The Living Assault Weapons!

I very much remember anticipating this "return" of the Action-Heroes under the hand of Dick Giordano and Bob Layton. This project apparently was stalled a few times before it finally came out from DC at the very beginning of the current century. Like most of the product of that time, it was hooked into the JLA, a major seller for DC and the source of countless spin-offs and one-shots. L.A.W. was seen by many as just one more of those.

But for Charlton fans it was special. It featured the return of the "original" Action-Heroes. Sarge Steel, Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, The Question, Nightshade and a new Peacemaker all play roles in the story, but the story itself was sculpted around the return of Rip Jagger, The Judomaster. This is a Judomaster story, though I will confess that focus does get muddled a bit as the story unfolds.

A powerful enemy named The Avatar (take that James Cameron) unleashes demons on the Earth and locks up the JLA in a dimensional trap. He seems unstoppable, but then Sarge Steel is put in charge of a group of heroes including Blue Beetle and the Question to battle the threat. He finds himself working out of a sprawling new project which gives birth to a new Peacemaker, a doctor. This force seeks out the Avatar's threat despite the lurking of traitors inside the project. Meanwhile Captain Atom has become a power source for the Avatar and will remain like that through much of story being reborn in a new costume before it's all over. Blue Beetle reveals a hidden guilt and the Question must come to terms with his lack of power in this battle against great evil. Nightshade is the most changed and seems literally to be battling for her very soul in the story. Sarge Steel is seduced and given the chance to be made whole again, but must stand strong. All the heroes seem to have an internal struggle alongside the external threat.

That threat is posed by Avatar who it is revealed relatively early is actually Tiger, formerly the partner of Judomaster who in a fit of teenage pique rejects the tutelage of his master and begins his fall into villainy. Judomaster meanwhile has obtained nirvana in Nanda Parabat but must give that up to rejoin the world and confront his corrupted partner. His struggle is the heart of the story.

This is a very uneven story though I'll have to confess despite my affection for it. It seems it was done in at least two stages looking at the artwork. The story itself is an a bit of a mishmash, offering many interesting angles and solving most of them, but not always convincingly.

I want to adore the L.A.W., but alas I only like it. I do recommend that you seek it out if you can find it. It's never been collected alas. It should be, everything else is available for heaven's sakes.

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The AC Blue Beetle!

When at long last Charlton Comics gave up the ghost and closed its factory, the assets went far and wide. As we all know, DC Comics scooped up the Action-Heroes (Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Judomaster, Peacemaker and for a time Thunderbolt) as a favor to former Charlton editor Dick Giordano. But at that same time Bill Black of AC Comics had also acquired some of Charlton's backlog and a promise to publish. He was eventually given a year to follow through on what he had picked up, and the result was Americomics #3 which featured two stories starring various versions of Blue Beetle. In the first story which was originally intended for the Charlton Bullseye we get a match-up between Ted Kord and Dan Garrett, one different from what DC would produce some years later. We also get a second story starring the Golden Age Blue Beetle. Pat Broderick's cover for the issue is one of my favorite pieces by him. 

 Also slated was a proposed teaming of the Action-Heroes, now dubbed the "Sentinels of Justice". We get Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Question and Nightshade in action. One issue was produced and that was all. Black had hoped for more but his creative team could only conjure one issue before the year time limit was up. We would catch glimpses of the heroes together in DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths and of course most famously the heroes would populate The Watchmen in altered forms. Eventually we'd get The L.A.W. mini-series drawn by Dick Giordano, but that would be decades later. I'll have more on that later this year. 

More Charlton action tomorrow. 

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New Blue Beetle #6 - The Specter!

When the Blue Beetle series was abruptly cancelled, Steve Ditko already had a full issue ready. Titled "A Specter Is Haunting Hub City!" this story pits our azure hero against a strange chap who uses a stolen gizmo to make himself mostly invisible. It's a weird visual as the cover above attests. Below is the complete story which did finally see publication in 1974. More on that after the story itself. 

And that's a wrap on Steve Ditko's final Blue Beetle yarn. Note that Professor Rodor from The Question series is featured in this tale. 

This story first saw publication in the Charlton Portfolio which was in actuality issues nine and ten of Contemporary Pictorial Literature, a fanzine published by the CPL Gang headed by Roger Stern. The cover for this publication was done by Don Newton who produced a delightful wraparound image featuring not only Blue Beetle, but other Charlton heroes as well such as Captain Atom, Peacemaker, Judomaster, Thunderbolt, as well as E-Man and Yang. Horror hosts get a look as well. It's a beauty and I picked up a copy somewhere long ago and added a second copy to my collection from Roger Stern himself at a convention many years later. Stern had a box full of these in prime condition. 

The story was published again for a wider audience in The Action Heroes Archives - Volume 2 from DC. For some reason they did not include the story in their more recent DC Finest Blue Beetle volume. 

This vintage ad shows us the cover in color and also reveals how close we came to getting it in real time way back in 1968. But it was not to be. 

A little more Blue Beetle tomorrow as we wrap up this look. 

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The DC Blue Beetle!

I picked up the recent Showcase Presents Blue Beetle volume from DC. I never got this title when it first ran in the mid 80's but I have in more recent years collected up the issues, though truth told I have never gotten around to reading them all through. With this purchase hopefully the hand nature of the phonebook reprint will encourage me to give them a proper read.

Of all the Action Heroes who DC picked up, Blue Beetle was the one least changed from his Charlton persona. What we have are the further adventures of Ted Kord as they pretty much left off nearly two decades earlier. Steve Ditko's The Question is a frequent guest-star and the other Charlton Blue Beetle, Dan Garrett gets lots of page time as well.

Here are the issues in this volume.

What put over the top on this reprint was the inclusion of the second issue of Secret Origins with some stellar Gil Kane artwork. This was a very neat series and this is one of the best issues, reprising the convoluted history of the character. Even though it preceded the series it's the last issue in the reprint.

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