Nov. '86 - Blue Beetle # 6

One thing you notice when you go back and read comics from the 80's is how much things have changed in 20 years. This comics is full of captions describing what it is you're looking at on the page, something you never see now. In this comic if there's no dialogue in a panel then there is three or four captions. The other is thought balloons. You never see those any more in comics but this one is full of them. I don't know why things changed. Maybe to be more like movies since they don't have thought ballons or captions. I know I've heard people say why do you need a caption to tell you the sun is setting when you can see in the picture that the sun is setting. But sometimes it's good to hear how the writer described it. A good writer should be able to add to the picture rather than just repeating the picture verbally.

Blue Beetle was the first of the Charlton characters purchased by DC to get his own comic. The Question was soon to follow, as was Captain Atom. I don't think the rest got their own series. Peacemaker had a miniseries and Nightshade was a regular in Suicide Squad.

Blue Beetle was a fun comic. The writing and artwork both reflected this. Len Wein was the writer and I never thought of this as a really strong comic but it was enjoyable. Some comics I was reading at the time would leave me thinking about it when I was done. Ones like Watchmen, Daredevil and Swamp Thing. This wasn't one of those comics. I'm not saying it wasn't good because it was but it was fun adventure not a thought-provoking comic. The art was done by Paris Cullins who had previously done Blue Devil. He really added to the comic. He made it look fun, if that makes any sense, with people's facial expressions.

This issue had an appearance by the Question as the two of them faced the Muse, someone trying to organize Chicago's gangs under him. It was obvious who the Muse was if you read the comic. I'm not sure if the writer thought that would be a big mystery or not. Again, it was fun but not heavy on the thinking part.