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!

Friday Fiends: Greedy Gliding Goons

Ranking high up there on most desired superpowers would have to be defying gravity. Scores of costumed crusaders crowd clouds above their adoring public. Yet heroes aren't alone flying the friendly skies, there are those who would like to make those same skies a bit...fiendish. First up, August 1967's Blue Beetle #2,  Steve Ditko's Banshee debuted. Originally the apprentice of famed acrobat, the Flying Dundo, he saw an opportunity and snatched it to embark on a criminal life away from under the big top.

A similar pair of hovering hoods appeared in March 1985's Mighty Crusaders #11, the Buzzard and an insect man known only as "Sting", were presented.. Recruited by Eraser (whom we considered earlier) to bedevil the assembled heroes as the Riot Squad, there first target was the elder Black Hood from the 1940's which led to his untimely demise...and a drastic personality change in his heir apparent, Kip Burland, Black Hood II:

Immediately gaining the attention of news commentator Vic Sage during the Banshee's Crown City crime spree, Sage's alter ego the Question begins a one-man mission to bring the cruising crook back down to Earth and bring him...not back to the big top...but the big house...to face justice for his felonies and the demise of the fiend's inventive instructor, Dundo.

The Question was not alone in his obsessive drive to use his everyman approach against a seemingly superhuman adversary such as the Banshee, as the Black Hood went after the pair of flying fiends and their leader, despite lacking powers of his own, aided by Fly and the Crusaders:

When he finally had the Banshee in his grasp, the Question's actions led to the former acrobat's exile from the mainland to a deserted island for seven long years! Although reappearing for a rematch against the crusadering crimefighter, Banshee later joined Manipulator's  evil Squad against Question alongside Blue Beetle and the Sentinels of Justice:

 Decades after their seeming demise at the hands of the Comet, Vulture and Sting reappeared alongside a veritable legion of lethal larcenists for a rematch against the dimension traveling Mighty Crusaders, themselves now expanding their own membership to near unmanageable proportions:

Buzzard and Sting as well as Banshee and his mentor Dundo were only a few of the many in comics who made their mark above Terra Firma. Yet for their respective publishers during a handful of appearences, they provided a couple of memorable challenges for their flightless foes.

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.

Kirby, Ditko and a pair of Joes bring you the Captains: Adam & Strong

When mentioning classic artists, consideration has to be made for Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Their mark over at a Marvelous early 1960's comic book publisher sparked the start of an era. However, two other publishers attempted to harness their magic slightly earlier enlisting a pair of Joes (Simon and Gill, respectively) to create a pair of energy powered soldiers. Despite their creators' skill, neither caught on and even when revived years later, failed to capture the imagination with their original publishers.

Joe Gill and Steve Ditko had been enlisted by Archie Comics under their Adenture Series (successor to MLJ and precursor to Mighty) in 1959 to create Lancelot Strong, who as an infant had been experimented on by his father Malcolm to access the untapped potential in all humans. As a result, he was able to absorb energy and then emit it into a bio-electrical force, as well as great strength and flight.

Charlton employed the talent of Joe Gill and Steve Ditko in 1960 to create their first super hero. Captain Atom was originally Captain Adam (later N. Christopher), who through a tragic accident while trapped on an experimental rocket was "atomized" and later reconstituted, harnessing atomic energy he could project, also gaining great strength and flight.

Yes, both faced strange aliens early in their career, not surprising considering the American public's fascination for space travel during this period of time. Using innate, almost instinctual, mastery over fundamental forces, allowing them to soundly defeat such threat within the span 8 or 9 pages. Another typical Silver Age trend.

Lancelot had himself faced tragedy an an infant orphan, and was adopted by a loving farm couple who raised him as their own (hmmm). As a young man, he was enlisted into the military under the rank of private. Captain Adam, having a non-descript adolescence apparently, fast tracked his military career, and when first we meet him he is already a captain. Adam adopted a new career as the military's not-so-secret weapon, whereas Lancelot kept his double identity a secret for a time. When they were each revived years, both were Captains.

For Captain Atom, the reason he was placed on the shelf until the mid-60's was the departure of Ditko. For the Shield, it was legal troubles due to some similarities with a certain Man of Steel (no not him or him ).

During his mid-60's revival over at Charlton, Captain Atom was one of their headliners, while the Shield was replaced by a modern-day version of the original Shield. As such, it took a couple more decades for Lancelot to regain his own featured title and then he lost it...once more thanks to a Man of Steel (yes .that one).

Both Captains displayed incredible adaptability to various climates while controlling these fundamental force of nature.This enabled their bodies to be virtually invulnerable, except when plot lines deemed that unnecessary.

Over the course of their careers, they were befriended by a pair of general (General Eiling fo Captain Atom and General Smith for Captain Strong) that aided them both as solo agents and alongside other non-commissioned costumed agents. Eventually, both succumbed to that most deadly of enemies for a superhero, sagging sales figures.

We'll touch on more parallels between these two in a later post. And of a pair of shadowy females that entered their lives during times of need.

Ditko's Other Insect Men

Today's entry involves a pair of heroic insects that Ditko worked on of somewhat lesser note than is piece de resistance: Blue Beetle and the Fly. Interestingly, he seemed more enthralled by their firepower then their superpower (or, for the Beetle at least, his super-inventiveness).

The Fly debuted in 1959 as young Tommy Troy, granted a ring that while rubbing it and wishing he was the Fly, became a powerful, adult version of himself. Clad in googles and all the garment trappings of an insect-man, he launched into a semi-successful career and a run of 39 issues of his self-titled run. During that period he met and worked alongside a military captain controlling a fundamental force granting him a super-charged body (more on him later), as well as a host of other heroes including a plain-clothed crime fighter whose stichk was a trademark mask and his urban style of fighting crime without a grasp on constitutional protections (once more, more on him later). Back to little Tommy...well he got bigger became an attorney and packed a buzz-gun designed by an alien named Turan which was seldom used and ill-defined in its usefulness.

It took eight years for our other buggy boy to appear, although his direct inspiration had appeared in 1964, himself inspired by a golden age version. All three incarnations of the Blue Beetle had a similar goals although varying approaches of getting to them. The first Dan Garret was a police officer granted powers from a local pharmacist, the second Dan Garrett was an archelogist granted powers from an Egyptian scarab, and the third is our entry today. Ted Kord was a scientist who unwittingly drew Beetle #2 into a death trap on a deserted island when his sinister uncle unleased a horde of robots again them. Kord used his mechanical wizardry to create a new identity including an aerodynamically incredulous flying beetle named Bug which allowed Kord to drop in on his opponents using gymnastic feats he must've obtained through osmosous between Pago Island and Hub City. He later teamed up with a military captain controlling a fundamental force granting him a super-charged body (more on him later) and a plain-clothed crime fighter whose stichk was a trademark mask and his urban style of fighting without a grasp on constitutional protections (you guessed it...).

Interestingly, Ditko worked on both characters (creating the latter) and incorporated into his tales occasions when the Fly and the Beetle lost their similar style guns and the witless criminals (at least the Beetle's foes the Madmen were memorable) holding possessing of said instruments are unable to figure out how to trigger them:

Nothing like recycled ideas, ey? Or perhaps the Charlton and Mighty MLJ universes are more common than we might think? And buzz guns are always in vogue. Next we will consider the insect precursors to today's entry, a pair of heroes harkening back to a golden age showing us that bug-men are ALWAYS in style.