Okay, in all of my years of digging through old comics and the histories of old comics, I really don't believe that I had ever heard of Sparkington J. Northrup AKA "Sparky," the Blue Beetle's early 1940's s sidekick! In fact, although he was cover-featured on this particular issue, Sparky didn't even actually appear other than in the one page introduction/apology seen here. When he did show up next issue, it was as if he had been there all along. No origin story. Hey, DC, how about having an elderly Sparkington J. Nothrup need to turn to the current Blue Beetle for help on some problem? Or has poor Sparky been retconned permanently out of existence?
We'll try to run a Blue Beetle and Sparky story soon at our companion blog, FOUR-COLOR SHADOWS.
Sparky has never appeared in the DC Universe. However, he supposedly appeared in a flashback scene in the first issue of Dynamite's Project Superpowers mini series. In that series, Blue Beetle was called Big Blue.
ReplyDeleteWow! What a discovery! The Blue Beetle has one of the most tortured continuity of any comic book character and NOW one more twist has been revealed! I hope you DO post a Sparky story at 4 Color soon--I'll be fascinated!
ReplyDeleteThe only comparable Big Blue twist I've heard of is the story that during WW2 or thereafter, a French publisher was reprinting both Blue Beetle AND Superman, and translated BOTH secret identities as Clark Kent--and then to further complicate matters, produced new French-drawn episodes with a Beetle that could fly, and was invulnerable to bullets, and even had x-ray vision. I think I remember this story more or less correctly. I read it in one of those prozines, Alter Ego or Comic Book Marketplace...the Marketplace, I think...