One last trip with rookie patrolman Dan Garret we need to cover, and it’s the radio show.
Comics have never been treated fairly by the rest of the media landscape but they used to be in far better shape as radio dramas and movie serials based on them were usually accurate enough. Not always, and I could point to specific failings of a bunch of them that I’m aware of, but close enough to make the readers happy. Airing on CBS’s radio network from May to September of 1940, The Blue Beetle took the chainmail armor wearing hero from Mystery Men Comics and gave him his own radio adventures. Along for the ride would be Mike Mannigan and Doctor Franz, with Joan Mason as a recurring character if memory serves.
The origin of the Blue Beetle is a bit better pulled together: how and why Dr Franz gave him the Vitamin 2X and the various gadgets at the Blue Beetle’s disposal, using a “magic ring” in place of the visual symbol of “you’re in trouble now, boyo” from the comics because there’s no visual here as well as using it as a cutting laser, and the friendship between the three though Mike would still be pursing the Blue Beetle as a vigilante are all on display. I would listen to these old radio shows while going on walks and now I get to share them with you, as a final farewell to the original version of the Blue Beetle and his circle of friends.
Old Time Radio Researchers on Comic Book Plus and the Internet Archive, the latter being my hosting source for this installment, has the episodes split into two parts, possibly where the commercial break would be, but the first adventure has each part listed as a separate episode, while the others are parts 1 and 2. “Origin Story” and “Smashing The Spy Ring” features the origin of the Blue Beetle and his war on crime. So sit back and listen to the theater of the mind as our heroes deal with evil spies in the first story of The Blue Beetle. Enjoy.
PART 1: The Origin Story
PART 2: Smashing The Spy Ring
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