First 10 - Golden Age Blue Beetle

The Blue Beetle first appeared in the multi-hero comic Mystery Men. Titles like these have always been used to trot out new heroes, and many of the heroes you know and love come from such titles. In the first issue of Mystery Men, The Blue Beetle was a nobody, and by the end of the series he was headlining the title (you can see in the issue on the left he was billed below The Green Mask and Rex Dexter of Mars).

In the first issue of Mystery Men, there was no real reason to give The Blue Beetle any special billing. He was a cop who would change into civvies and put on a mask to solve crimes. From the beginning I thought it ridiculous that Dan Garret would change into his hero duds to do things that were basically his job to do as a cop. They never really answer that point, but the series does get better than it was when it started.

By the second issue, Dan Garret was donning an early incarnation of the classic Blue Beetle garb. There is no reason given for the change, but it's a welcome one because before that point he was a less-flashy Green Mask who did Batman's job in a less exciting way. Once he gets a better costume, The Blue Beetle gets better as a character. He does have a cheesy ongoing banter with his cop partner, Mannigin, but that is usually relegated to the final frame of the comic. All in all, it's a pretty good Golden Age comic, but far from my favorite. I wasn't going to separate Golden Age Blue Beetle from the modern Blue Beetle, but it looks like I'm going to have to, just because I already know I love the modern Blue Beetle. Here's where it falls in the First 10 standings:

1. Batman
2. Amazing Spider-Man
3. Fantastic Four
4. The Punisher
5. Golden Age Green Lantern
6. The Avengers
7. Golden Age Blue Beetle
8. Aquaman