[The Australian Panther]

Enjoying this.
1/ Hard not to believe that Niclolas based many elements of his character on 'The Phantom' - and not just the costume. The scarab as an item that inspires fear, the hand-held torch with the 'Blue Beetle' symbol - pre-Batman?
2/ He waits till somewhat into the stories before Dan Garrett gets an origin.
Dr Franz turns up about 4 stories in and I'm still waiting for an origin for him.
3/ Nichols can draw but mostly doesn't bother to try very hard. The writing is also about as basic as it gets.
4/ This is the third character I know of that becomes a hero after his parents were killed by Criminals. Batman of course and earlier, the Spider. In this case, tho, it is only the father.
5/ Nichols would make an interesting psychological
study. His villains all like to torture women. [Hair-pulling in one instance] and he has at least one enormous explosion per story. And Dan keeps coming into contact with gorgeous women whom he rescues and then walks away from. And he has no regular girlfriend. Hmm!
6/ He changes costumes after the first story. I quite like the suit costume tho.
Thanks Frabig, it's good to be able to trae the evolution of the character.

Link to the book: Blue Beetle Complete Collection Vol. 1: The Fox Years - Part 1

[FraBig]

I'm happy you enjoyed it, Panther!
I like your considerations, you made me notice some details that I didn't grasp at first.
His origin story first comes in Blue Beetle #1, following the trope of giving the hero his origins only in the first issue of his personal series, just like they did for the Shield at MLJ (his origins first appear in Shield/Wizard Comics #1, depite it not being his first appearance).
Then in Blue Beetle #5 they reprint a newspaper strip (or at least this says Grand Comics Database) that describes the first time Dan takes Vitamin 2-X, which can be considered how he firstly got his superpowers.