The first time Blue Beetle appeared was in 1939, the Golden Age of comics. He was popular enough to get his own series, a comic strip and even a radio serial. But by the 1950's the Blue Beetle had nearly become forgotten with the public's decreasing interest in super-heroes. In the 1960's, a new publisher, Charlton, tried to revive the Blue Beetle, even revamping him with comic legend Steve Ditko, but failed to last.
In the 1980's DC Comics bought the rights to the Charlton's super-heroes, and the Blue Beetle became part of the DC Universe. Here, the original Blue Beetle became archeologist Dan Garrett who used a mysterious scarab-artifact to fight crime. His biggest contribution was to inspire a former student, Ted Kord, to become the second Blue Beetle and continue Dan's work.