Blue Beetle v3 #1 (1964)
by Joe Gill & Bill Fraccio
cover by Frank McLaughlin
When I covered the Golden Age Blue Beetle, I promised that I would eventually cover his Silver Age reboot separately… and a couple of years later I covered his more famous successor and was rightfully called out in the comments for not talking about the reboot.
The fact that I completely forgot I had not talked about this version is not a good sign for how memorable he is.
As a reminder: the Golden Age Blue Beetle started out as the most blatant Green Hornet ripoff you’ve ever seen except the Crimson Avenger, but later became a costumed superhero.
That’s who the first two volumes focused on, the first lasting 10 years and 59 issues (althought he numbering skips one so the last is #60) and the second only 4 issues.
I’m calling this a reboot because it clearly follows a different character. The original was a cop named Dan Garret, while this new version is an archeologist (no relation) called Dan Garrett.
I wonder if the additional T was a spelling error that stuck or if they intentionally added it to distinguish the two characters.
Also: if you ever doubt good lettering is useful, check out some Charlton comics because holy crap is this wall of text an eyesore.
While I have no problem believing that in 1964 it was perfectly acceptable to smoke a pipe next to ancient artifacts, I refuse to believe there could have been a general called “Amentohep”.
Also, if you know anything about the geopolitical situation of Egypt in the mid-60s, nuclear testing would have been A TERRIBLE IDEA.
After “General Amentohep” I was expecting archeological insanity, but credit where it’s due: Joe Gill did SOME research.
Because Chalcolithic Predynastic Egypt really was roughly 6,000 yeas ago, although it’s a bit on the high end of the range of dates.
Correct archeological facts: 1
Yep, Joe Gill definitely did more than what most Silver Age writers would have done and watched a couple of mummy movies.
He mentions in a single panel a real Pharaoh (although it’s one of the most well-known ones), two correct names of gods (even using a rare but legit spelling for Ra) and even drops “speos” which is a temple excavated directly into rocks.
The most famous of which, and the one probably being referenced here, being Abu Simbel.
Correct archeological facts: 5
Dan is then visited by Professor Luri Hoshid, which is a name I have a hard time untangling.
We will be told soon that she is supposed to be Egyptian, but if that’s the case that is one weird name for a 20th century Egyptian.
Not that Dan is thinking about her name at the moment.
And she’s not even dressed like an actual Ancient Egypt dancer.
Wrong archeological facts: 1
Between her name and “General Amentohep”, it’s pretty clear that Joe Gill did way more research on Ancient Egypt than Modern Egypt.
Because while “Kha-Ef-Re” is a fictional pharaoh, the name is relatively close to some spellings of the real pharaoh Khafre.
And a mastaba is a kind of tomb that would be relatively believable for a pharaoh fallen in disgrace.
Correct archeological facts: 7
I can’t help feeling that I’m the only archeologist caring about actual archeology in this expedition.
Dan departs the site with an airplane, because the desert is famously a good place for takeoff, and barely avoids being shot down.
As if General Amentohep wasn’t a stupid enough name on its own, it’s even worse when you consider that he’s supposed to be the descendant of “a mighty ruler”.
If that’s supposed to be one of the pharaohs with the same name… the most recent one was Amentohep IV, better known as Akhenaten: the father of Tutankhamun.
He died around 1336 BC, which is 3300 YEARS BEFORE THIS STORY.
Sure the guy is a tyrant who ammassed nuclear weapons, but he has *bad manners*?
That monster must be stopped!!!
Because punching a warlord has no real consequences, Dan is able to return to the tomb where he’s promptly abandoned by the workers.
I seriously question Luri’s credentials if she has never seen a statue before.
Although come to think of it, while she mentioned translated hieroglyphics, she never said what she’s a professor OF.
At this point you might be asking: are there going to be any blue beetles in this Blue Beetle story?
And then he has “the dream of a dream” (???) of dressing up in a costume and meeting the pharaoh.
I can’t stress enough just how OUT OF COMPLETELY NOWHERE this feels.
Dan even gets X-Ray vision out of this, for some reason.
And with the magic words “Kaji Dha”, Dan Garrett transforms into the superhero he dreamed of dreaming.
That was the end of Part 1 of the story.
Part 2 begins with A NUCLEAR-POWERED MUMMY.
A GIANT RADIOACTIVE MUMMY!!!
I can’t say “nuke the tomb of a pharaoh to turn him into a giant radioactive mummy” is the weirdest plan I’ve come across in those reviews… it doesn’t even make it to the top ten… but I feel that says more about the rest of the Silver Age than of the sanity of the writer.
If you’re only familiar with how modern comics treat the original Blue Beetle, you’re expecting the scarab to give him very limited powers… super-strenght, protection from magic, that kind of stuff.
In the original version, he’s basically Superman.
Unfortunately, the giant radioactive mummy has weird powers of its own: paralyzing eye beams that cause you to repeat repeat your words.
The General even takes away the scarab! How will Blue Beetle continue his career without it?
Just fine: Luri just gives it back. Because apparently the general just left it laying around.
Sounds legit.
Still, it’s going to be hard for Blue Beetle to defeat the giant mummy!
So to recap: Blue Beetle is super-strong, can fly, is invulnerable, has X-Ray vision and heat vision, and can shoot lightning from his hands.
Blue Beetle superpowers: 6
And so we end with Luri being scarab-blocked.
Despite being set up as the regular love interest, she’s in only 2 Blue Beetle stories.
Historical significance: 6/10
The scarab ends up overshadowing its user.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
It was way more of a Golden Age story until the transformation, then all kinds of nonsense follow.
Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
This started way better than the typical Charlton series. The artwork is passable, but the comparison with Steve Ditko is just brutal. However the somewhat slower pace does help a lot with establishing a unique mood… that is completely wrecked the second Dan gets powers.
Because from that point onward the story moves at breakneck speed with one over-the-top scene after the other, and Blue Beetle becomes so overpowered that any potential tension is lost.
I was also thoroughly unimpressed by Luri. Introducing a female intellectual equal to the hero was quite novel for 1964… and then the comic suddenly remembers that it’s 1964 and she devolves to be exclusively interested in Dan’s obelisk.
How close is this to the modern character? 3/10
Blue Beetle ended his first story vowing to answer the call whenever he’s needed.
That would be a disappointing 4 more times before his book is cancelled.
After that, he would show up in Blue Beetle Volume 4… which is just re-titling of Unusual Tales.
And once again he would only last 5 issues, from #50 to #54.
He has only 1 additional appearance in this era, as a supporting character in Thunderbolt #51.
He doesn’t even transform into Blue Beetle there.
As we have seen, the Ted Kord version of Blue Beetle barely ever mentions the scarab… but it’s vital to the Jaime Reyes version, since he’s powered by the scarab that is revealed to be an extremely powerful alien sentient weapon.
That means that, before dying as the backstory of his more famous successor, this version of Blue Beetle only had ELEVEN appearances in total.
Which makes Blue Beetle’s extended history even weirder than I previously thought.
The original was a Green Hornet ripoff turned into a superhero; despite being the second superhero to ever get his own series, surpassed only by Superman (even Batman had to wait a little longer) AND having a series that lasted 11 years AND having his own radio show AND a newspaper strip with early Jack Kirby artwork… he’s been completely overshadowed by his successors.
Which is absurd considering that his rebooted version only had 11 APPEARANCES before being killed off… and his Steve Dirko successor only 13 appearances before Crisis On Infinite Earths.
And if THAT wasn’t weird enough, there’s currently a barely connected Blue Beetle that has become DC’s only successful attempt to replicate the Spider-Man formula… and that’s not even the Steve Dirko version!!!
Since at this point there are TWO Blue Beetles way more famous than he ever was, you might think that Dan Garrett is gone for good.
And he kind of was until 2025, when he was resurrected and given the new identity of Silver Scarab.
It doesn’t seem like Silver Scarab has actually done anything significant yet, and I struggle to figure out if there’s a spot for him in the modern DC Universe.
It’s not like there’s a lack of Golden Age superheroes still running around, there’s already three or four superheroes connected to Ancient Egypt, and even the space adventures are well covered by his successor Jaime Reyes.
Still, if there’s one consistent thing in Blue Beetle’s history, is that you can’t always predict what’s going to stick.