Doctor Franz was a neighborhood pharmacist and inventor who had befriended rookie police officer Dan Garret. Sensing that Garret was a virtuous man, he entrusted him with his two greatest inventions: A bulletproof chain-mail costume with a silk fiber overlay and Vitamin 2-X which bequeathed anyone who imbibed it with enhanced physical attributes. Armed with these two inventions, Dan Garret became the costumed adventurer known as the Blue Beetle.