Either Dan & Joan have a kink or they forgot to put the title character front and center again.
Blue Beetle #55
Fox Features Syndicate (April, 1948)
It continues to disappoint me that they’re not even using the title superhero on their cover, except in a circular inset to tell us he’s narrating. If you want to make a true crime comic, make it its own title and let the Blue Beetle have his comic back. It’s a variant of the problem we have in comics today. Make the comic you want and if you can’t find someone to do this comic right, end it. Apparently they don’t think the superhero is really selling the title or he’d be the star of the front cover and there wouldn’t be a true crime back-up feature where Dan starts narrating but has to change into costume before the story proper starts.
What is the point of that framing device, anyway? You really want the Blue Beetle to do the narration for some reason? Fine. But why can’t he either do it as Dan or just start him off in the Blue Beetle outfit?
“The Counterfeit Co-Ed”
When the summary on Comic Book Plus said that it was a criminal hiding out as a co-ed, I was ready for it to be a dude in drag. Knowing this comic they’d probably have Mike flirting with “her”, because this comic loves making Mike the butt of a joke. Nope, Lushy Lemon is a girl…whose parents expected her to grow up to be an alcoholic I guess. Meanwhile, one of her guy stooges decides this is a good time to take over. Doesn’t work out the way he planned. It’s yet another decent plot that doesn’t have a chance to really be interesting. Also…shower scene in what I’m guessing is no longer a kids comic. Yes, she covers up with a towel, but only her breasts and the leg blocking her other girl parts.
“The Anonymous Atom”
I can follow this story, but I can’t understand it. Some mobster tricks Joan into giving him information on the A-Bomb with a sob story about going straight. Since that’s the story she prints she’s fired…again, but still somehow gets access to the paper’s plane and car despite saying she’s going to the Bugle…and Spider-Man won’t exist for another few decades, though he did do The Electric Company with a different Blue Beetle.
That was more interesting than reading the story because Stan Lee understands radiation more than this comic does.
Carlo Barone: “The Human Vulture”
Maybe having an ad for an air pistol is poorly placed in a story about a gun-happy mobster with a revenge boner. Just a thought. It’s a rather dry read. Barone steals something, betrays people, shoots other people, then gets the chair. It’s a surprisingly popular name so dropping it in a Google search didn’t help and I’m not invested enough to dig further to see if he was worth caring about.
overall
This…was a comic. The first story is a plot without a story, the second is confused about its own weapon, and the third is kind of dull for a story with people getting shot. I’m starting to wonder if I shouldn’t just consider the rest of the Fox run a wash and go to the next owner. This was supposed to be an interesting look into the pre-DC history of the Blue Beetle, but it hasn’t been since the first Fox run, but at least there was some interesting trivia with the kids.
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