The Complete Red Bee: Gwandanaland Comics #794 -- His Full Series From hit Comics -- The Only Collection of The Red Bee in print!

i read about the Red Bee in Sterenko's History of comics in 1975(?) and have been wanting to read the stories ever since. Does it stand up? The Red Bee is dresses in an outfit that would be perfect for a circus performer and works quite well for fighting crime, ( Robin is Batman's little target, drawing attention away from the big awkward guy in the leather fetish suit, but at least Robin looks like he can dodge bullets and swing on ziplines) He is aided by his pet bee, Michael. Michael is apparently on steroids, he lasts 24 stories and stings the bad guys repeatedly. You'd think the villains of Superior City would carry a fly swatter or a can of Raid just in case, but they don't and Michael becomes the most useful animal/bug sidekick in comics. Silver and Trigger have fantasies of being like Mike. The Red Bee gets knocked unconscious a lot, releasing Mike from his belt pouch to save the day just in time. The art by Charles Nicholas starts out a little stiff but you see him grow as an artist in story after story, never noticed it that much before. Its fun. Witmer Williams does the last half of the stories, not bad but Nicholas' art became better than the Lou Fine covers. A couple stories are a little out of focus, but readable, glad they're included and several stories have yellowed, still worth it to get the entire series. i think DC has probably used the character a dozen times since the 70s, he didn't make the cut of the JLA issues that brought back the Freedom Fighters. So 45 years of waiting... these are good solid stories, i was wrong about several things of the character - he can't fly, he doesn't carry a gun (don't know why i imagined that) and he apparently can't control bees, he does tell Michael to go to several bee hives and get bees to help out - is that Red Bee 's power or is Michael really good at at explaining things? The language and some of the depictions of Chinese wouldn't be acceptable today. The Red Bee's secret ID is that of the Assistant DA and he Never sweats. or gets dirty, one time he the DA and the helpless female get trapped in a garage's grease trap, the assist. DA gets out and a minute later the Red Bee appears not a drop of oil on him. And Michael survived. One thing i really loved about this character is what i loved about the Black Orchid and the Phantom Stranger, no origin story. Why shouldn't a hot looking guy put on a see through shirt and fight crime w/a trained bee? Wouldn't you? And he spends all his time w/the DA, even camping vacations, the writer didn't think to give him a beard until the third from last story, she's shown on the second from last story's splash but not in the story. Too little too late. 45 year wait, wish i'd gotten the book earlier, glad i got it now.