to show your friends how cool it is that you’re in a Blue Beetle story and the story is just “hey, I’m going to grab a couple of kids and put them in danger when I told their parents we were just supposed to hang out”. I’m starting to guess what happened to Spunky, but we’re better off without him so I’ll give Dan the benefit of the doubt when it comes to his young blackmailer.
Not that it matters, because this issue doesn’t dox any real world kids to sent them on adventures, and with the serial finally over with there’s room for a better story. Let’s see if they take it.
“Masks Of Mystery”
The opening splash talks about someone named Moonface, but all we get is Mr. Lunar. All the moon talk from that page mostly disappears and has nothing to do with the story involving masks that turn people crazy but disintegrate if removed. Meanwhile, Lunar plots against the four people he thinks most responsible for him going to prison. Mike actually lost his urge to arrest Blue Beetle, along with his accent, as he works with him and Joan to solve the mystery. I guess even the writers are starting to realize how dumb this is when the other cops don’t have a problem working with a vigilante superhero anymore. This wasn’t too bad for a short story.
Joan Mason: “The Spider’s Parlour”
When Joan’s editor gets on her case for not finding Spider Spaulding, she gets mad and quits, taking a job as a press agent. She later learns the job was one of Spaulding’s scams and he robbed the vacationers heading to a fake resort. Lucky for her Dennis Whatshisname is there vouch for her when the cops show up. Then they take in a boat ride that also turns out to be a trap, but this time Dennis was smart enough to call ahead and Spider gets caught. So the whole story is Joan bumbling into the story she quit over and not really doing much while the cop who only shows up in her stories saves the day. Not the best showing for our heroine.
“The Man Who Stole 24 Hours”
Seriously, what the hell was that? Professor Zero (making me miss Dr. Franz) comes up with a time machine, but it…steals a day so everyone both lived the day and missed the day simultaneously, but then he restores the lost day and…sometimes even the plot isn’t worth exploring, nevermind greenlighting for a full story. This was a few minutes that I’ll never get back.
Overall, it was an improvement, but not by much. The first story was okay, the second was decent and the last one was garbage, like it descended in quality the whole way down. We’re also a story short from before, unless you count the continuingly unfunny “Joy Family” that’s not worth discussing, which may be a cause for concern. It doesn’t appear to be missing like I’ve seen before due to the best available scans. Guess I’ll take the victory I can and wait for the next issue.
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