Dueling Ditko; Bug Bout 4 - Creepy Criminals

We continue our odyssey known as "Dueling Ditko" as we turn back the clock to simpler times for our pair of bugged-out boys, where they fair a pair of cloak-and-dagger hoodlums that lurk in the shadows and cause the guys a moment's pause.

First off, the cover for Fly #2! The coloring of our heroes, the symmetry of our fly friend and his female fly-girl in contrast with the statue and jets behind them. It looks sharp and definitely pulls the reader in that this may be something good. The inside story, however, is a mish-mash, tying up a lose end plot of the Fly against his foe Spider-Spry, wherein the Fly is nearly shot to death then recovers thanks to his pal Turan. To bad he didn't learn his lesson.

The unpublished Blue Beetle #6 also stands out for the shear oddity of the character design for this issue's villains. And, as always, Beetle is in one of his dynamic action-hero poses. This is to have been the beginning of a new chapter in Ted Kord's life, as he finally accepted the fate of his pal Dan Garrett and cleared his name for his premature death. And yet, it was not to be as Charlton moved in a different direction with their publishing efforts. This story saw the light of day years later.

Like I said, Thomas Troy was never accused of being a fast learner. On the way home from the court house, he in fact does get mugged by a thug named Diamond Jack, named after the distinct mask he's clad in during his brazen attacks. Unable to rub his ring in time and transform into the Fly, Troy is once more left for dead. Turan must be shaking his head in the Fly Dimension wondering if he picked the wrong guy.

Meanwhile, Hub City is also plagued by a criminal of a different sort but with the same low cut of morality. Amos Fend comes upon a harness thanks to a criminal scientist named Jacobs, becoming the Spectre. This device, when worn, turns the user invisible. Well, except for the actual harness itself (d'uoh!).  After the confrontation between the two villains, Beetle's intervention seals Spectre's own doom and we are left with another high-tech loon that is turned into a buffoon by our swinging slick scarab!

Back in NYC, MLJ style, Troy adopts his Fly alias to track down Diamond Jack... who has not caused the entire city to languish in fear of this seemingly omnipresent fiend. However, Jack himself crossed paths with a temperamental old broad named Old Abbey who seems to spawn some type of mutant parrot that grows in size and takes down Jack when the Fly is unable to get to him in time. Huh?

Ah nothing like some Ditko waxing the philosophical. At least Blue gets the last word against his spectral foe. Once more, Kord technology is saved from the evil element! Now Ted can retire for seven years.

Dueling Ditko Rating:

1.) Story Drama: This is a tough call. On the one hand you have a fairly linear (for Ditko) plot in Blue Beetle with nary a twist nor turn, and on the other side of the coin you have three tales wrapped up in one convoluted story with the Fly. For the life and death play on matters where the protagonist is concerned, the Fly wins this one.

2.) Imaginative Use of Abilities: The Beetle's mini Bug is "the bomb"! The Fly ain't got nothing on him aside from his fail safe "Turan bailing me out for the upteenth time" deux machina. No thanks, the Bug rules this category.

3.) Adversary: A mugger in a tacky mask, or a thief in an invisio-suit. Just the style of the Spectre gives him one up on his shadowy contemporary Diamond Jack. Although that huge gliding attack bird was creepy, let me tell you what. Still, this is Beetle's win.

4.) Intangibles that Worked: Nothing much aside from general Ditko zannyness. Still the concept for the Beetle's tale shows Ditko in his prime, and the Fly in Ditko's creative decline period. Sorry Tommy, but Ted wins it here too.

So 3-1 in favor of the Blue Beetle for this round! What will our next round reveal for your Dueling Ditko Boys? Stay tuned for more bug action coming soon!

Dueling Ditkos: Bug Bout 3 - Eccentric Egocentrics

This go around, the bug boys (Thomas Troy, the Fly, and Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle) take on a couple of strange characters while facing their own legal morass. Several parallels immediately become evident in Ditko's use of story telling device: the individuals against society's prejudice, the female protagonist giving the main character an "atta-boy", the grumpy old curmudgeon that befriends the young hero, and of course the eccentric egocentrics...Uncle Jarvis in the Beetle's story and Ivey in the Fly's tale. Let's dissect these mini-masterpieces, shall we?

Our heroes are conforted by the damsel that captured their heart. One stays to comfort, one leaves to do the same. Guess attorney's are made of stronger stuff than scientists.

As the story develops, we learn that Ted had history with bad old uncle Jarvis which caused his problems. And problems are something Thomas wades through without sweating.

Ted is inspired by cranky old Jarvis to spark his own creative ingenity, creating the Bug. Thomas acquaints himself will cranky old Bill who himself is involved with a creative fanatic and his demented domicile.

Beetle battled boatloads of bots bravely. Fly can't seem to handle one wacky looking fiend with foul facial hair. At least we're getting to the bottom of things now that our heroes are at their bases.

An armada of angry androids? No worries if you are our boy in Blue. Superpowered insect taken out by one freaky dude? Obviously brain wins out against brawn when Fly's freak beats Beetle's battling brainless bots.

While Beetle knows how to sweep women off their feet into ecstacy, Fly knows how to sweep cross dressing dames off their feet into anxiety. The latter can do it while upside down...take that Ted.

Dueling Ditko Rating:

1.) Story Drama: Dikto weaves amidst each tale a thread of oppression from Troy's former associate Pete and Kord's favorite primary police police, Lt. Fisher. The former was framed for jury tampering, the latter suspected as to the death of the previous Blue Beetle's civilian alias Dan Garrett. The main portion of the tales involves Ted's eccentric scientific uncle Jarvis and his agenda to create destructive droids to gain unlimited power and of eccentric wealthy recluse Denny Jones and a "crooked house" that was willed to him by an Ivey, a disgruntled man who designed the house to torment his former associates who had betrayed him. Definitely Ditko's latter days, when he chronicled the Fly's adventures, proved how truly eccentric the comic creator himself was. As to story drama, the linear approach of the Beetle's tale, involving the death of his friend and inspiration, definitely has more pull than a tale of characters like Ivey and Denny who we aren't as invested in.

2.) Imaginative Use of Abilities: Hands down the Fly wins with his use of his wings to cause a tempest in a tea pot and expose Ivey as a disguised femme fatale. Those are some powerful wind gusts that dude cooks up.

3.) Adversary: While the imaginative use of Ivey with shoes worn as gloves and guns sticking out of loafers is inventive, the actual Crooked House has a novelty and charm which seems to catch the Fly initially unaware. Whereas the secret Pago Island base and faceless androids of Uncle Jarvis..yawn.

4.) Intangibles that Worked: Again the Crooked House takes this category for setting. However, for a tale of tragedy such as the end of a classic hero like the Blue Beetle...that is truly timeless. And the added flair of having Ted's girl friday Tracey there by his side, while Fly's ex Kim ended up drifting off into character limbo (she did attempt to provide him morale support at the beginning of the story however) helps the Beetle to win this.

So this time it ends in a draw, 2-2 for the bug boys same as in Round 2. Fly is barely ahead...can Blue Beetle battle back? Can Fly pad is slim lead? Find out next time.

Dueling Ditko: Bug Bout 2 - Mighty Man versus Our Man

This week's duel orginiates from Blue Beetle #5 (November 1965) and the Fly #4 (December 1983), both products of Steve Ditko's legendary pen. Our two aforementioned heroes in their self-titled books faced a pair of delusional anti-socialists, each possessing a creative spark and tapping into "something" unique that provides them tremendous physcial attributes and obsessive psychological profiles. Meet Hugo, alias "Our Man", an artist who recreates a statue that symbolizes man's failures...and Professor James Stoker, the Mighty Man, a scientist who recreates his former superstrong evil alter ego wiped away from history by the Fly's powerful mentor, Turan.

Here we see the two aspiring social deviants remaking the images of their hero destroyers:

For Hugo, its pounding some sheetmetal into a mobile version of the morbid Our Man statue, with the goal of granting mankind happiness by destroying that which he aspires to...greatness. This guy needs hours of therapy! Yet somehow, the frail creator gains mighty inside this new suit of armor he dawns.

For Professor Stoker, he experiences some faint recollections of his costumed alter ego, himself a ravager of noble concepts. As he once more pieces together a formula called Mightium, Stoker quickly fills into his costume...ready to take revenge on the man who stole his once promising career...the pesky Fly!

As events unfold for both anti-heroes, we note Ditko's flair for the tragic idealism that catches so many in the form of individual dispair. He's directly calling out those who would diminish heroes and reduce them to mere mortals, and both "Men" show that the mighty of self and the might of a collective following are not enough to conquer the indominable spirit of true heroes, like our Bug Bouters:

As expected (after all we're not reading Our Man #5 and Mighty Man #4), the intrepid insects get the better of our muscle over message men. Both end up looking frumpy and worn out, the Prof due to an adverse side effect of over exertion while the Mightium was in his system, while Hugo's face always looked that way...that poor sad sack sucker.

Dueling Ditko Rating:

1.) Story Drama: Interwoven in these two tales is the social pressures the befall our heroes. For Ted Kord's Beetle, he must face an unweildy crowd of social malcontents inspired by the destructive cause of their statue, Our Man, brought to life. For the Fly's Thomas Troy, his own repressed memories of a prior battle versus the deadly Mighty Man interrupts his court case, causing the judge to suspect our heroic attorney of having a morning cocktail...a further jab at his professional credibility. The battles themselves displayed true grit on the part of both heroes. However, given lesser to work with against not only a psychotic foe but a hostile crowd of groupies, Blue Beetle's tale tops this category for drama.

2.) Imaginative Use of Abilities: While both incredible insect display apt acrobat manuevers, thanks in no small part to Fly's wings and Bettle's Bug, we see several uses of the Fly's buzz gun including sleep tranquilizers that take out a pair of leopards hungry for their prey, and a thread line strong enough to hog tie his Mighty foe. This gadget tips it towards Fly.

3.) Adversary:  Of the two, Mighty Man had some staying power and he originally appeared in March 1966's Fly-Man #36 (hence the repressed memories). However, Ditko apparently never fully *read* that initial appearence. Otherwise he would have realized that the reason Turan intervened and aided his apprentice the Fly was because the Mightium radiation that Mighty Man dervied his powers from caused the Fly to be stuck in that form. Had this been revisted in the current story, this may've given the Fly the edge in the above Story Drama category. As far as an adversary, Our Man was a conceptual style over substance kind of character, with no explanation as to exactly *how* he can go one-on-one with the Beetle (and with Vic Sage, the Question's alter ego).  MM gives the F-Man this over BB.

4.) Intangibles that Worked: Ditko had a more finely woven theme in his Beetle tale than in the stock story he wrote for the Fly. This issue was just prior to his developing plot line of Attorney Troy losing his license to practice and having to search for the individual(s) who framed him.  Hence the nod goes to Beetle.

And so we end in a draw in this bout. The Fly is still ahead from the previous round but we still have a ways to go to see which character Ditko gave the edge to. See you next time!

Dueling Ditko: Bug Bout 1 - Heroes in Crisis

Steve Ditko is a legend for his distinctive artwork, for his creative spark, and for his objectivist plots and scripting. While famous for some other man-bug, for our purposes here we'll be focusing on his treatment of two lesser known insect heroes cut from the same mold...Fly and Blue Beetle.

 

 The Fly is attempting to pursue leads to his latest client's ambiguous state of affairs...with little success. Meanwhile, a mysterious adversary operates behind the scenes to abduct the man caught in the middle, Mark. The Fly's alter ego Thomas Troy.has little success himself, and is knocked out...while attempting to bribe a member of the jury for his upcoming case? How can he be in two places at once?

 

Over at Charlton, the Masked Marauder is breaking into the laboratory of Blue Beetle's secret alias, Ted Cord, and finds Cord's courageous assistant Tracey who saves her employer when he's knocked out. Still, the Marauder escapes and resumes his identity as Count Von Stueben.

 

Troy wakes up to a sobering reality, as he's brought in to meet District Attorney Richard Busee, who is investigating a charge of jury tampering! Suddenly Troy's law practice is in jeopardy, and only the Fly can help him out of this sticky situation. After he resolves his mysterious case! 

  

Things aren't looking much better for Cord, who finds his lovely assistant awaiting the police...only they aren't there to investigate the Marauder. Rather, Homicide detective Sgt. O'Hara (hmm, wonder if he has a cousin over in the Gotham force?) is investigating Cords involvement in the death of...Dan Garrett...secretly the original Blue Beetle who disappeared not to long ago! Yet despite the pressure from the good Sgt. and the persistent worrying of Tracey pulling Cord's heart string, he still feels the need to don his costume to save a plane and later to pursue Count Von Stueben!

 

The Fly discovers that his client Mr. Xbaum is in coherts with a long-armed hitman named Zall, and nearly bites the dust until our hero graps his handy buzz gun. However, it doesn't seem to resolve his long term difficulties as to exactly WHO impersonated him. Hence Troy is disbarred and can no longer pursue his legal profession until he clears his name. Suddenly, his vigilante persona is the only side of Troy approved by local law enforcement. How will he proceed from this point forward?

Ater making short work on the Count and his goons...thanks to the timely intervention of Beetle's remote control Bug vehicle, not to mention using his own specialized gun...Beetle finds that Sgt O'Hara hasn't abandoned his quest for justice. Looking on from a secret vantage point, he observes Tracey's pain at hearing that Ted might be complicit in a murder!

Dueling Ditko Rating:

1.) Story Drama: For both tales, the true drama isn't revolving around the story's primary antagonists nor the main storylines, but rather the trauma faced by our heroes' civilian aliases. Coupled with the mystery as to how Troy was framed and what involvement, if any, Cord had in the death of his predecessor. These compelling plot lines end this stage in a draw.

2.) Imaginative Use of Abilities:We've already considered the unique weapons of our heroic pair. Both have the hovering in mid-air and flying fisticuffs action going for them. The tipping point is in the inventive prowess of the Beetle, and his flying Bug at times had a mind of it own?

3.) Adversary: Masked Marauder aka The Count is...a bwahahahaha bad guy mastermind. Zall has the eye beams from the Ditko-ish helmet and the extendo-arms. Zall gives the Fly this category on a silver platter simply with style in his presentation with very little substance.

4.) Intangibles that Worked: While both heroes faced insurrmountable odds against law enforcement authorities, we have two different approaches here. In Beetle's case, only Sgt. O'Hara, is fellow investigators, and of course dear Tracey suspect something bad of him. For Fly, he has the entire world against him as the district attorney exerts his full wraith against Troy...disbarring him from his profession and leaving him alone. Which is worse...having no one on your side or having a loved one like Tracey next to you feeling tortured, sensing that you are keeping secrets from her? Troy previous to this story arc lost his own girl-Friday, Kimberly Brand aka Fly Girl, although she to was pained at the injustice brandied against him. We give Troy props for not knowing what his happening and still keeping a brave face, while Cord knew what happened and is trying to avoid the consequences of any past actions.

So Fly wins this 2-1-1 in this Bug Bout between the Fly (from Fly #5) and the Blue Beetle (from Captain Atom #s 84-86). Next week we'll dissect the next chapter in this tortured odessey of our bug buddies.