Resuming the tradition of a Blue Beetle not having his own comic to himself.
Blue Beetle #1
Charlton Comics Group (June, 1967)
The Blue Beetle: “Bugs The Squids”
WRITER: D.C. Glanzman
ARTIST: Steve Ditko
LETTERER: A Machine (In the 1960s? Someone worked that machine. AI lettering isn’t even in use now.)
The Question:
No title, but also no credits. The same A. Machine seems to be used for the lettering and Ditko is known to have worked on this story, so I’m guessing it’s the same credits even if I’m really guessing on the writer.
It’s as good a theory as any other. Superman doesn’t have the same embargos as Batman shows, even animated Batman at various points, so Batman rights on TV has been a mess for a long time. By the way, he corrects in the comments that Disney bought ABC (or at least parent company at the time Capital Cities) in 1996. I think he just was stuck on 1966 for too long. 😀
Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter (or possibly multiple chapter for this one) of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.
So we took a week off, and it’s not like we ended on a major cliffhanger in the previous two chapters. The shorter one ended with our James Bond wanna-be sliding a fake coin under the door that’s really an eavesdropping device. That’s where we’re coming in. This chapter is short, but just long enough to make the minimum page count, which given my time is fine with me.
Despite my grumblings thus far I am trying to go into this with an open mind. While our recurring characters are already showing to be the same putzes from last time, the timing of this as the second novel is off, and the same chapter breaking issues remain, though now with numbers for marking the in the headline, It’s still too early to tell if the writer learned any lessons from the previous book. The chapter thing is only an improvement when it comes to this review format. The rest of the issues I had from the first novel were the cast issues, with the recurring ones not people I’m interested in and the one-shots far more interesting, and that was how they tried to sell the franchise to readers. Apparently enough people liked it that this is only the second book in the series and not the last one.
So what did they see in it? Let’s crack open the book for this week’s chapter and find out.
This comic was produced in association with the Red Cross after the Great Flood Of 1993, where Mississippi and Missouri got hit by a huge flood. Its continuity is questionable so this is where the reading order decided to shove it in. Malibu and Spartan Printing took on the printing costs and the donations went to relief efforts.
Prime lifts a school bus from flood waters during a rainstorm.
Considering what this comic started out as, it’s still a step up.
Well, it’s time to get back into it. How well did I do? Thanks to sleep issues taking half my day away, not as much as I’d like. However, as both the comic and this week’s Clutter Report show, I did manage to get some stuff accomplished. For this site I have a few things on standby, but not as much as I’d like, and I did manage to track down a site with a bunch of old show writer’s guides, and I’m going to drop one of them soon. Even made a logo. Wanna see it?
I’ve been wanting to do another one since I finished Transformers: Beast Machine Hunters, and I got a big one. While I would have liked to have done this before doing the Next Generation guide, I can still compare the two, and I even have the sales pitch along with the writer’s guide. Comparing them to the original show and the ways Roddenberry improved by TNG time will still be a hoot. Hoping to drop this one this week, but that depends on discussion topics. The intro article is written and waiting in the queue, plus one more Finally Watched. I was hoping for more but being half-asleep is not good for focus. If I can get a decent work schedule out of it I might still get some others put in before I have to use up anything but Star Trek: Pitch & Guide this week, and that would be nice. I’d also like to bank a few of those.
As for this week, a short but just long enough to qualify chapter of Op-Center: Mirror Image will help me ease in a bit, speaking of things I could bank if I had time. To help with my time issues, our trip through the Blue Beetle’s pre-DC history will be moving to Tuesday in time for Ted Kord to get his first solo title, while the Golden Age comic will move to Friday, since the time I need to get through all that should be easier to get in by Friday than Tuesday. Whatever else depends on what the week does to me. Have a great week, everyone!
Hiatus officially breaks tomorrow, but with Saturday Night Showcase errors, and Chris McFeely dropping this long compilation of Transformers lore preparing for the release of Transformers One, the first animated Transformers theatrical movie in years (more if you don’t live in Japan), I thought I’d post it for all of you.
Personally, the original origin is still my favorite. Orion Pax’s job pre-war makes more sense given his traditional alternate mode, and it just sounds like a better lead to being Cybertron’s greatest warrior and leader than being a data desk clerk. I also have problems with Furman’s take on Optimus in general. Also PLEASE STOP KILLING OPTIMUS PRIME!!!!!! It’s been (literally) done to death, and should go away along with Bumblebee losing his voice. I don’t mind the stoic take, but a bit of the fun from the original making a return wouldn’t make me sad.
As for Megatron, I have issues with pretty much every version of Mister “Peace Through Tyranny”. Sometimes his origin is tied to the “Autobots are actually not good guys” thing I hate so much, and sometimes it just falls short. The Marvel Comics origin comes closest but I know how I’d give Megatron a great origin that makes sense to his character. It ties to what would be my attempt to reconcile the Primus and Quintesson origins into one origin that partly builds on the idea of being living robots. Someday I hope to tell you that story, but other projects are currently more important. I don’t mind Megatron no longer being a gun, even though that’s what I grew up with. In addition to the current toy gun safety laws, that seem to get tighter with every new big news shooting event, someone like Megatron needing someone else to fire him doesn’t work. I’d accept a cannon, but as a front line commander, a tank frankly makes a lot more sense.
I’m still not sold on Transformers One, as I went over in my review of the teaser. I’m not won on the humor, and maybe I am too interested in my own origin ideas, but Bumblebee turned out to be a better movie than I expected. Maybe someday it will be a Finally Watched. At the very least it looks better than the live-action movies.
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