It’s been a long time since I’ve gone through my looseleaf version of the Marvel Handbook but I swear Ghost’s outfit looks familiar.
Captain Atom vol 2 #86
Charlton Comics Group (June, 1967)
“The Fury Of The Faceless Foe”
WRITER: Dave Kaler
PENCILER: Steve Ditko
INKER: Rocke Mastroserio
LETTERER: A. Machine (really, guys?)
All-New Blue Beetle
CONCEPT/ART: Steve Ditko
WRITER: Gary Friedrich
The Ghost returns, using other people and the tech he stole from Punch and Jewlee to appear to be in multiple places at once. The military manages to track a signal related to the teleportation device Ghost is using for his dopplegangers, but it’s a trap to capture Captain Atom and Nightshade. Though they almost escape, the Ghost’s plans are actually foiled by a group of strange women who insist the “faceless one” is their god, and it’s time for daddy to come home.
What they got right: It’s a clever plan by Ghost to have impersonators mess with the heroes and he almost manages to send them to some dimension he apparently sent our heroes to before. And we have an explanation for that box that contained the gear Punch and Jewlee were using. It was lost during a storm, which is all we get but it’s something. We also learn Nightshade keeps her shadow state a secret even from her crimefighting partner. When we eventually get back here, the next back-up story arc should be her origin according to Comic Book Plus.
What they got wrong: Does Abby Ladd serve any kind of purpose besides somehow getting into a general’s office on a military base to yell as the superheroes for not be perfect? Get! Rid! Of! This! Character!!!!! Also, where does Nightshade have gas filters in a cowl type mask?
In the Blue Beetle story, the last one in this comic (so hopefully I won’t have to put up with Abby until my readthrough comes back to this series), Von Steuben’s attempt to get Ted out of his lab backfires as he recognizes him as the “masked marauder”. He goes to the villain’s place just as another scientist is confronting him about stolen science information. The new Blue Beetle manages to rescue him and stop the villains, but learns that Tracey and Fisher still suspect he’s behind Dan’s disappearance.
These stories have basically been to show off Ted’s gear and continually tease something happening to Dan Garrett, more set-up for his own story than trying to be a regular story on its own. At least Ted was a bit better as a fighter and thinker this story. I’m more confused about why Tracey cares when I don’t recognize her among the other one-shot women the archeologist version of Dan came across, why Fisher thinks Ted knows anything about his disappearance, and why everybody other than Ted (because I know he was there) immediately thinks Dan is dead and Ted killed him when there’s no body.
Hopefully this will be explained, as next time–which will be moving to Tuesday so I can put the Golden Age anthology at the end of the week and make review time easier on me–we move into Blue Beetle’s own book. We’ll most likely see Captain Atom again, but this has been about following the pre-DC Blue Beetles after the Jaime Reyes movie hit the theaters, and I’m sticking to that plan.
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