Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: blue beetle, Fox Feature, golden age, victor fox

Blue Beetle Becomes a Star on Mystery Men Comics #7, Up for Auction

Published Thu, 09 Jun 2022 23:32:10 -0500

Despite his historic debut 83 years ago this month, in Mystery Men Comics #1 from publisher Victor Fox, it took a few months for the Blue Beetle to emerge as the star of the series. The evolution of the character in the series parallels the rapid rise of superheroes during those historic later months of 1939. In the same month that Mystery Men Comics #1 hit the newsstand, Action Comics #14, featured Zatarra on the cover, Detective Comics #29 had Batman's third appearance and his second cover, and Adventure Comics #40 debuted the Sandman. The cover of Mystery Men Comics #1 featured the Green Mask (confusingly, wearing a mask that is actually blue on the cover), and the Blue Beetle himself didn't look much like a superhero inside. However, by the time of Mystery Men Comics #7, all that would change. There's a Mystery Men Comics #7 (Fox, 1940) Condition: Apparent GD featuring the first cover appearance of Blue Beetle up for auction at the 2022 June 12-13 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122224 coming up from Heritage Auctions.

Like the Sandman's debut in Adventure Comics #40 that same month, the Blue Beetle's debut in Mystery Men Comics #1 from Fox Feature Syndicate featured the character as a classic pulp-fiction mystery man. In fact, he had more than a few similarities to Sandman in the beginning — he was just a man in a suit, hat, and goggles. He even utilized gas as a weapon in this issue (in throwable, capsule form). The Blue Beetle's debut story there was drawn by Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski, perhaps from a script by Will Eisner. The character was likely created by Wojtkoski.

The timing of this release is worth noting from another perspective as well. The material in this issue was likely in production at publisher Victor Fox's Fox Feature Syndicate just as the April 2, 1939 judgment in DC v Bruns lawsuit was handed down. In that decision, Judge Learned Hand of United States District Court, Southern District of New York, ruled that Fox's Wonderman character infringed on DC's Superman copyright, saying, "Inasmuch as I have found unfair use by the defendants, that means infringement of the plaintiff's copyrights and entitles the plaintiff under the Copyright Act to a judgment for an injunction with costs and to damages and profits."

But this setback didn't sour the tenacious Victor Fox on the superhero genre. The Blue Beetle character evolved quickly from pulp-like mystery man to comic book super-hero in the early months of Mystery Men Comics. He had his first full-on Blue Beetle costume by issue #2, which would continue to evolve over the next few issues. He got his first cover on Mystery Men Comics #7 and had his own series a few weeks after that. Between the times of the releases of Mystery Men Comics #1 and issue #7, major comic book keys ranging from Marvel Comics #1 to Whiz Comics #2 had been published, and the superheroes of the Golden Age had ramped up in earnest. By 1940, Fox had managed to launch a short-lived Blue Beetle radio serial and comic strip as well. And in 2023, there will be a Blue Beetle movie featuring the third version of the character, Jaime Reyes played by Xolo Maridueña. A character who has made a steady rise to popularity throughout the decades, there's a Mystery Men Comics #7 (Fox, 1940) Condition: Apparent GD featuring the first cover appearance of Blue Beetle up for auction at the 2022 June 12-13 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122224 coming up from Heritage Auctions.

Mystery Men Comics #7 (Fox, 1940) Condition: Apparent GD. Blue Beetle bondage cover, the first Blue Beetle cover appearance. Dick Briefer, Bob Powell, and George Tuska art. Restoration includes glue on the spine sealing a split. A coupon has been cut from the back cover. Overstreet 2021 GD 2.0 value = $389.