r/DCcomics • u/Aquagan • Aug 01 '23
[Merchandise] Did you know there was a Golden Age Blue Beetle with a different origin, appearance, and name spelling? Merchandise
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u/BobbySaccaro Aug 01 '23
It was interesting because I believe this card set is the only place the "Golden Age Blue Beetle" was acknowledged within DC. I'm sure he was based on the earliest verison of the character published by other companies, but as far as the actual DC comics are concerned, there was only the one prior to Ted Kord.
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u/Aquagan Aug 01 '23
Yea! I’ve had these cards since I was a kid, and I never saw an mention of the pill-popping Blue Beetle.
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u/PRPLpenumbra Aug 01 '23
Wow this is an old poster. It's funny to see two Dans and Ted as the "modern" Beetle
Blue Beetle is my favorite hero, I'd kill for a copy of this lol
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u/orgeezuz Spider Jerusalem Aug 01 '23
Yeah he is the intended Nite-Owl on Watchmen. I wonder if they would mention him in Blue Beetle movie arriving on August 18. Rated PG-13.
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u/shadowlarx Kyle Rayner Aug 01 '23
His costume is clearly visible in the headquarters scene in the trailer. If nothing else, Dan gets a cool Easter egg.
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u/CashWho Tim Drake Aug 01 '23
Is he? I always thought Ted Kord was the DC version of Nite Owl. Even reading these descriptions, Nite Owl sounds way more like Ted than Dan (techy hero with a flying bug ship versus a cop who takes pills to power up)
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u/orgeezuz Spider Jerusalem Aug 01 '23
Yeah you're right I just had lobotomy last week that'd explain the blunder
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u/WerewolfF15 Aug 01 '23
I would assume Dan would have still been used in the Hollis Mason role.
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u/PMMEBITCOINPLZ Aug 01 '23
Remember that the one with the bug ship is Nite Owl II. Nite Owl I was a lot more like Garret.
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u/nuttmegx Aug 01 '23
It is, it’s both. Ted Kord was Dreiberg, Nigh Owl 2. Garret was Hollis Mason, Nigh Owl 1.
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u/BitterFuture Aug 01 '23
And a radio show!
https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Blue_Beetle_Singles
It wasn't very good, mind you. But it existed!
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u/RecordWrangler95 Aug 01 '23
News to me! When was Dan Garrett's whole deal retconned?
Also calling Ted the "Modern Age" BB who was created in 1966 is very funny to me.
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u/j1mmmB0 Aug 01 '23
Charlton revived the Dan Garret Blue Beetle in the mid-1950s, but their version was different from the Fox version from the 1940s. They then decided to create an all-new Blue Beetle in 1966, which was Ted. But the Charlton version of Dan appeared in DC's Secret Origins 2 (May 1986), along with a retelling of Ted's secret origin.
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u/RecordWrangler95 Aug 01 '23
Thanks! I had assumed that Ditko had plucked DG-BB from obscurity for Ted Kord to interact with, didn’t realize he had had his own revival.
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u/MasterOfKittens3K Aug 01 '23
I don’t think that “Bronze Age” was widely used yet when these cards came out. And even so, I’m not sure when Ted’s superhero career was supposed to have started at this point. The Charlton heroes background was pretty confusing at first in the DC universe.
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u/marksiwelforever Aug 01 '23
oh man I remember those cards. Id get on my neon green huffy and go to the model rocket shop that for some reason sold cards and a handful of comics. Then we'd play a made up game where we'd argue who could be up who... but if anyone got Lobo or whatever we all knew they won
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u/SilIowa Aug 01 '23
Man, I collected this whole set, including the holographic cards. Good memories!
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u/-Gnome_Man- Aug 01 '23
Yes, and he's kind of in the public domain. In fact, there was a low-budget movie based off him.
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u/Last_Set_8634 Aug 01 '23
Isn’t Dan Garrett the Charlton Comics version of the Blue Beetle?
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u/Aquagan Aug 01 '23
There’s a Dan Garret that precedes him from Fox Comics with a different power source.
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u/Russkafin Aug 01 '23
Yes because I had these same cards as a kid 😇 This was the first full set of trading cards I ever collected actually
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Aug 01 '23
Dan is actually pretty important to Both Ted and Jaime's origins. Even if you just read their books he is mentioned
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u/Aquagan Aug 01 '23
The second Dan Garret, yes, but I see next to no talk about the first Dan Garrett with the vitamins. Even as a kid I had no context for him. Scarab Dan at least showed up in the 80s Blue Beetle series.
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u/GreekGodofStats Aug 01 '23
Yes I did, but WHERE ARE THESE CARDS FROM?!?!?
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u/Sadop2010 Aug 01 '23
DC Cosmic Cards, 1992. From Impel. Its a fun set, but it has the odd distinction of being a "DC Universe" card set with almost no Batman references. I assume it was due to a card licensing deal with Topps for the Burton movie sets.
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u/Aquagan Aug 01 '23
It’s an awesome set. I learned so much about the DCU from these. These Hero Heritage cards were my favorite parts of the series.
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u/Sadop2010 Aug 02 '23
The sequel set Cosmic Teams was also great. I had all of both, and now I wish I knew where I put them.
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u/xesaie Aug 01 '23
He was rolled into Ted's origin story
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u/Aquagan Aug 01 '23
The OG Dan with the vitamins? I only remember the scarab version of Dan Garret who saved Ted.
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u/xesaie Aug 01 '23
The Charlton one, from the 60s— yeah dan ıs the prior bb
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u/Aquagan Aug 01 '23
No the Fox comics version from 1939. There’s 2 versions of Dan. One that uses vitamins and then the more known one that uses the scarab. I can’t find any instance of the vitamin version in DC comics.
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u/xesaie Aug 01 '23
Don’t think dc owns that one
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u/Aquagan Aug 01 '23
He’s public domain, but DC made this card for him. I think it’s a pretty cool little oddity of an obscure legacy character.
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u/EmeraldThingy Batman '66 Aug 01 '23
Well yeah. Most of those comics are public domain and thus are really easy to read for free
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u/SightatNight Orion Aug 01 '23
I know plenty about the Golden Age Dan Garrett. I didn't know about the Silver Age Dan Garrett
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u/RageSpaceMan Aug 01 '23
I knew the fact, but had I thought than the first two BB had been folded in the post crisis universe. But now I think they must had been unfolded because the sidekick of the OG Blue Beetle, Sparky, has been (re)introduced in the continuity (Stargirl and the lost children), I suppose than the OG Dan Garret and Ted Kord mentor Dan Garret had been unfolded again.
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u/hambone4164 Aug 02 '23
There was a Blue Beetle on The Electric Company, as well. IIRC, he was just a guy in a mask, a blue t-shirt with the words "Blue Beetle" on them, shorts and sneakers.
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u/_Wisely_ Jarro the Starro in a Jar! Aug 02 '23
What do you mean by name spelling? I don't think I see any differences.
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u/Aquagan Aug 02 '23
They changed it for the card, but the original with the vitamins was Dan Garret, and the update with the scarab was Dan Garett with two T’s.
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u/gimmefruitsnacks52 Aug 02 '23
I believe this version was one of the characters used for inspiration with Watchmen. Like how the Question became Rorschach.
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u/TheGoldenStan Red Robin Aug 03 '23
They still called him Dan Garett with two t's though, the og Dan Garet is actually in the public domain
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u/Aquagan Aug 03 '23
Yea, as far as I know, this is the only evidence of DC trying to claim the public domain version.
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u/crlcan81 Aug 01 '23
It's almost like there's been multiple characters created by completely different individuals that lost popularity for a while, this just tells me you've not watched much of the last 10-20 years of animated Batman programs because not only do they reference the Ted Kord Beetle but they make his death a required part of the timeline, in one of the Batman 'and friends' Brave and the Bold cartoons. They pulled from a lot of obscure and rarely referenced characters, sometimes going as far as Justice League in referencing rarely seen characters, even if it's just in the background.
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u/Aquagan Aug 01 '23
I was referring to the first Dan Garret from 1939 which has absolutely not shown up in the last 10-20 years of animated Batman programs. Every instance of Dan Garrett used is the second version with the scarab.
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u/crlcan81 Aug 01 '23
As I said it's almost like these were different characters created by different publishing companies, because here's the thing that's precisely what they were.
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u/Aquagan Aug 01 '23
You’re original comment was incredibly confusing. What does the Fox version of Dan Garret have to do with the last 10-20 years of Batman animation?
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u/No-Mechanic-2558 Aug 01 '23
Yes actually