#Charlton Bullseye

[comicarthistory]

Charlton Bullseye #3 cover. 1981. Art by Ian Carr.

[thenixkat]

I cringe every time I see Justice League International/America put as essential reading for Ted Kord/Blue Beetle 2. Like no, just cause it was long-running and popular and referenced by a bunch of things, since Ted was OOC the entire time in JLI that's not essential reading for him.

This is what I've read so far that gives a good feel for Ted Kord/Blue Beetle and what he's about where he's reasonably in character:

Captain Atom (1966-1967) #83-86- Ted's first comics. Look out for period typical sexism

Blue Beetle (1967-1968) #1-5- Ted's first solo comics. Look out for period typical sexism and racism. Ted's ok with killing bad guys/won't lose sleep about it if it happens. My girl, the MVP Tracey is here as Ted's gf, lab assistant, and confidant. Issue 5 has Vic Sage/The Question showing up in his civilian persona and helping out Blue Beetle.

Charlton Portfolio (1974) #1- Ted's civilian persona gets blamed for murder and the theft of an invisibility suit. Has the first mini-Bug/Snoopy for spying on shit. Tracey defends her man's honor and chews people out for bad-mouthing Ted.

Charlton Bullseye (1981) #1- Blue Beetle 2 and The Question team up officially as superheroes taking on a villain with many mooks and death traps. Also, this story implies that Ted has been Blue Beetle for at least 10 yrs. The Question calls Blue Beetle his friend and thinks they make a good team.

Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985) #1-3 [you can read more if you want but he's less prominent the further the Crisis goes on]- Ted's DC universe debut as part of the Earth 4 crew. This Ted has the Scarab and it can work as demon repellant and keep him from getting disintegrated from being touched by antimatter demons. Ted is cosmically important enough to be Earth 4's representative!

Secret Origins (1986) #2- Dan and Ted's origins are retold to fit in the DC universe. Ted does not have the Scarab. Red-head curly-haired Ted!

Blue Beetle (1986) #1-24- Ted's DC solo run. Red-head curly-haired Ted! Ted has no confidence for his secret identity which causes drama. His girlfriend/lab assistant is Melody Chase. In issues 5-7, Vic Sage/The Question teams up with Blue Beetle 2 for an arc. This run has crossovers with Legends (1986) and Mellinium (1988). Ted also starts appearing in Justice League International (1987)[boo, hiss, thankfully JLI didn't affect the plots of Ted's solo unlike the crossovers]

Showcase (1994) #2-4- Set in JLI era but Ted is pretty much himself. Ted fights cops and a city's local government b/c they stole his patents and they're fascists and he doesn't vibe with that.

L.A.W.: Living Assult Weapons (1999) #1-6- This series is racist trash propaganda. You mostly just want the first two and last two issues for Ted stuff. Ted decides to retire from being a superhero at the end of this series.

Birds of Prey (1999) #2, 4, 7, 10, 15, 19, 22-25, 33-37, 39-42- Ted makes a number of cameos initially via chatting online with Oracle as her friend. Then meeting up for an in-person date. Then coming out of retirement and joined the Birds of Prey on missions as support and a driver primarily. Then Ted gets diagnosed with a degenerative heart condition and retires again.

Robin (1993) #96- Ted teaming up with Tim Drake/Robin to track down a Jokerized werecat. Ted charms and scores a date with one of Dick Grason/Nightwing's civilian love interests.

Convergence: Blue Beetle (2015) #1-2- A return of pre-DC Ted! Set on Earth 4's Hub City kidnapped by some cosmic entity pitting heroes against each other with the survival of their cities on the line. Blue Beetle, The Question, and Captain Atom vs the Legion of Super-Heroes. My girl Tracey is here! As Ted's copilot!

[chernobog13]

The Sentinels of Justice, a first-time ever teaming of Blue Beetle, Captain Atom. Nightshade and The Question, was originally produced for Charlton Bullseye, a short-lived showcase book (June, 1981-December 1982). However, Charlton Bullseye was cancelled after issue #10, before the Sentinels could debut.

AC (Americomics), which had produced the story, was able to briefly license the characters from Charlton in 1983 in order to publish the story in Americomics Special #1 (August, 1983). This was the one and only appearance of this team, as DC Comics purchased the characters outright from Charlton shortly after.

The Sentinels of Justice name was then used for a team of AC superheroes. The Charlton characters above, as well as Peacemaker and Thunderbolt, were formally introduced into the DC Universe in Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985-1986), where their world was designated Earth-4, one of five Earths that merged to become the new Earth by the end of that series.

[tomoleary]

Jim Starlin and Al Milgrom (as Gemini) Charlton Bullseye #2 Captain Atom Center Spread Pin-Up Original Art (CPL Gang, 1975).

[clay-cuttlefish]

Question list round 2, hopefully covering more ground this time.

Mysterious Suspense

Vic's first book! It is bad. Not really in a fun way, it's just a slog.

There's so much dialogue in every panel and 90% of it is Ditko telling the reader how cool Objectivism is.

Vic using the gas to pretend to be two people during a fight is neat, at least.

Charlton Bullseye vol. 1 #5

This is actually a fanzine that had Charlton Comics' approval, which rules.

The Shadow reference spotted! I don't know if Ditko was originally directly inspired by the Shadow, but Vic's brutal streak and tendency to monologue about morality make that seem pretty plausible.

The hamfisted commentary is a loving pastiche, which makes it a lot less frustrating to read.

Big fan of the Question logo in this.

Charlton Bullseye vol. 2 #1

Blue Beetle/Question teamup time!

They're just weird little guys, no Ditko baggage involved. It's cute.

Americomics Special 1

DC bought out the Charlton characters while this was being written, so it never goes anywhere, but it's charming. This could have been a fun team.

I can't help but wonder what would've happened if the Sentinels of Justice had been a more established team.

Crisis on Infinite Earths #6

Finally, DC!

Vic stands next to Ted for like 3 panels. It's something.

CoIE #7

The DC Wiki says that Vic's in this somewhere, but I can't find him? The Earth-4 panels have Beetle, Peacemaker, and Nightshade, but I'm not seeing Vic.

Very funny that the world representatives are awe-inspiring powerhouses and also Blue Beetle.

[pulpsandcomics2]

The Charlton Bullseye #2 1975 art by Steve Ditko

[fungi-maestro]

The Question from Charlton Bullseye #5 (1976)

[browsethestacks]

Vintage Magazine - Charlton Bullseye #04

Pencils: Joe Staton

Inks: Joe Staton

Colors: Joe Staton

Back Cover: Al Milgrom

CPL/GANG Publications (March-April 1976)

[all-action-all-picture]

1975 ad for The Charlton Bullseye.

[jasenlex]

ISOLATED COMIC BOOK PANEL #2919 title: CHARLTON BULLSEYE #2 - P3:3 artist: BRIAN BUNIAK year: 1982

[johnbyrnedraws]

Charlton Bullseye #2, pages 5 & 6 by Steve Ditko & John Byrne. 1975.

[kekwcomics]

BULLSEYE #7 (Charlton, 1955)

[rocket-prose]

The strange art team of Steve Ditko on pencial and John Byrne on inks on this original page from Charlton Bullseye Vol 1 #2 (CPL Gang/Charlton Comics, 1975) featuring Captain Atom in "Two Against Sunuria".

[dirtyriver]

Ad for the Charlton Bullseye, 1975, cover by Al Milgrom

[tomoleary]

Mike Machlan and Peter Iro (as Viktor Laszlo) Charlton Bullseye #6

How could I have missed Thunder-Bunny?

“Thunder-Bunny, created by Martin L. Greim, was a sort of combination of Hoppy the Marvel Bunny and Captain Marvel.”

[mayamistake]

Charlton Bullseye 1975 #1 The  Charlton Bullseye was a magazine dedicated to the comics put out by  Charlton. Published and edited by Bob Layton, it featured works from  many future comics superstars, including Roger Stern and John Byrne.  This first issue is the debut of Byrne's Rog 2000.