- Alternate versions: see Blue Beetle disambiguation
Golden Age[]
After his father was killed by a gangster's bullet, young Dan Garret joined the New York Police Department, but soon tired of the slow pace and red tape of police work.
With the help of his friend and mentor, pharmacist and drug-store proprietor Dr. Franz, Dan acquired a costume of bullet-proof chain-mail-like cellulose material, and began a second life, fighting crime as The Blue Beetle.
The Blue Beetle's Calling CardHis calling card was a small beetle-shaped marker that he left in conspicuous places to alert criminals to his presence, using their fear of his crime fighting reputation as a weapon against them. For this purpose he also used a "Beetle Signal" flashlight. The Blue Beetle's reputation was not his only weapon, however. He carried a revolver in a blue holster on his belt, and was sometimes shown wearing a multi-pouched belt after the style set by Batman. Also in the Batman vein, the Blue Beetle had a "BeetleMobile" car and a "BeetleBird" airplane. In at least one radio adventure he carries something called a "magic ray machine". The ray machine was a sort of super-scientific cutting device.
Silver Age[]
His mystic powers are derived from an ancient Egyptian scarab that he wears on his belt. Dan's stories were published by Charlton Comics.
Dan was an archeologist specializing in ancient Egypt. During the excavation of the tomb of Kha-ef-Re he aquired a blue scarab with mystical properties and from this scarab derived, in the words of the comic, "the power to banish evil from the Earth for all time. The power of the sacred scarab, the power of the Blue Beetle!"
What was the relationship between the golden age policeman Dan Garrett, and the silver age archeologist Dan Garrett? Were they one and the same? Father and son? Distant cousins? Charlton Comics never revealed the truth, or even acknowledged the golden age character in the silver age stories.
