Red, White, and Blue. And I thought the comic wasn’t going for patriotic anymore.
Blue Beetle #5
Charlton Comics Group (March/April, 1965)
“Blue Beetle Challenges The Red Knight”
Credits! We have credits this issue!
WRITER: Joe Gill
PENCILER: Bill Fraccio
INKER: Tony Tallarico
Nothing for colorist, letterer, or editor, but it’s a start. It’s so rare to see on the page who made these Blue Beetle stories. When we do we get nightmare inducers like Otis.
Of course Dan Garrett has a friend who invented a new kind of heat shield but needs to go to Saturn to get the material he needs. It’s the Silver Age. They didn’t care about logic back then, you know. For example, while there Dan’s friend inhales gasses that turns him evil and he uses his heat shield to create a suit of armor and make his horse fly, styling the armor after his favorite chess piece, the red knight. He begins conquering and forcing his fiance to become his “white queen”. In order to stop him, Blue Beetle has to visit the pharaoh who gave him his powers by traveling to the past to talk to him. With a counteragent to the Saturn material and an antidote to the gases that turned him evil, Blue Beetle manages to restore his friend and undo his actions.
What they got right: Like I said, it’s the Silver Age. The logic is nonexistent. So based on the crazy rules of the comic at this point (there’s a side story about some creatures rescuing a man who fell into their magic pool and healing him, only now he glows in the dark and the story goes nowhere) the story actually works. The Red Knight is a decent threat to the Blue Beetle.
What they got wrong: Still not sure how the horse flew. Yes, somehow this is the part I couldn’t believe in a story about a man going to Saturn to get material for a new heat shield turning evil and taking over a city just by showing up after a few attacks elsewhere and the Blue Beetle traveling through time to meet the pharaoh to get some magic dust that came from a mummy. Also, Blue Beetle goes into space and has an electric blast power in this issue. You guys really didn’t bother to come up with a straight up power set, did you?
What else is there: This issue introduces a letter’s collum, “The Beetle’s Nest”, where one writer requests credits for the story (missed the colorist, letterer, and editor) and another wants all the names to be printed with full addresses. That last one feels like a mistake but I live in 2024, where terms like “doxxing” and “swatting” exist. We’re also told via response to another letter that the reason the backup stories exist is due to some rule by the Post Office regarding second class postage regulations. Your tax dollars at work, 1960s America. This will get dumber with the next issue as we try to figure out how the numbers officially jump to #50.
What I think overall: Nonsense? You know it! Fun? Mostly yes, but this comic isn’t going to hold up to a current day reader.
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