“Yesterday’s” Comic> Blue Beetle #2 (Charlton)

Of course, the nobel Arctic Elephant. So graceful on the ice.

Blue Beetle vol. 2 #2

Charlton Comics (September, 1964)

“Hot War In The Arctic”

No credits. There’s also a text story I didn’t read, a one-page story of a man stealing money, but it turns out to be stopping a revolution and the thief uses non-lethal force, and a story about two divers finding a lost city of gold and jewels, but their greed doesn’t last long because the story is way too short. So let’s focus on the main story, listed in four chapters.

[Read along with me here]

Dan is brought to the Arctic to consult when a Chinese plane is shot down, carrying the pilot and a neanderthal. Dan and what I’m guessing is going to be the obligatory pretty girl for the story, find that the Chinese are melting the ice caps to build a military base to conquer the world because they’re Commies and this is the 1960s. Except that will cause ecological disasters, and the environmentalists haven’t discovered global warming yet, as they’re focused on pollution and whaling. So Blue Beetle has to save the prehistoric people and animals, destroy the steam machines so everything will freeze over again, including the prehistoric people and animals, and stop the “orientals”. Again, 1960s. You were warned.

What they got right: The dialog is not as stiff as the previous issue, but there’s still stuff to complain about later. Dan is now a full fledged archeologist instead of just an Egyptologist, which gives him more flexibility in the fantastic adventures this incarnation will be part of. The art’s pretty good.

What they got wrong: The dialog is still somewhat stiff, though it reads less like the first draft table read. Outside of calming the neanderthal with food, lady pilot contributes little to the overall story. The backup stories were unnecessary and didn’t have time to really be interesting. Apparently this part of the Arctic has also trapped people and animals who never actually lived in the same time period, but that’s nothing new for stories of the period through…today, really.

What I think overall: An improvement over the previous issue, but I’m not really into it just yet. Curious, yes, but that’s more historical curiosity than actually investment.