Blue Beetle #4

This January 1965 Charlton issue puts Blue Beetle front and center in a tense outdoor confrontation, his blue-suited figure lunging forward while a menacing, grinning villain in a green insectoid mantis costume looms behind him, clutching a tree. A woman in red — Juanita — scrambles to flee in the background, and the cover's own caption says it all: "Run, Juanita! I can't stop this thing!" The cover art by Pat Masulli and Dick Giordano delivers a wonderfully kinetic scene, and the teaser at the bottom — "Has the Mighty Blue Beetle finally met his match in the terrible… Praying Mantis-Man?" — sets up a classic hero-versus-themed-villain showdown with genuine flair. With a story by Joe Gill and interior art by Bill Fraccio and Tony Tallarico, this 12-cent Charlton gem captures the era's superhero revival at its most entertaining.