Publication history
The original Blue Beetle, Dan Garret, first appeared in Fox Comics' Mystery Men Comics #1 (cover-dated August 1939), with art by Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski (as under the house name of Charles Nicholas), though the Grand Comics Database tentatively credits Will Eisner as the scripter.[1] A rookie police officer, he wore a special bulletproof costume and took "Vitamin 2X" which endowed him with super-energy, and he was assisted by a neighborhood pharmacist in his fight against crime. Blue Beetle starred in a comic book series, comic strip and radio serial, but like most Golden Age superheroes, he fell into obscurity in the 1950s. The comic book series saw a number of anomalies in publication: 19 issues, #12 through #30, were published through Holyoke Publishing; no issue #43 was published; publication frequency varied throughout the run; and there were gaps where issues were not published, with large ones occurring in early 1947 and between mid-1948 and early 1950.
In the mid-1950s, Fox Comics went out of business and sold the printing plates for some stories featuring the Blue Beetle to Charlton Comics.[2] Reprinted stories from the original Blue Beetle series were initially published in Charlton's anthology comic Space Adventures #13-14 (Oct. 1954, Jan. 1955). Charlton Comics then began publishing their own Blue Beetle series, taking over numbering from the horror anthology series The Thing!, beginning with issue #18 (Feb. 1955). Issues #18-19 consisted entirely of reprinted Fox Comics stories; #20-21 included new adventures of the Golden Age character. The series was cancelled after these four issues, with numbering taken over from #22 onwards by Mr. Muscles.[3] One more original story starring the Golden Age incarnation of the character was published as a backup feature in Nature Boy #3 (Mar. 1956).
In 1964, Charlton Comics began publishing a new series of Blue Beetle[4] which substantially revamped the hero, reinventing him as a university professor and altering the spelling of his name to Dan Garrett. The first issue (Jun. 1964) was a new origin story that depicted Dan Garrett coming into possession of a mystical Egyptian scarab that granted him superpowers and beginning his career as the Blue Beetle. After five issues were published, the next issue was numbered as #50 (Jul. 1965), taking over numbering from the anthology comic Unusual Tales. The series ended with issue #54 (Feb.-Mar. 1966), its numbering taken over afterwards by the anthology comic Ghostly Tales. Issues #1-5 and #50-53 were written by Joe Gill and issue #54 by Roy Thomas; art for all ten issues was by Bill Fraccio and Tony Tallarico.
Later in 1966, Blue Beetle was reinvented again in a set of backup stories published in Captain Atom #83 (Nov. 1966) through #86, plotted and drawn by Steve Ditko:[5] they introduced Ted Kord, a student of Dan Garrett's, who took on the role of Blue Beetle following Garrett's apparent death. Kord was an inventor hero, using a variety of gadgets, with a day job of running his own research lab. This Beetle received his own series in 1967, also by Ditko, which ran for five issues until the entire Charlton "Action Heroes" line of comic books ceased publication in 1968.[6][7][8] The story planned for a sixth issue was eventually printed, without coloring, in the fan publication Charlton Portfolio #1 in 1974.
Both Blue Beetles reappeared in the third issue of Americomics, a title published by AC Comics in 1983–84. In the first story in this issue, Ted Kord fought a bogus Dan Garrett, but the second story was more significant. It revealed that the original 1940s Dan was reincarnated as the Silver Age version (minus his memories of his earlier existence) by some unspecified "gods", presumably the ones responsible for his mystic scarab. The gods subsequently resurrected Dan again and sent him off to save Kord's life (leaving him a note saying simply, "Try not to get killed this time"). After this adventure, Kord turned the Blue Beetle name back over to Dan. Americomics was canceled after issue #6, and so far this story has never been referenced by any other publisher.
With the rest of the Charlton Comics superhero line-up, Blue Beetle was sold to DC Comics in 1983. A new Blue Beetle series starring Ted Kord began publication in 1986, integrating the hero into the DC Comics shared universe. The series ran for 24 issues (Jun. 1986-May 1988), all written by Len Wein. While the series largely carried over the status quo and characters from Charlton Comics, some new elements were introduced: most notably, Kord was made a billionaire industrialist as his research lab was reinvented as the massively successful R & D company Kord Industries.
Blue Beetle became a member of the Justice League upon the launch of a new series in 1987, beginning with Justice League #1 (May 1987). Depicted with a more comedic tone than in the Blue Beetle solo comic, Ted Kord became best friends with team-mate Booster Gold. Blue Beetle remained as a main character on the series as it was re-titled Justice League International and then Justice League America. Following the event miniseries Zero Hour, both Blue Beetle and Booster Gold left the series and began starring in the new team title Extreme Justice, which ran for issues #0-18 (Jan. 1995-Jul. 1996). Kord later became a recurring character in Birds of Prey, and starred in the 2003-04 miniseries Formerly Known as the Justice League. Kord was killed off in the one-shot comic Countdown to Infinite Crisis (May 2005).
In 2006, DC introduced a new Blue Beetle, teenager Jaime Reyes, whose powers are derived from the scarab, now revealed as a piece of advanced alien technology. A new ongoing Blue Beetle series began publication in March 2006, initially written by Keith Giffen and John Rogers,[9] with artist Cully Hamner.[10] Giffen left in issue #10 and Rogers took over full writing duties, joined by a new artist, Rafael Albuquerque.[11] Rogers left the title with issue #25 to concentrate on his television series Leverage.[12] After three fill-in issues, Lilah Sturges became the main writer in issue #29,[13]
All three incarnations of Blue Beetle were depicted in Booster Gold (vol. 2) #6.[16] Following the cancellation of Jaime Reyes' solo series, the character was brought back to star in a backup feature in Booster Gold, once again written by Sturges.[17] The backup feature ran through issues #21-25 (Aug.-Dec. 2009) and #28-29 (Mar.-Apr. 2010).
A new Blue Beetle comic was launched as part of The New 52 initiative in September 2011, with Jaime Reyes' history being rebooted with a new origin and without any apparent history of Kord or Garrett as prior Blue Beetles. The new book was written by Tony Bedard and drawn by Ig Guara.[18][19] Blue Beetle was cancelled after issue #16 (Mar. 2013); Jaime Reyes's story was then continued in the new title Threshold, written by Keith Giffen, which ultimately ran for eight issues (Mar.-Oct. 2013).
The 2016 publishing initiative DC Rebirth restored the history of Dan Garrett and Ted Kord as previous Blue Beetles. A new Blue Beetle series was launched that year, with a one-shot special Blue Beetle: Rebirth (Oct. 2016) preceding Blue Beetle #1 vol. 9 (Nov. 2016), once again written by Keith Giffen. The series starred Jaime Reyes, while also featuring Kord as an ex-superhero who acts as his mentor. The series ran until issue #18 (Apr. 2018). Kord then co-starred alongside Booster Gold in the 2021-22 limited series Blue & Gold by Dan Jurgens, once again operating as a superhero under the name Blue Beetle.
Jaime Reyes remains the primary Blue Beetle for DC Comics. The 2022-23 limited series Blue Beetle: Graduation Day, written by Josh Trujillo and illustrated by Adrián Gutiérrez, featured Jaime Reyes as the main character. This was followed by a new ongoing Blue Beetle series by the same creative team, beginning in September 2023.
