Hi! Any suggestions for good Ted Kord comics! Ive only ever really seen the JLI version of him and I didn't realize he could be so based! If there's any runs in particular you'd recommend I'd love to check them out.
I'm still in the middle of my Ted Kord/Blue Beetle 2 research so recs are based on what I've either read and liked or liked Ted in specifically even if I didn't care for the story itself.
Captain Atom (1966-1967) #83-86- Ted's first comics. Look out for period typical sexism. Has the first mini-Bug/Snoopy for spying on shit.
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. . 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 Millennium (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 Assault 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 Grayson/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!
Convergence: Justice League International (2015) #1-2- DC Ted and with the Justice League International but well handled and enjoyable. Enjoyed him interacting with the Kingdom Come version of himself. Includes, Ted/Bea which is not something I expected but neat.
[I would specifically suggest giving the pre-DC comics a go, his OG DC solo run, Showcase (1994) #2-4. The two Convergence ones I felt were super fun for Ted stuff but that's just my opinion.
His DC solo run and Showcase (1994) #2-4, specifically say a lot of interesting things about Ted's personal politics (when he's written well). I do wish several things about his DC solo would have expanded from the more political bits of it, maybe with a second writer who's a bit more Left leaning that what was there. But what's there is very interesting.
Also RIP to Ted Kord that soooo many plot threads from his og solo got dropped and forgotten about specifically b/c DC put him in JLI and the JLI writers literally did no research about him and rewrote his personality to fit the jokes they wanted to make using him. Quite literally, he is some degree of OOC in everything he's in that's JLI related or referencing from JLI heavily. It high key infuriates me, hahahah.]
There are some Ted Kord/Blue Beetle 2 focused stories that I enjoyed from the JLI/JLA stuff. Either because Ted was particularly good in it, the story contains some info or events that is really useful/buildable from in it, and/or I just love the idea of Ted being in chill relationships with hot Black women.
Justice League America (1989) #26 [#27 i guess for Batman admitting that Ted was giving him a tough fight] - "Slice and Dice!" or "There's Something Very Wrong with the Blue Beetle!" (brainwashed Ted tried to kill Maxwell Lord)
Justice League America Annual (1992)#6- "Maximum Eclipse" (Ted faces down Eclipso on his own and i wish that had been brought up when Eclipso fought Jaime. Eclipso really 0 for 2 fighting Blue Beetles)
Justice League America Annual (1996) #10- "The Alliance" (an elseworlds-type story set in the far future with a cloned Justice League International)- Listen, the Implications about Ted being down to get cucked for the greater good/use his wife's pussy as part of a ploy is wild. Plus the Implications of Ted inviting Captain Atom to stay in that time and join Ted and his wife and raise the 3 of them's kid together. Also love double agent/leader of the resistance Ted.
Justice League Quarterly (1992) #9- "Frenzy" (the JLI gets dosed with a frenzy virus and have an hour to find out who's gonna go berserk and get a cure) A few quibbles on some minor details but love Ted actually using his brain, his stealth, and that he can be a 'scary' hero if he feels like it.
Justice League Quarterly (1992) #10- 'When Titans Date' (idk I think Ted picking up a cute Black lady after a failed date is just kinda neat even if it is on that JLI slander of Ted not being able to pick up women which is blatantly just lies)
[The specific JLI/A era story where its mentioned that Ted's friends with an anarchist hacker I do not recall the name of, only that it's either in JL Quarterly or Annual and that the story itself is more Booster Gold focused. With tidbits for Booster and Ted's friendship that I actually enjoyed for once which is ...rare for me.
There's some other useful things from this era that I didn't necessarily enjoy the stories they came from like: Ted having grown up in a town where his family were the only humans in town; Ted being predisposed to weight gain and his body dysmorphia due to extreme bullying in his childhood from his peers (in the hands of a writer who's not fatphobic, cause good lords and ladies does DC comics hate fat people, that could be really fun to work with); the previously mention anarchist hacker pal; Ted being particularly good at robbing banks if he felt like it; for some reason the writers made Ted slightly psychic but not due to a metagene and no one in-universe ever points it out]
Also, DC Showcase: Blue Beetle, an animated film is an absolute delight of stylistic suck fun and the Charlton crew getting to do shit together.
Just... I have a lot of strong feelings about Ted Kord/Blue Beetle 2 and the type of superhero that he could have become if he was allowed to grow more Left that what he was shown being in his DC solo and in Showcase 1994. If some writer built on shit and made him even more anti-cop, more anti-US government, more pro-community, more having complicated feelings about why people do crime and how to actually help b/c fighting/jailing people isn't necessarily the best solution [I have so many strong feelings about Blue Beetle 1986 issues #8 & #13], and more pro-using his billions to help regular citizens [it frustrates me that the writer didn't have Ted go 'maybe the best way to help homeless people is to give them safe homes and I have billions so i can just house people' at the end of Blue Beetle 1986 issue #16] it would be sooo good.
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