Starting the week with more weirdness from the Golden Age Blue Beetle. By the time ish #33 came about, it appears the Blue Beetle finished auditioning his real readers and decided to go with a full-time sidekick.
First? "Surprise them from the rear." That's what HE said!
Secondly, the guy's name is "Spunky"? I think in certain countries that's actually obscene. In any country, that's a name you'd lose by the time you hit first grade. Although I graduated with a guy who was known as "Tigger" until he left high school, so who knows? Still... "Spunky"?
Lastly, we note once again that the sidekick is there to create danger where there would otherwise be none. The Blue Beetle is packing bulletproof armor and all kinds of powers that he's pulling out of the clear blue sky, but this kid's only superpower appears to be the ability to keep his (albeit baggy) shirts a nice bright white. Eeesh. Off to the Character Hall of Shame (tm!) with Spunky.
I'm sorely tempted to put this on a greeting card and sell it for Father's Day.
On to ish #44, where we I see this character for the first time:
Not to be confused with Doc Savage, Man of Bronze.
The gimmick is that he's supposedly disfigured, so he wears a bronze mask. But that sure doesn't look like a bronze mask. And they never show his face when he's in street clothes, but no one seems to notice he's disfigured, so I wonder how disfigured he is. Is it like on soap operas where someone has a two inch scar on their cheek and act like they have Proteus Syndrome? That's probably the case.
See you tomorrow!