I'm a big Blue Beetle fan, in case you didn't know/guess it from my comic parodies on that other blog.
Over the years, there's been 3 very different Beetles, each perfectly representing the various eras they were invented during.
The Blue Beetles each have a quite original and quite different take unlike all the Green Lanterns or The Flashes, which if they were adapted into a feature film, for example, they'd mostly had to start from the original silver age retelling (a Green Lantern movie had to be about Hal Jordan rather than Kyle Rayner, John Stewart or Guy Gardner, or you'd have to mix the origins of the later with Hal's origin story and end up with a strange hybrid character most people would hate - the same goes for Barry Allen instead of Wally West or Bart Allen conflicted origins).
The original Blue Beetle was the perfect example of a pulp "mysteryman", using magical artifacts and facing mystical beings.
Blue Beetle II was a more techno-hero, using gadgets, plans and even a vehicle. He relied on science and in that way wasn't very far from characters like Batman and such.
Finally the current Blue Beetle III is a modern retelling using alien technology and adventures himself in plain science-fiction.
All are different in personas and their background. It even shows pretty good in their costume/character design.
Anyway, here's a great starting point to every thing Blue Beetle, their current canon origin story in the DC comics universe.
Comic title: Secret Origins #2
Art by Gil Kane & Anthony Tollin
Story by Len Wein
Published by DC
From 1986
Lineup Blue Beetle
Format: Single issue from an on-going series.
Like I already said a lot of times in other reviews, and like most of you gals and guys know, in the middle of the 80s DC Comics had a big reboot/simplification of its universe during a big Crisis.
Since most of its publications were restarting out, it was a good time to reintroduce new and long-time readers to their different character's history.
Thus was born "Secret origins".
Secret Origins was a way to retell their different library of character's history without taking a break to produce a mini-series doing the same (example: the Year One line). Secret Origins were single issues-long retelling of one, two or more characters origins in single issues.
The book ran for over 30 issues, each usually telling the origin of a popular character (like Batman, Green Lantern, Superman...) alongside less popular ones in the same book (Halo, Dr. Mid-Nite, Rex the Wonder Dog, Legion of Superheroes members...) or sometimes pairing related characters (Elongated-man & Plasticman...).
In this very 2nd issue of Secret Origins instead of 2 separate stories, Len Wein & Gil Kane offered DC readers an original story retelling and connecting both origins of the then-two Blue Beetles in a single comic!
Magic! Egypt! Monsters! Action! Adventure!
This comic might not be properly divided in two separate stories but under an overall storyline there still is two halves reserved to both Beetles.
This Secret Origins #2 properly introduced old classic Charlton Comics characters into the DCU for the very first time.
Charlton Comics was an old inprint that sadly closer doors around 1985, DC then acquired most of their characters on a recommendation by their then-current editor Dick Giordano who had previously worked for a very long time at Charlton.
After a little cameo appearance during the Crisis, this was their first real debut in DC Comics.
During his original publication the Blue Beetle had several origin stories, Golden Age comics used to adapt and change alongside its readers rather than follow a definite continuity.
This comic stays pretty close in tone and story to one of Dan Garret's origins, the original Blue Beetle.
Dan was an history professor and archaeologist. After being attacked while in Egypt for a dig, Dan founds himself trapped in a tomb with a co-professor. He finds a mystical scarab that seems to give him a lot of powers (such as flight, strength, energy beams...) and strikes back against a revived mummified Pharaoh!
Kaji Dha!
With these mysterious words the scarab is activated and Dan was ready to jump in a life of exotic adventure.
Then we're introduced to several other super villains he fought during the later years (I even posted a sample here).
Blue Beetle - the BWAHAHA years.
The story jumps several years ahead where Dan, now older, meets back one of his old students Ted Kord.
For Ted, Dan had become sort of a mentor and inspiration for his career (always motivated to explor the unknown!).
Dan confess having spent some years helping out his uncle Jarvis Kord build a robotic army without his knowing and wants Dan Garret's help in stopping that mad man.
It's a bit over-the-top, sure, but sets up Ted Kord on-going series he would later have during the 80s.
There's a sense of continuity, a relation between Dan and Ted, despite how different each Blue Beetle would be.
It builds a bridge between two different generation of heroes, as DC would do with their Golden Age heroes, the JSA, now set up in the past of the modern JLA instead of an alternate universe as they tended to do during Silver Age comics. (see JLA: Year One for more on that!)
Since Ted would have the mystical scarab for a while, neither ever be able to use its powers, his character rely on science, gadget and would have more techno-based super villains (not explore in this Secret Origins, since it would be expanded and continued in his series later).
He's a great example of a more Silver Age/modern superhero.
Overall, a great "collector" book in my mind, for Blue Beetle fans.
Not all Secret Origins are really recommended IMO.
But this one's one of the best they produced.
Great, fun, goes in detail...
"2 Shocking Secrets for the price of one!!" as the cover implies!
It defines Dan Garret role in the past and sets up Ted Kord in the DCU.
Most details were expanded upon in Dan's on-going and some elements were later retconned in the modern days in Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle (III) (like the scarab actually being alien tech, Kaji Dha being its name, Dan only being able to use 10% of its powers...), but other than that, this story's still all good.
Check out this book if you have the chance to!
I give it:
