Starring: Ted Kord as Blue Beetle (II)
The opening issues of this short lived series from Charlton Comics featured both Blue Beetle and the Question - two heroes who would leave an indelible impression on the DC Universe for years to come. Eight months after Ted Kord assumed the scarab as Blue Beetle in a back up feature of "Captain Atom" # 83, writer / artist Steve Ditko launched the Beetle into his own series.
This Beetle didn't possess super powers. Instead, Kord was a brilliant inventor whose gadgets - chief among them a bug shaped aircraft and a gun that fired blinding light and compressed air blasts - powered his war against crime. In his inaugural issue, the Blue Beetle dispatched the Squids, a costumed gang equipped with suctioning devices that enabled them to climb walls. In the same issue, Ditko introduced Vic Sage, a hard hitting TV reporter for World Wide Broadcasting Company, and his faceless alter ego, the Question, to Hub City's criminal underground. Using a chemical gas to apply and remove a special skin mask created by his mentor, Aristotle Rodor, Sage was able to conceal his features completely while operating outside of the law.
As the Question he made his first mark by apprehending gambling ringleader Lou Dicer and his accomplice, WWB executive Jim Lark - on whom Sage blew the whistle during his next broadcast.
Note: Fourth Charlton publication; 5th volume overall.
Collected Editions
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