Blue Beetle

Genres: Action, Adventure, Superhero
Publisher: DC Comics

Vol 1: 1939-1950
Blue Beetle began publication in 1939 under a company known as Fox Features Syndicate. The series featured Dan Garrett, the original Golden Age Blue Beetle and lasted sixty issues. When Fox Features Syndicate ran into financial difficulties in 1942, Holyoke Publishing (who was also a printer, and to whom Fox owed money) took over the publication with issue 12. In 1944, when Fox was back on their feet, Fox resumed publishing Blue Beetle with issue 31.
DC Comics now owns the Blue Beetle, but does not own the various backup features that appeared in this volume of Blue Beetle. Therefore, only the Blue Beetle stories are indexed fully.

Vol 2: February 1955 – August 1955
This sleight, 4-issue run was mainly a place for Charlton to reprint some stories from Fox in order to introduce their newly-acquired Blue Beetle character. Issues 20 and 21 do contain some original work, however.
According to comic publishing conventions, the numbering of this series should be 1-4. It’s 18-21, however, because, for whatever reason, Charlton continued the numbering from a series called The Thing!. It continues with issue 22 as Mr. Muscles.

Vol 3: June 1964 – April 1965
Dan Garrett must battle an ancient mummy, with the help of mystic forces!

Vol 4: July 1965 – Feb/Mar 1966
In 1955, Charlton Comics began publication of a Sci-Fi/Adventure magazine entitled Unusual Tales. After issue #49, the series changed its focus towards the super-hero genre, and the title became known as Blue Beetle, making it the third ongoing Blue Beetle series under the Charlton flagship. Like the previous series, Blue Beetle spotlighted the character of Dan Garrett, the first to adopt the guise of the Blue Beetle. The series failed after only five issues and Charlton changed the title again, this time calling it Ghostly Tales.

Vol 5: June 1967 – November 1968
Blue Beetle (Volume 5) was published by Charlton Comics from June of 1967 until November of 1968 by Charlton Comics. It featured the demise of Dan Garrett, the first Blue Beetle, and the debut of Ted Kord as the second Blue Beetle. This would be the last Blue Beetle related project handled by Charlton. DC Comics bought the rights to the Blue Beetle, along with a number of other Charlton heroes, in 1983. Modern Comics reprinted issues #1 and #3 of this series in 1977.

Vol 6: June 1986 – May 1988
Formerly owned by Charlton Comics, the Blue Beetle swung into his own DC series with the help of writer Len Wein and artist Paris Cullins. The second man to go by this moniker, inventor and millionaire Ted Kord continued the heroic legacy of his predecessor Dan Garrett, despite not having any super powers of his own.
Armed with his flying beetle – shaped aircraft and a gun designed to emit bursts of blinding light, Kord set out as the new Blue Beetle. With no shortage of super – villains plaguing his hometown of Chicago, Beetle’s first issue detailed his clash with super-arsonist Firefist, the Incendiary Man. Other villains in this 24 issue run included Chronos and Prometheus, whilst Blue Beetle shared adventures with the New Teen Titans and Mr. Miracle.

Vol 7: May 2006 – April 2009
Keith Giffen (FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE) and hot screenwriter John Rogers (Catwoman) team with Cully Hamner (RED, BATMAN: TENSES) to bring back the Beetle! Tearing its way through the events of Day of Vengeance and Infinite Crisis, the mystical Blue Beetle scarab has chosen its new guardian! But supernatural powers can be a blessing or a curse, and when it comes to the powers of the Scarab, you don’t get one without the other.

Vol 8: November 2011 – March 2013
This is the origin story of Khaji Da. Khaji Da is created by a group of aliens known as the Reach. On it’s first mission it tries to attach itself to a power child whom would later be know as Lady Styx. It the process of merging with Lady Styx she implements her powers to manifest what she calls “dollies” to ward off the attack. These dollies break the legs of Khaji Da sending it into a retreat where it is attacked by a Green Lantern and plummeted to earth.

Vol 9: November 2016
Lost in the desert with no memory of the past few years, teenager Jaime Reyes must find his way home again-but when he reaches his town, he’s shocked to find it abandoned and in the hands of government officials…officials who are very interested in the Blue Beetle and the scarab that gives him his power! How can Jaime find his family and uncover the secret behind the town’s seizure-and why Kord Industries is helping keep the world from learning the truth?

Vol 10: September 5, 2023
Jaime Reyes’s graduation is over, but his new life in Palmera City and as the Blue Beetle has only just begun! With two new Beetles to train in Dynastes and Nitida, Jaime has his hands full navigating being a leader. Thankfully, he has Paco and Brenda by his side as they settle in at Palmera State University. But what lurks in the shadows of Blue Beetle’s new home and what does it mean for the Blue Beetle legacy?

Blue Beetle

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