Decades before DC Comics gained the publications rights for Blue Beetle in 1983, Fox Comics gave their massively successful superhero his own sidekick in the form of a British orphan; Sparkington J. Northrup, who would aid the original Blue Beetle in his crime-fighting escapades under the superhero moniker; 'Sparky'. After Fox Comics was forced to stop publishing comic books involving their most popular superhero; Wonder Man --after being sued by DC Comics for illegally copying Superman to create Wonder Man-- the publishing company suffered near bankruptcy, resulting in a need to place a new superhero to fill the spot left by Miracle Man.
When Blue Beetle had reached such popularity in the 1940s as to warrant a Fox Comics sponsored 'Blue Beetle Day' at the 1940 World Book Fair, focus was placed on his comic line to save the company, taking every opportunity to expand the Golden Age superhero's reputation. To compete with the success of popular comic book sidekick characters such as Robin, Speedy and Bucky Barns, Fox Comics created Sparky to act as the youthful partner to follow Blue Beetle in his epic adventures and appeal to a younger demographic.
Sparky briefly appeared on the first page of The Blue Beetle #14 in 1942 which displayed a picture of Sparky in his costume illustrated by Allen Ulmer along with a brief summery and introduction to his character, explaining that he was an orphan from Britain adopted by Lord Wellington Northrup who fled to America due to World War II. His first proper appearance was in the following issue pestering Blue Beetle in his secret identity as Police Officer Dan Garret while he was arresting notorious criminal Rod Rudders with his partner Sergeant Mike Mannigan. The arrest took a foul turn when Japanese terrorist; Madame Fang attacks the police convoy and frees Rod Rudders.
With the help of FBI Agent; Joan Mason, Dan Garret and Sparkington tracked down Madame Fang and Rod Rudder, the latter having been shot by Madame Fang due to his incompetence by being caught by the police. After being briefly incapacitated and left in a cage with rising water slowly filling the cage, Blue Beetle, Sparky and Joan managed to escape and stop Madame Fang in her plot to kill important members of the Illinois Police Department.
While this was his first appearance, Sparky's origin in how he came to be Blue Beetle's sidekick was not revealed until the following storyline which displayed Sparkington arriving in America and being escorted by Dan Garrett for his protection after word got out that spies from the Axis Forces had arrived in America. During an attempted kidnapping of Sparkington in his quarters, Dan Garrett dressed up in his Blue Beetle costume and fought off the kidnapers, but one whacked him over the head before fleeing, causing Blue Beetle's mask to fall off in front of Sparkington. Sparkington promised his savior that he would not reveal his secret identity so long as Blue Beetle trained him to become a crime fighter like himself so that he could assist the superhero in catching the Axis spies that tried to kidnap Sparkington. Thus, Sparkington's superhero career as 'Sparky' began, and after successfully arresting his kidnappers, the British orphan became a main part of Fox Comics' version of Blue Beetle.
When Blue Beetle left for Germany alongside several other Fox superheroes to assist the Allied Forces in winning World War II, Sparky was forced to temporarily retire from his role as Blue Beetle's sidekick. The superhero did not want to risk the life of his youthful compatriot in the middle of the war. But when Blue Beetle returned to America in The Blue Beetle #26 (by Zac H. Cabal, Lou Ferstadt and Philip Steinberg), Sparkington rejoined his mentor in his crusade under the new moniker of 'Spunky'. Although Sparkington did not explain why he decided to change his name, the real-world explanation was to differentiate Blue Beetle's sidekick from the Fox Comics Naval Cadet character known as Sparky Stevens who appeared in mini-stories within The Blue Beetle comic line.
After the Blue Beetle character was bought by DC Comics in 1983, Sparky's character was placed in a strange limbo in terms of licensing as he was never used in DC Comics' Blue Beetle comic runs and could no longer be used by Fox Comics, leaving the obscure sidekick in the public domain. This led to Sparky being included in Dynamite Entertainment's limited-time comic book series; Project Superpowers (by Jim Krueger, Alex Ross, Stephen Sadowski and Doug Klauba), a comic series which acted as a tribute to the forgotten superheroes of the Golden Age, reintroducing a plethora of heroes that had fallen into the public domain like Sparky.
Aside from the Project Superpowers series, Sparky has made a recent cameo appearance in a flashback panel in 2022's Earth Prime #4 (by James Robinson, Paula Sevenbergen, Jerry Ordway and John Kalisz) where he was seen swinging on a grappling rope alongside his partner Blue Beetle with the original Justice Society of America. It is welcome to see the return of such an obscure character from comic book history and hopefully Sparky can see more appearances either within the DC Universe or in other comic book projects.