Well, the various Dan Garret(t)s have been everywhere else. Why not Middle Earth?
Blue Beetle #54
Charlton Comics Group (February-March, 1966)
“The Eye Of Horus”
WRITER: Roy Thomas
ARTISTS: Fraccio & Tallarico
Luri is back, this time excavating a tomb that houses the Eye Of Horus, an ancient monster that terrorised Egypt until the pharaoh that was the first user of the scarab defeated him. Her boss secretly wants the Eye’s power, but it ends up killing him, either because he didn’t get to finish the control spell or it was useless. Luri calls Dan in for help and he manages to chase the Eye off. During their next encounter, the Eye turns everyone at a nightclub into his pawns and uses Luri to separate Dan from the scarab. Luckily, Luri’s “mascot”, Hassim, gives Dan the scarab back and learns his secret before being injured. Chasing off the Eye again, Blue Beetle is told by the pharaoh to look into his own mind to find the answer, which brings our hero to the world of the dead or something. Learning the Eye’s “real name”, Blue Beetle manages to banish him and restore everyone under his control, healing Hassim.
What they got right: Silly as the mental world of the dead thing might have been, this is more thought out than the comic has been since Dan got his powers in this reality. The magic word is used, Dan doesn’t pull another power out of nowhere unless you count the trip into his mind. We have it set that he’s an archaeologist and college teacher, and there’s a cute moment with one of his clumsier students. We get a returning love interest, and she’s used well in the story.
What they got wrong: If this is THE Roy Thomas, the characters are surprisingly stiff in dialog, though it’s still better than some issues. The art is also still at time, but there’s improvement there as well.
What I think overall: Getting Roy Thomas, one of Marvel’s biggest writers, is certainly a feather in the cap for the smaller publisher from Connecticut (Derby, if you’re curious), and it already seems to be a benefit. We’ll see if improvement continues.
What? This is the last one with Dan Garrett, at least in Comic Book Plus’ collection? The comic numbering gets moved over to Ghostly Tales? Our next Blue Beetle comic will hit the final phase of this series of reviews as we start the reign of Ted Kord? Except I have to check out issues of Captain Atom first, so I need to decide if I’ll do that title now or wait until I get to Charlton proper? Well, this should be interesting. Do you think think I should wait for Captain Atom or just do the Blue Beetle stories, or just do the full comic now? Let me know in the comments.
BW Media Spotlight 