Blue Beetle #53 (Charlton)

What the what? Issue #53? Where's issue #52? Well, if you're just joining us I covered that way back in March of last year! I know, I covered that one out of order, but cut me some slack it was the first Dan Garrett issue I'd ever bought! So we're now down to the final two Charlton Dan Garrett adventures. Instead of dwelling on how sad that is, let's jump right in and look at "The People Thieves" from writer Joe Gill, and the art team of Bill Fraccio and Tony Tallarico...featuring the return of the Praying Mantis-Man!

Hunter Mann, aka the Praying Mantis-Man, who we last saw way back in Blue Beetle #4 is at work in his lab. His assistant? A giant army ant named 119! Mann plans on using a colony of giant ants to take over the world. Will Blue Beetle stop him? He'll try...but the Praying Mantis-Man will be ready for him! 

Dan Garrett heads back to his own lab, after helping to put out a fire as the Blue Beetle, just in time to finish an experiment before his dinner date, Diane, arrives. Apparently Dan hasn't forgotten about Mann, and has been developing a bug spray in his free time just in case the villain returns. What an odd coincidence! As Dan and Diane head off to dinner, the Praying Mantis-Man and his army of ants attack a subway train. When the police arrive and try to stop him he trades insects for ice and freezes them with a gun that sprays carbon-dioxide "snow". 

He orders the ants to load their victims into waiting trucks, then the ants drive them to his secret mountain base. Dan's dinner isn't going as well as expected. The chef didn't show up for work, and the waiter tells Dan and Diane he heard a whole subway train full of people is rumored to have vanished! That's all Dan needs to excuse himself and begin his own investigation as...the Blue Beetle! And once at the subway station he discovers Mann's carbon-dioxide gun and a frozen police officer. 

Instead of thinking this was a cross-over event, and Captain Cold or Mr. Freeze was involved he deduces that this must be the work of the Praying Mantis-Man?! Really? Meanwhile, using spy pigeons (not sure why he ditched the insect angle so soon) Mantis-Man learns that Dan went to the restaurant with his date, but Blue Beetle left...so Garrett must be the hero! Doing what any gentleman villain would do, Mantis-Man calls the restaurant pretending to be Garrett and orders the lady a cab. 

Of course he happens to be driving it when she steps out, so he kidnaps her, taking her to his mountain hideout to act as bait for the Blue Beetle. When Dan gets back to the restaurant and the doorman mentions his date leaving with a cabbie who looked a little "green", it's quickly time for Blue Beetle to go back into action. He takes to the air, and spots a caravan of trucks driven by ants and follows them back to Mann's secret mountain lair. In the meantime Mann takes out a plane full of people...more than 100 people to add to his "colony". 

Both men arrive back at Mantis Mountain at nearly the same time, but Blue Beetle stares at the cave walls, fascinated...there's something familiar about them. Stopping to look at the cave walls was a mistake, as Mann quickly sneaks up on Blue Beetle and blasts him with the Carbon Monoxide freeze gun! While his insect army hauls Blue Beetle's body away, Mantis-Man reveals more of his plan to Diane. First, the mountain it seems isn't a mountain at all...it's a giant ant hill! Next he unleashes giant wasps. Their sting will prove to be deadly within seconds. And then gargantuan termites to obliterate the nearby cities. Diane decides her best chance of survival is to flirt with the Praying Mantis-Man. When she asks for somewhere she can clean up, Mann directs her to a nearby steam room. She opens up the valves, leaves the door open, and starts looking for Blue Beetle's frozen body figuring the steam should warm things up enough to thaw him out. The process is sped up when she touches the blue scarab on Dan's belt. 

Blue Beetle leads Diane to Mann's lab where he mixes up a batch of the insect spray he was developing at the start of the issue. Now armed, the duo head off into the giant ant hill and begin taking out the enormous insects! Seeing his plans falling apart, Praying Mantis-Man takes to the air on his dragonfly to make his escape. Blue Beetle approaches, and in a surprising moment of super dickery, he blasts the dragonfly and refuses to rescue the falling Dr. Mann.

WOW! This was a balls to the wall crazy story! Non-stop craziness! I mean insect themed villains using spy pigeons?! Really? I for one, enjoyed every wacky minute of it. It makes it that much sadder when you realize there's only one more Charlton Dan Garrett story left! And we'll be looking at that next month.

Blue Beetle #51 (Charlton)

We're (sadly) inching closer to the end of Charlton's adventures of Dan Garrett...the Blue Beetle. There's only 4 issues left, and I've already covered one of them! (#52...the first Dan Garrett book I ever bought!) So from writer Joe Gill, and the art team of Bill Fraccio and Tony Tallarico here's "Mentor The Magnificent"!

Blue Beetle #50 (Charlton)

I know, I know..."Issue #50?! You just covered #5 a month ago!" Yes, I did. See, Charlton decided (for reasons unknown to me) to cease their book "Unusual Tales" at issue #49, and have Blue Beetle pick things up with #50 just a couple months after #5 hit the stands. It's probably best not to think about those decisions too hard, and just jump into the story instead. So from writer Joe Gill, and the art team of Bill Fraccio and Tony Tallarico here's "Blue Beetle Meets The Evil Mister Crabb And His Monster Of Doom...The Scorpion"!

 

Miss Doris Byers has asked Dan Garrett to accompany her to the Texas Gulf. She's hoping he can help her locate her father, who disappeared from a collapsing oil rig. 

The duo approaches a nearby rig owned by Crabb Oil and are greeted first by a billy-club wielding bully, then by a gun toting thug. They're eventually led to Crabb, who Ms. Byers says is an outsider, a new comer to the oil business. Dan immediately suspects he may have had something to do with the disappearance of Mr. Byers, and when one of Crabb's men lets something slip about Byers and an oil rig it looks like his instinct is correct. For his part Crabb has heard of Garrett "a notorious meddler", and he's none too happy about them asking questions. He calls for one of his thugs to deal with Garrett and Byers, but the duo escapes. Dan shouts for Doris to dive into the sea, while he holds back Crabb's men. 

He then follows her into the sea shortly after, and uses the cover of the ocean to take the scarab from his pocket and become the Blue Beetle! Just in time too, as Doris went from the frying pan and into the fire...a hammerhead shark is soon circling them in the water! As the Blue Beetle he takes out the shark with a single blow, and rescuing Ms. Byers assures her Dan Garrett is safe...and that's when a giant mechanical scorpion from the depths of the ocean and snatches Ms. Byers in its claws!

Blue Beetle follows the metal beast down into the water, but soon finds himself captured in a giant metal claw. He fights with the strength granted him by the Pharaohs and nearly frees himself before being grabbed by the second claw and "stung" by the scorpion's stinger! 

Mr. Crabb pulls his body inside the mechanical monster to prove to Ms. Byers that no one can stop him. They make their way to an undersea base, where we learn that Mr. Byers is still alive, and has been held captive by Crabb. The villain wants Byers to sign away all of his oil rights, but so far he's held out. Using Doris as leverage he believes he'll get what he wants. But when one of the thugs brings Doris to her father's cell, something unexpected happens. Mr. Byers manages to knockout the henchman and steal his gun! 

If that wasn't enough, Blue Beetle leaps back to action, taking out three more of Crabb's men...before finding himself trapped behind a steel door as Crabb fills the room with deadly carbon monoxide gas. It's the Byers family to the rescue! Mr. Byers tries to get the drop on Crabb, but the villain is surprisingly quick on the draw! It's enough of a distraction to allow Blue Beetle to punch through the wall. 

Crabb manages to slip away. The trio discovers Crabb has been collecting barrels upon barrels of oil and gasoline. They also learn that even though Crabb has vanished, his thugs haven't. With Blue Beetle back and at full power again, the thugs don't stand a chance! 

He takes them out with relative ease, and then moves on to tearing apart the scorpion! During the fight though several barrels were damaged. Oil and gas are leaking and in danger of catching fire, locating Crabb will have to wait. Quickly Blue Beetle grabs Byers and his daughter and rushes them to safety. Crabb has gotten away for now, but if he ever turns up Blue Beetle will be ready for him!

Ok...I have to confess, as much as I've loved these silver age adventures, this one left me a little flat. I mean, Crabb got the better of Blue Beetle not once, but twice! Our hero seems to stumble through this story getting by on dumb luck, not how I prefer to see him. Crabb's motivation, his plan and purpose, are never really fleshed out either. He's hoarding oil and gas, presumably it's a money making scheme, but its not really clear. On the plus side...it's a Blue Beetle comic, and that's something we don't have right now.

Blue Beetle #5 (Charlton)

Writer Joe Gill, penciller Bill Fraccio and inker Tony Tallarico are back with another Silver Age adventure of Dan Garrett. This time around Charlton's Blue Beetle challenges the Red Knight to protect the White Queen..and the world!

Dan Garrett is enjoying dinner, and a game of chess, with his old friend Lewis Coll and Lewis' fiancee Regina White. Lewis, in an insanely obvious bit of foreshadowing, takes a loss at chess (involving the red knight and white queen) surprisingly hard. 

It seems Lewis has been working on some experiments with rocket heat shields for the government, and is a little tired or stressed. Lewis asks Dan if he'd watch after Regina, as he plans to take the rocket for a test spin. He's going to take the rocket into space in search of a metal called siliconium. In no time at all, with a mighty "vvrrooshh", Lewis is off...but in less time than that the 2nd stage rocket fails. Luckily Blue Beetle is on the scene and does some emergency repairs (I thought he was an archaeologist...not a rocket scientist!) allowing Lewis to complete his journey to...Saturn? Yup, siliconium is found on the ringed planet! 

When Lewis returns he runs into some more trouble. He passes out and nearly crashes. Once again, Blue Beetle is on the scene (mostly because Dan is still watching out for Regina). But after the miraculous save Lewis gives Blue Beetle the cold shoulder...heck, he tells him to leave! 

And when Dan comes back, he pushes him away too. He even says some pretty mean things to Regina. Once everyone is gone Lewis descends deeper into madness. While testing his new heat shield technology, and playing chess by himself, he decides to become...yup, you guessed it...the Red Knight! Once he's designed his costume and armored a horse, he heads out to rob banks and joust with fighter planes. 

Dan and Regina immediately know who's under the Knight's helmet, and Dan believes he knows why too! Lewis is obviously under the influence of poisonous gasses he inhaled while on Saturn. So, as Blue Beetle, he tries to reason with his friend. And, when that doesn't work, they come to blows...with the Red Knight getting the upper hand! Dan flies out into space to try to get some siliconium of his own, with no success. While he's gone Lewis kidnaps Regina and plans to make her his Queen. With no siliconium, Dan does the only other thing he can...he heads to Egypt to ask the ancient pharaohs for help. 

They give him a fist full of mummy dust. Interestingly enough, powdered mummy was at one time considered a cure all...not sure it was used in the battle of good vs. evil though. When Blue meets Red for the rematch, Dan punches his old friend with a fist full of mummy for the win. 

Lewis thinks it's all been a dream, but Dan explains it was the poison gas, Regina forgives him, and everyone lives happily ever after!

So, that was...interesting. These silver age stories are pure silliness and fun, but this one seemed a little more ridiculous than some. I really need to check my copy of the "Handy Space Answers" book...I'm no expert, but I'm not sure you can really get to Saturn and back that quickly.

This was also the issue that featured Alan L. Weiss' suggested costume design we covered a while back.

Blue Beetle #4 (Charlton)

Writer Joe Gill, penciller Bill Fraccio and inker Tony Tallarico are back with another Silver Age adventure of Dan Garrett. Charlton's Blue Beetle takes on "The Praying Mantis-Man".

Did you know that archaeologist Dan Garrett was also a chemist and a physicist? Neither did I until the first page of this story. I guess that explains why he was called in on the "Superstar" aircraft project last issue. So when sheep are dying in Baja, California from something that looks like a giant insect bite, Dan's just the man to assist Dr. Juanita Rivera, a Mexican entomologist. Wait, what?! Archaeology, check. Chemistry, ok. Physics, sure...but now biology too? I guess that's just the silver age, like writers giving Superman whatever power he needed. 

Dan and Juanita quickly find themselves on his private plane, and on a first name basis. When they land, Juanita hires some trucks to transport them and their equipment to a nearby field station, but before they arrive a swarm of foot-long mosquitoes descend on them. Dan takes a few shots at the bugs with his pistol, but misses. Luckily the noise seems to scare them off. 

The duo figures the big bugs must be responsible for the dead sheep The other scientists at the field station don't exactly agree...until one coincidentally flies into Dan's room and he manages to kill it with some bug spray. They discover an odd chlorophyll compound is responsible, and Dan excuses himself to investigate more...as Blue Beetle!

From the air, Blue Beetle spots a densely vegetated canyon, populate by several buildings. Flying in for closer look, he encounters more giant mosquitoes, an enormous coral snake, and a gargantuan rat. He handles them all with the relative ease of a Kaji Dha powered punch, but is caught off guard when he encounters the Praying Mantis-Man! 

The green beast zaps him with eye beams that seem to sap his strength, but in a last ditch effort he throws a mighty punch scaring the insect away. He decides to investigate the buildings, and finds that at least one of them is the lab of Hunter Mann, famed naturalist. Quickly switching back to his identity of Dan Garrett, he decides to check in with Mann. It seems that Hunter Mann has been experimenting with...duh-duh-dunn...chlorophyll to stimulate cell growth. 

The experiments have also turned his skin green! When Dan tries to probe for more detail, Mann quickly shows him the door. No sooner is he back outside, then he sees the Praying Mantis-Man take to the sky. Dan says the magic words Kaji Dha, and as Blue Beetle hurries to alert Juanita. 

The warning comes too late as Juanita has already been cornered by the Praying Mantis-Man! She tried, unsuccessfully, to defend herself. She even had the help of some field station guards, but their bullets just bounced off the creature. 

Blasting them with his eye beams, the Mantis-man made his getaway before Blue Beetle ever arrived. Once on the scene though, Dan discusses his findings with Juanita, and the duo head off to Mann's lab to end this once and for all. The villain is ready for them though, and attacks on sight blasting Blue Beetle with his eye beams. Blue Beetle blasts back, but is distracted when a giant lizard approaches Juanita. No sooner does he save her from the reptile, then they're attacked by another giant rat, then a bee. Dan decides to take the fight to Mann's lab, right as the mad scientist is preparing another batch of his chlorophyll formula. Mantis-Man tosses chemicals, trying to distract the hero again, but only angers him more. Dan whirls about, destroying the lab and "traveling faster than sound" lands a mighty punch with a thunderous "KAPOW"! Without the Praying Mantis-Man and his chlorophyll formula, the creatures of the canyon return to normal and Dan travels home, in search of his next adventure.

Well...that came to a somewhat abrupt end. Still, a giant Praying Mantis-Man was a fun, apropos, rogue for the Blue Beetle. What's in store for that next adventure? Check back next month! 

Blue Beetle #3 (Charlton)

Writer Joe Gill, penciller Bill Fraccio and inker Tony Tallarico are back with another Silver Age adventure of Dan Garrett. Charlton's Blue Beetle takes on "the sinister mastermind of a plot to destroy Earth" in and adventure called "Mr. Thunderbolt and the Superstar".

There's no time for set-up with this story! The action starts on the first page with Blue Beetle being struck by lightning attempting to protect the experimental aircraft, the Superstar. Who's trying to destroy it? Mr. Thunderbolt, who coincidentally is on the plane. Maybe he didn't think this through? After the lightning stops, Blue Beetle resumes his civilian identity of archaeology professor Dan Garrett and re-boards the plane. Dan was invited along on the Superstar's maiden voyage, but why they wanted an archaeologist along is never explained. He quickly identifies Mr. Thunderbolt as the cause of the electrical attack and confronts him. 

Thunderbolt zaps Dan, with little effect. Dan responds by knocking the villain out. He calls for the crew to lock the villain up, but they refuse. Thunderbolt is wealthy and world famous, they're not messing with him. Once they land the duo confront each other again. Dan realizes that Thunderbolt is an alien, an advance guard for a coming invasion. The foe will not allow anything to get in the way of his plans and, as he drives away from the airport, orders his chauffeur to drop everything and work on eliminating Dan Garrett. For his part Garrett goes to the specialists behind the plane's construction to suggest some modifications to protect it against lightning.

The Superstar will allow man to travel from country to country, across the globe with in minutes. With some additional work it will soon be capable of space travel as well. Thunderbolt cannot let this happen! He begins traveling across the world destroying factories that will provide the components to create a fleet of these high tech aircraft. 

In every location, he uses his alien abilities to call down lightning from the sky to do his work. When word gets back to Dan Garrett, he calls out the words "Kaji Dha!" and transforms into the Blue Beetle tracking Mr. Thunderbolt across the world to Tokyo. A Japanese officer spots Thunderbolt loitering (directing the strike on Tokyo) and orders him to move along, earning himself a blast of the villain's volts. 

Blue Beetle swoops in, landing a powerful punch that knocks the alien out, then takes to the sky hoping he can become the focus of the storm to prevent any more damage. 

He succeeds, but at a cost. Weakened, Blue Beetle finds himself cornered by Mr. Thunderbolt! Luckily, the Japanese officer has returned with back-up giving Dan a chance to get away and escort the Superstar to a safe landing. Once the plane is on the ground, Dan decides to rest up at a nearby hotel. Thunderbolt figures this is his chance to put an end to his opponent and sends his thugs in. Dan easily dispatches the thugs, and once again dons the blue tights to defend the Superstar. Thunderbolt is already on board the aircraft and tries calling down the lightning again...but the bolts have no effect! The crew made the modifications Dan suggested. Blue Beetle grabs the alien, and flies him deep into space, hurling him back to his own planet, saving mankind and the future of space travel!

So there you have it, another action packed silver age adventure of the Blue Beetle...mustache twirling villain and all! The coolest thing about this issue? This little gem from the letter column...a message from future "Game Of Thrones" author, George R. R. Martin!

Blue Beetle #2 (Charlton)

Writer Joe Gill, penciller Bill Fraccio and inker Tony Tallarico are back with another Silver Age adventure of Dan Garrett...the Blue Beetle! The cover says "The mightiest man battles Reds from today, and monsters from yesterday!" in and adventure called "Hot War In The Arctic".

An unidentified military aircraft flies above the Arctic, and fails to respond to radio communication, so logically it's shot down by a missile. The reason the pilot didn't respond? He was fighting off an attack by a caveman! The pilot manages to eject and parachute down with the caveman in tow, where they're quickly captured by the crew of a DEW line base station who report the incident to the U.S. government. General Waller, of the Air Force, calls for the immediate assistance of Dan Garrett, archaeologist! In no time (about one panel) Dan reviews films sent from the DEW line base and has quickly assesses that this is a primitive Goth man, from a tribe "fifteen centuries gone". 

Close but not close enough, so Dan hops on a plane with Captain Elaine Norr, and flies to the Arctic to check out the caveman first hand! Garrett and Norr feed the caveman before checking out some radar scans and deciding they should do a little recon of the area. After boarding another plane, they quickly find they have a stowaway...the caveman! And right on the heels of that revelation comes another...just under some mysterious cloud cover is a jungle, in the Arctic, and full of dinosaurs! After finding a place to land the trio is quickly set upon by more barbaric Goths. The caveman intercedes on their behalf, but the peace is shattered by gunshots! Chinese soldiers have also discovered the mysterious Arctic jungle and are firing on the Goths and the wildlife. Dan figures now is as good a time as any for Blue Beetle to step in! 

He quickly uncovers the Chinese army's plan. Creating a base, with an airstrip, in the Arctic is just the first step in a plan to take over North America. Using an "atomic powered steam generator" they're melting the ice and creating a fog that hides their actions. 

And as a byproduct of the melt, they've released and revived the Goths and prehistoric animals. With this info Blue Beetle quickly realizes he must stop them, because if the northern ice is melted, but the southern pole remains intact the world would be off balance and could be thrown off its axis. Blue Beetle starts blasting the Chinese planes, and equipment before realizing it may seem odd that Dan Garrett hasn't been seen in a while. He changes back just in time to join Elaine in a cave while the Goths, armed only with stone clubs join in the fight against the invading army. 

Not wanting to let them fight virtually unarmed and definitely out gunned, Dan switches back into Blue Beetle while Elaine Norr isn't looking. He rushes into battle, using his strength to smash planes, tanks and guns. The Chinese army calls for a retreat, but not without one final attack...atomic weapons!

Blue Beetle rushes to destroy the Chinese base, and the "atomic powered steam generator". With the generator offline, he knows the Arctic will quickly re-freeze. He quickly moves to take out the last of the planes, the ones armed with the nuclear bombs! 

Firing blasts of energy with his hands, and a mighty "BAROOM", he puts and end to the threat, and sends Captain Elaine Norr back to the plane before the runway is completely snowed in. On the plane ride back, Dan invites Elaine to dinner, but after seeing Blue Beetle in action she replies "How can any ordinary man ever seem appealing now...?"

Wow, so Dan shot himself in the foot on that one! Impress the ladies with your super heroics and they'll never be interested in your secret identity, lesson learned! He also somewhat callously left the Goths and the prehistoric beasts to die/frozen beneath the Arctic ice once more. Kind of sad when you think about...but such is life in Silver Age comics! See you next week!

Blue Beetle #1 (Charlton)

I already talked about Charlton's "Blue Beetle" #52 a few months ago. I did that one first, because it was the first Charlton "Blue Beetle" I ever bought! So, now that I got that out of the way, lets go back to the thrilling first issue. From 1964, written by Joe Gill, and pencilled by Bill Fraccio and inked by Tony Tallarico (thanks comicbookdb)...here's "The Giant Mummy Who Was Not Dead!"

Directors of an unnamed museum in New York want Dan Garrett "leading archaeologist and authority on ancient Egypt" to lead an expedition to El Alil in search of pre-dynastic treasures. Dan is reluctant to do it though as there has been news that a General Amenhotep has been detonating nuclear devices in the area. Dan figures the relics have been hidden for over 6000 years, so a few more won't matter. Wait, what? This doesn't seem like the bad-ass Dan Garrett we saw in DC's "Secret Origins"! Dan heads home to relax and review notes on the kings of Egypt, but a visitor changes those plans...Professor Luri Hoshid. She's come to talk to Dan about the expedition...and to get his attention, she dresses the part!

It works! Well, that gets her in the door, but Dan seems more impressed that the museum is willing to bring on an Egyptian contemporary to assist with the expedition. Hmmm, definitely not the ladies man Dan from "Secret Origins"! In no time at all the duo is in Egypt, in search of the tomb of the evil Pharaoh Kha-Ef-Re! Just a page turn later and they've found it. The find is just what Dan needs apparently, as he asks Luri to dinner, and tells her how lovely she looks. As they hop aboard a small plane to fly from the dig to Cairo they spot General Amenhotep's camp and narrowly avoid getting hit by a barrage of missiles! At dinner, they just happen to bump into the General as he berates and threatens a waiter. Dan's had it now! He approaches the General and lands punch right to the dictator's gut, before Luri encourages a hasty retreat.

The next morning Dan and Luri get back to work at the dig site of Kha-Ef-Re's tomb, uncovering evil looking paintings, evil looking statues...even evil smells. When they reach the sarcophagus Luri deciphers a curse and Dan finds a blue scarab. The curse states that "Kha-Ef-Re will live when the white hot light touches him again". The scarab? Once Dan touches it he feels power and hears whispers. 

He sees a vision of an Egyptian on a throne who tells Dan that he must battle Kha-Ef-Re and a conspirator from his own time (General Amenhotep) and become the "champion of all mankind!" Dan quickly finds that he now has x-ray vision (he spots a jet bomber in the air above the tomb, through the stone walls) and super strength (he charges through the same stone walls), and a fancy blue and red costume...all by holding the scarab and speaking the words "Kaji Dha!" And just in time too! General Amenhotep has sent one of his planes to drop an atomic bomb near the dig site...supplying the "white hot light" that brings Kha-Ef-Re's mummy back to life. Not only that, but just like on "Power Rangers" the monstrous mummy grows into a giant!

When Blue Beetle flies (yup, not just super strength and x-ray vision) after the giant, one of Amenhotep's fighter planes swoops in, guns firing...and BB unleashes another new power, energy blasts from his hands that blow the plane to pieces! Dan seems to take to his new powers and abilities like a fish to water, until he comes face to face with the giant mummy of Kha-Ef-Re. The mummy blasts Blue Beetle with eye beams that drain his power.

Dan is left at the mercy of the General...who promptly disappears leaving the mummy to watch over the fallen hero. Luri rushes to Dan's side, waking him, and urging him to say the words and recharge his powers, "Kaji Dha!" As he does the mummy pounds him with a fist, before Dan takes to the air to return the blow with a punch of his own! 

A second punch knocks the mummy off its feet and gives dan the chance he needs. As the body of Kha-Ef-Re falls to the ground it shrinks back to normal size. Blue Beetle reburies it, and uses his heat vision (the powers just keep coming!) to seal the tomb. After disposing of the mummy, BB heads off to the General's base and destroys his weapons and supplies before returning to break Luri's heart. 

All in all though, it turns out DC's version of Dan Garrett's origin was pretty accurate! Dan gets the scarab, becomes a hero and breaks a lady's heart. Come to think of it, the Americomics issue played him as a bit of a ladies man too...I wonder if this ladies man thing is going to be recurring theme? What happened to General Amenhotep? Did he escape? What about Luri? Will they return? This issues leaves some loose ends, but I guess time will tell.

I'll be honest, Dan Garrett is the Blue Beetle I was least familiar with when I started this blog, and I'm having a lot of fun getting to see his adventures for the first time! Hope you are too!