“Yesterday’s” Comic> The Blue Beetle #1 (Charlton)

“I’m starting to miss the penny ante mobsters already.”

Blue Beetle vol 2 #1

Charlton Comics (June, 1964)

“The Giant Mummy Who Was Not Dead”

As typical, there are no credit. As atypical of this character’s adventures thus far, the comic is one big story split into three parts: “The Giant Mummy Who Was Not Dead”, “The Birth of Evil”, and “The Mummy’s Return”. This is the new continuity, with a new origin and second T on the last name of our hero, so let’s see what New Dan is like. Also, the comic has a text story and some trivia comic pages, but we won’t be going over them.

[Read along with me here]

Dr. Dan Garrett is asked to lead an expedition to the tomb of the evil pharaoh Kah-Ef-Re. A lady professor, Lori Hoshid, tries to convince Dan that this is a bad idea, but goes with him anyway to the tomb. Also, they kind of have the hots for each other. A date between them is interrupted by General Amenhotep, a descendant of the pharaoh with his own goals for world domination. Amenhotep uses a hydrogen bomb to revive the mummy of his ancestor, which grows to giant size, but Dan is given a scarab by some ancient spirit. Shouting “Kaji Dha”, Dan is transformed into the Blue Beetle, which gives him the power to defeat the mummy and destroy Amenhotep’s weapons. Now Dan has a new mission in life as the Blue Beetle, meaning his romance with Lori is going to be on hold.

What they got right: The new costume is okay, and the origin isn’t bad. The art is pretty good for the time.

What they got wrong: Good gravy, the dialog is stunted as heck. It feels like they wrote the words but didn’t translate them into normal human speech. It comes off rather hokey. Also, I would have rather they gave us a proper return for the original rookie patrolman and his friends, but this is our Blue Beetle now, and it’s who we’ll be reviewing for the rest of this series.

What I think overall: I’m hoping things improve as the series goes on, because the plot is fine. It’s the execution that needs serious work. Our hero only finally listens to the lady professor when she shows up in a dancer’s outfit from ancient Egypt, which doesn’t reflect well on him. I don’t know why Dan and Lori can’t continue courting since she knows his secret, but hopefully they change that. It’s the dialog that needs a new going over to make the characters sound human rather than robotic. Please get better at that, 1950s Charlton comics.