A Question of Time!

How do you follow the "excitement" that was the crossover event "Millenium"? Time travel! That's right, Chronos is back and the only one who can stop him is Blue Beetle! Len Wein, Ross Andru and Danny Bulanadi are back for issue #22, and with a story so big they brought in Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier (credited as RJM Lofficier) and the great Gil Kane to help with a story called "A Question of Time!"

If This Works, It'll Be A Miracle!

Continuing the excitement of the crossover event "Millenium", Blue Beetle, with Mister Miracle in his corner, gets a rematch with Overthrow! Len Wein, Ross Andru and Danny Bulanadi are back for issue #21, and a story called "If This Works, It'll Be A Miracle!"

Picking up after "Millennium" #6, Blue Beetle and Mister Miracle are flying in the BUG over Chicago on their way to Ted's lab beneath Kord Inc.* Along the way they recall the conversation they had at the California location of the Green Lantern Corps Citadel. 

They know the Manhunters mothership is located in the Earth's core, but locating it is a challenge. That's when Ted hits on the idea of reversing some prototype Kord technology...and Mister Miracle offering to assist with Apokolipsian tech. 

While Mister Miracle gets started, Ted make an appearance in the offices of Kord Inc. There he finds some tension between him and Melody. She makes a point of being rubbing a lunch date with Randy Truman in his face...and when Randy is pulled away and Ted tries to offer an apology, and an alternate date, she blows him off. Right after Randy leaves, we see someone is lurking in the sub basement of the Kord building. That someone is Overthrow! The villain is getting orders from the Manhunters' Grandmaster. Stop the heroes plan to get to the Earth's core at all cost! And in Paris, Jeremiah meets with Belphegor (of the recently shut down Global Guardians) to impress upon her the need to stop Klaus Cornelius! And in London, Murray Takamoto continues his meeting with Alfy and Theodora Twidgett until they're suddenly joined by André Chavard, Jan Haasan, and General Rip Carter, the rest of the Boy Commandos. And in Germany Klaus Cornelius meets with German industrialist Dekan Drache to activate "Agent Axis".

Meanwhile, or specifically "several minutes later" Blue Beetle and Mister Miracle seem to have made VERY quick work of their...uh, work. They've reversed the shielding on the Kord Inc. Starprobe, so that now instead of reversing the heat of the sun (where it was originally intended to go) it will generate heat and melt it's way to the center of the Earth! Before they can get too excited about their success though, they're interrupted by Overthrow and a small army of Manhunters! The battle rages on for pages, pausing occasionally to insert the sub plots I mentioned above, until Overthrow and the Manhunters get the upper hand! 

It looks grim, as Overthrow tosses the helpless heroes into the Starprobe and sending them on a slow, sizzling journey to the center of the Earth! 

But before they can celebrate their victory, the heroes reappear, and the fight resumes! The Manhunters quickly fall, leaving Overthrow to ask how they survived. They each explain their escapes 

Oddly, they didn't do it as a team...they each had their own separate escape plan.

Then they finally unmask Overthrow...who is NOT Randy Truman, as it sort of had appeared...but in reality is just some guy named Arnold Beck, who works the loading dock at Kord Inc. 

Randy on the other hand is making a move on Melody, Ted's girlfriend, over dinner as Ted and Mister Miracle fly by in the BUG wondering what Millennium will bring. 

While in a rundown room on the other side of town, Chronos suits up for his return!

Ok...it may have been an OK issue, but I'm as done with Millennium now as I was at the time. I could feel its influence sucking any enthusiasm I had while writing this up. Next issue is Millennium free, which is good, but brings us to the final few issues...which is very, very sad!


*so this issue refers to it as Kord Inc. In other issues in this series it's been Kord Omniversal, and Kord Industries...I wonder if the frequent re-branding of the company drives the stockholders crazy?

Iran Scam!

Spinning out of the crossover event "Millenium", Blue Beetle faces off against not one, but two villains! Len Wein, Ross Andru and Danny Bulanadi are here for issue #20, and a story called "Iran Scam!"

A Matter of Animus!

Last issue Ted was forced to battle his resurrected former mentor Dan Garrett for the title of the one true Blue Beetle! In the end Dan sacrificed himself, again, to defeat the evil being that controlled Dan's scarab. Needless to say, Ted is not a happy camper! Len Wein, Ross Andru and Danny Bulanadi are here for issue #19, and a story called "A Matter of Animus!"

Blue Beetle is ticked! After the events of last issue he wants answers so he storms into S.T.A.R. Labs to meet with Garrison Slate. Why would he visit Slate? We get a quick flashback to the moments immediately following the death of Dan Garrett last issue to find out. When Dan died, killed by the very source of his own power, the boy known as "File 13" approached the fallen hero's body...but before he could say anything, he passed out. The area was then swarmed by a SWAT team and S.T.A.R. Labs personnel. They're there for the boy. Slate says its because the boy escaped from a lab and contact with the outside could kill him.

 Reluctantly, Blue Beetle allowed them to take the child but now he wants an explanation! What he gets though is an assurance the boy is safe...and then a visit from S.T.A.R Labs security. 

In London, Murray Takamoto is meeting his new employers at Statistical Occurrences Limited, a private insurance company specializing in cases involving heroes and villains, Miss Theodora Twidgett and her father Alfy Twidgett of the Boy Commandos. While in France, Dr. Cornelius and Catalyst have been interrogating Jeremiah Duncan. 

It seems he had stolen compound XD-3 from Cornelius and they're eager to recover it. And at Kord headquarters, Melody decides if Ted's not going to be around to run the company then she'll find someone who will! 

Back in Chicago, Ted does a little digging into the mystery of "File 13". Using his old pal Murray's credentials and guessing at the password, he hacks into S.T.A.R. Labs files and Dr. Rose Beryl, a biologist, had spliced her genes with her friend Dan Garrett's to create a child...intended to be the first of a new race of humans. But there was a problem, the boy had no natural immunity and had to be raised in quarantine. 

Later, Beryl disappeared in a lab explosion but recently a body was found washed up on a beach with matching DNA leading Ted to determine that the biologist is still alive! He uncovers a few more details that lead him, in the BUG to Bodega Bay, California and a company called Animus Explorations Unlimited. Sneaking into the facility he finds it seemingly abandoned...until he's attacked by the furniture! 

As he battles against chairs, desks and telephones a mysterious female watches from computer monitor before ordering her "children" to bring him to her. A dazed Blue Beetle soon finds himself face to face with Doctor Animus...who is in reality Rose Beryl clad in a strange suit made up electronic circuitry. 

In Paris, at The Dome (headquarters of the Global Guardians), Fleur-de-Lis accepts an assignment from the Director. Shut down Cornelius/Kreig's research center. 

Blue Beetle tries to appeal to the motherly nature of Doctor Animus, explaining that he's there to get her help for her son, File 13. It doesn't work. She sees him as a failed experiment, nothing more. To make her point, she shows Ted pictures of other mutated failures, before showing him her success...a lab full of her creations. They'll soon be fully formed humans, with implanted memories, sent out into the world as part of plot to control the Earth! When she tells Ted he's of no use to her alive...but his cells will harvested for her experiments he decides its time to make his move! He breaks free of the weird chair creature that holds him, but Animus just laughs. He has nowhere to go! So he signals the BUG and blasts the base of of the facility starting a mini earthquake. Animus makes her escape, leaving Blue Beetle to battle more furniture and odd, half formed human parts. 

He manages to signal the BUG again to block her escape leading to a brief one-on-one battle that ends when Doctor Animus falls into the sea.

Blue Beetle returns with a disc of info from Animus' lab, which he hands over to Slate in the hopes of saving the boy known as File 13. And at Kord Omniversal, Melody makes a phone call...

Ok, I struggled with this issue. I read it and re-read it. I started writing, then deleted the words before staring at the screen. This issue just didn't grab me. Right out of the gate I had a problem. Ted rushes off to S.T.A.R. Labs and just leaves Dan's body in the street? It's weird to me! There's no mention about Dan or what happened. Did he get a proper burial? Did S.T.A.R. take his body when they picked up File 13? It seems like a glaring oversight to me. And Beryl. She's supposed to have a backstory with Dan, but this is the first time she's seen. Then for no apparent reason she's living in seclusion wearing a costume and mask? Why? This issue frustrated the heck out of me...except for one thing...that gorgeously freaky Mike Mignola cover!

Who's Who '87 Overthrow

Anywhere I Hang My Head Is Home!

After battling Carapax it's time for Ted Kord to head back home, for some rest and relaxation...well, at least he's heading home. Len Wein, Ross Andru and Danny Bulanadi bring us issue #16, and a story called "Anywhere I Hang My Head Is Home!"

In Combat With...Carapax!

Last issue, it was a party on Pago Island! Well...not exactly a party, more like a slaughter! When the dust settled only three men were left standing, Lt. Fisher, Blue Beetle, and Carapax! Len Wein, Ross Andru, and Dell Barrass are here to resolve that literal cliffhanger in issue #15, "In Combat With...Carapax!"