I was kind of hoping we were done with the true crime stories.
Blue Beetle #60
FINAL ISSUE
Fox Features Syndicate (August, 1950)
Here we are, the last issue of this numbering, and the last of the second and final Fox Features run. We aren’t done with the Blue Beetle’s public domain stories, but next time we will be starting a new home for the Blue Beetle, but we’ll still have the same trio for a while…and a very strange numbering system that we’ll get into when we get there. Will they head out on a high note? I hope so. Only one way to find out.
“Crime Circus!”
Despite what the front page says, there was no comic coming August 2nd. The next comic, under Charlton, wouldn’t arrive to February, 1955. As for the story, we actually have continuity from previous stories in this final stretch. The PAL group for kids is namedropped and the Death’s Head cane topper is also part of the story. Also, someone remembered Blue Beetle has bulletproof armor! Too bad one panel has Dan and Joan switch places for some reason despite being close to each other.
The topper is going to be used by a magician who was part of PAL and some crooks find out about it, coming up with a scheme to attempt to steal it. We’re told about the scheme but don’t get to see it because the writer decided to pad out a typical Blue Beetle fight with other crooks again, while Beetle secretly helps Mike nab the main crooks, using the circus as part of their con. It’s a good idea but because they need a typical Blue Beetle takedown in a comic with three stories, two of them his, that seems unnecessary and took away from what could have been a good story on its own.
Joan Mason: “Onstage Murder!”
Actually it’s a Joan and Mike adventure, with Dan’s absence explained on more classes in forensics. It’s a shame this comic enjoys having Mike tease Dan for being a rookie cop who actually wants to fight crime. Yeah, he sees crime everywhere…and he’s been right. This new addition in the last couple of issues doesn’t work. In this story Joan gets tickets to a play, but with Dan at the classes she takes Mike. There they get involved in the murder of the star, and the threat against the understudy. Mike plays the muscle and is relatively competent but it’s Joan’s story and she’s the one who solves the case. It’s also a fairly good murder mystery taking place at a play that’s a murder mystery. That doesn’t play beyond the key on the paper, a reference to the play’s title, but overall a good mystery story for the readers to try to solve with the clues until the final clue is just kind of dropped on us.
“The Bloody Artist”
The Beetle returns for the final story of the second Fox run. Dan takes the PAL kids to the museum at Joan’s suggestion to see the Van Gogh paintings on display. Dan’s “electronic hearing” picks up trouble and one of the kids notices a crook drawing the layout of the museum, pretending to be an artist learning by recreating the masters. (Yes, that actually does happen. As Dan himself notes, it’s a good way to learn.) Too bad it’s too much of Mike complaining about rookie cops and art. I thought he liked both Dan and the arts, but for some reason he’s kind of a jerk in this story. He also comes off as a boob and we’re back to the comic relief, and of course wanting to snag the Blue Beetle. We also have another unnecessary bonus crime when there’s already one going on in the story.
overall
I want to say this ended on a high note but it feels like a step too far back in character development. Dr. Franz, wrong name or not, doesn’t get to return. Mike is back to hating Blue Beetle and now he also treats his supposed friend like a joke while becoming the butt of the joke himself, except in the Joan Mason story. The comic isn’t terrible, but a lot of unnecessary parts show up in the Blue Beetle stories and only in the Joan Mason tale does Mike not get treated as pathetic. I wish this was the high note, but luckily we have a quartet of Charlton comics that still take place in this period of the Blue Beetle’s concept, which I’ll be starting next time. If the Fox run didn’t end on the best terms, maybe the universe they created will. Still better than the Holyoke run, though.
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