Review: Blue Beetle #21

So, guest writer fill-in issue. All-in-all, it wasn't that bad. Felt pretty dense to me, actually, but maybe that's because of how decompressed my usual comics fare is. I dunno. But I got the feeling I got a hell of a lot of comic for my 3 bucks this issue.

I like the cover. Simple, but it tells you all you need to know.

The shade of blue changing in the narration-boxes kinda throws me off. Do they usually do that?

I'm sure that "Las Tunas" does not actually translate to "The Tunas" (as in the fish), but that won't stop me from snickering at the idea.

"I've never come any closer to war than Mr. Robles' 7th grade Phys Ed..." While the joke amuses me, I somehow doubt that 7th grade P.E. was more strenuous than the last 20 issues of this book. Just a thought.

Query: If this is Las Tunas Federal Correctional Facility, then why do the shirts of the inmates read "TDC"? What's that stand for?

I'm not going to bother translating the Scarab Speak on this issue since it's all cribbed from previous issues and therefore makes absolutely no sense in context. Strangely enough, I'm pretty sure we have our regular letterer, and I would think that the Scarab Speak would be their responsibility, so I'm not sure why this is, but, oh, well. C'est la vie.

"I don't even wanna know what the Reach used "Population Suppression" for..." My guess is suppressing the populace, Jaime. ;D

Jaime, you are a superhero: nothing is ever just easy. Ever.

OK, dude's sitting in an electric chair, got a noose around the neck, and a big honkin' needle in each arm. The Spectre: Can Not Count.

Also, I'd like to be the billionth person in the world to point out how absolutely ridiculous the Spectre's outfit really is. God really has the most twisted sense of humor.

It's not like you could really kill the Spectre anyway, Jaime.

Jaime, why are you asking so many stupid questions today? "Systems lock" would probably mean that your systems (well, the Scarab's, at least) are, y'know, locked. Exciting!

I am strangely fond of the Spectre's yelling face in the first panel here.

Luis. Wow. Talk about somebody who hasn't been mentioned since the first trade! And remember that this issue will presumably be collected in the 4th trade. So I guess I might as well remind you that he used to work for Jaime's dad and is the reason Mr. Reyes is walking around with a cane these days. Funtimes.

"Dude!!" indeed, Paco. Because, seriously, dude. Wrath of God is big news.

Am I a horrible person for laughing at "you didn't mean gringo when you called him 'all white'"?

OK, temporary pause for commenting on an ad here. My issue has an ad for some "Dino Squad" faux-anime-looking TV show or whatever. The explanatory blurb includes the glorious hyphenated monstrosity "mutant-raptor-scientist." Isn't that just special?

Jaime hasn't told his parents about Traci yet? Oh, teenagers. (Granted, I did the exact same thing, but, uhhhhh.... Heh. Oh, teenagers.)

Yay, Peacemaker's well-being!

At least I never outright lied to my parents about my boyfriend, Jaime! I just put off telling them about him until it was strictly necessary!

Also I suspect that Mr. Reyes did not fall for that ruse at all. The Reyes parents are clever folk, man.

Viva la editor's boxes!

Also, I adore Jaime's parents. Just in general. If only my parents were even a quarter as awesome.

I don't think the number of limbs there matches up correctly, but I don't think I want to think about it too hard, either.

Kehehehe, pimp school. Oh, Paco.

"They can smell fear!" Oh, Paco.

Paco's Spanish grade. Oh, Paco.

Traci's very pretty here.

I don't think Sodom and Gomorrah were stepped on, but I get what you're getting at, Traci.

If Spectre's punishing those who manage to dodge Man's vengeance, then why is he picking off guys in prison in Texas of all places? I mean, yeah, of course, gotta happen for the plot, but seriously.

...Actually, wait, I remember that Spectre said that 3 murders meant 3 death penalties, but then Paco said that the guy was in for only 2 counts of Murder One. Smooooooooth, Mr. Peniston.

...Oh, Lordy, what a terrible last name to have.[/tangent]

"Sweet and corny. You're like a good breakfast cereal." Hee! :D

I've got no witty commentary for Jaime's conversation with Luis, sorry.

...So, after I complain about the "Oh Dios Mio!" on the Teen Titans cover, here's a "Dios Mio." in Jaime's book itself. *Smacks forehead* C'est la vie.

Man, I bet the Spectre's breath absolutely reeks.

Let's all take a moment to appreciate the distinction between "evil" and "weak."

Oh, Jaime, don't you realize that once you fall into the hero business you can't ever get out? Especially if your codename's the Blue Beetle?

So, basically, the Scarab is extremely scary and everybody in the DCU should be thankful that Jaime exists.

I'd like to note that Jaime's room looks pretty damn clean to me.

Jaime's family struck me as devout enough to go to church every Sunday, but *shrugs*.

And, once again, Jaime's parents = adoration. True Fact.

Oh, Hey, Did You Hear That Blue Beetle's HISPANIC?!

I groaned at the Teen Titans cover. That speech bubble was completely unnecessary and somewhat painful, even. I mean, seriously. I don't think Jaime's ever been shown to curse in Spanish at all. I can remember a few "damn"s from him, but other than that.... And who says "Oh Dios Mio!" anyway? I mean, I'll admit that I don't know many Spanish speakers, but that just doesn't sound right to me at all. (Is it even grammatically correct? I don't know, man, I took Latin in High School.) I was thinking about it after I bought it and I actually remembered it as "Madre de Dios!" or something like that that would translate to "Mother of God!" instead of "Oh my God!" 'Cuz somehow that makes more sense to me. I dunno. *Waves hand vaguely* Catholicism.

Which led me to realize that the current roster of the Teen Titans + Jaime currently consists of, if I've got this right, 2 Catholics, 2 aliens, 2 atheists/agnostics/lapsed whatevers/doesn't really give enough of a damn about religion to self-categorize (I can only assume that Tim and Rose are non-religious since neither strikes me as religious), and 1 Greek. (What do you call somebody who worships the Greek pantheon, anyway?) I'm not sure what I'm getting at here, but that certainly looks like an interesting set-up. Really, though, I'll I'm getting from it is the mental image of Tim planning some Titans thing and asking if Sunday morning's OK for everybody else and Jaime and Eddie both being like, "Can't. Mass." (Possibly followed up by M'gann asking if Sunday is somehow denser than other days, because I can never resist a good corny science joke.)

The discovery that Eddie and Jaime share a religion has only served to further my determination that they should be the best of friends. Red and Blue, guys! Who's with me?

Ummm, right. Comics I bought this week:
Teen Titans #53
Blue Beetle #21

So, that's 2 instances of Jaime, neither of which was written by John Rogers. How distinctly unusual.

I enjoyed both, though there were things that seemed slightly off about Jaime's portrayal in both of them. Meh.

Normally, I would promptly launch into a long, involved rant about Blue Beetle here, but I just experienced a sudden rush of "Oh, God, must finish Christmas knitting! D:", so, ummmm, laterz. I may end up blogging over the weekend to make up for slacking so much during the week. We shall see.

But I'd just like to note that the Scarab Speak in Blue Beetle is, uhhhh, well, let's not say "untranslatable" but rather, it was directly cribbed from previous issues. The first bit of Scarab Speak translates to "Sinestro". Needless to say, I was very confused.

But to round out this Jaime-licious post, I'll just link to this. Jaime Reyes is keepin' the peace down in El Paso, folks.

I, Ummm, Forgot I Had a Blog for a While There....

Yeah, I don't have an excuse. I've been busy with my Blue Beetle sock. The foot turned out way too long so I had to tear it all out and start over. ); C'est la vie.

At least tomorrow's Wednesday!

Flash/Waid-fest!

Well, I've had something of a busy holiday (which is why I haven't posted since Monday, aheh), so I'mma keep this short 'n' sweet, 'K?

This week was Flash-o-licious. Or Waid-o-licious. Or both. I got Brave & the Bold and Flash.

Iris and Jai are really growing on me, it turns out. I seem to like super-spawn in general, it seems. I have no objections to Damien over in Batman or Chris Kent over in Superman (although I suppose that Chris doesn't exactly count as super-spawn). But I was kind of iffy-feeling about Iris and Jai until this week. I like 'em.

But I can't shake the horrible feeling that one of them (probably Jai) is somehow dooooooooooomed. Sad.

Anyway, both comics were enjoyable. I'm inclined to say that I enjoyed BatB more than I did Flash, but that might be because BatB was a more self-contained story.

Also, the ending was a delicious gut-punch of my favorite sort. >:3

It probably doesn't help that I read BatB before I read Flash, so throughout most of Flash, I was trying to apply the ending of BatB. I think I've decided on Iris, but I've been wrong in that past. It's entirely possible that Kingdom Come is influencing my thoughts.

It's all probably irrelevant anyway, but it's interesting to think about.

The Flash back-up was fluffy and fun and I absolutely love the art on it to pieces. Also oodles. It's just really pretty. And it's unique and distinctive without looking out of place in comics like Ross's or Acuna's art does sometimes.

And I enjoyed the story there, too, of course.

I hear there was a vaguely Ted-like Dan Garrett Blue Beetle in the Gotham by Gaslight Countdown Special or whatever its actual title is, so I intend to give that a look-see the next time I swing by my LCS.

...Yeah, this is my version of "short 'n' sweet." Kinda pathetic, hunh?

Booster Gold and Blue Beetle Related Solicits

Solicits make for easy blogging! :D Especially when I drag it out over two days. I'm getting good at this!

Going down the list in order, we first hit Jaime in Teen Titans. So much for his membership being a temp thing, I guess. :/ Not that this is really a bad thing, granted, but contrary to my expectations. Also, this cover is kind of boring. And the text of the solicit doesn't capture my attention. I'll buy it, but that's 'cuz I'm a sucker for Jaime, not because I'm excited for it. Ah, the life of a comics fan.

None of this is a problem for the next issue on our list, Booster Gold #0! A Zero Hour tie-in issue. A Zero Hour tie-in issue. Just the kind of beautiful madness I love about this book.

The full solicit:
An issue over ten years in the making! An official ZERO HOUR crossover kicks off the second time-traveling story arc of "the greatest hero the world will never know" with "Blue and Gold," Part 1! Witness the secret origin of Booster Gold as he journeys through the time line, lost, in an attempt to return home...with a good friend in tow. But there's an evil out there waiting for him; one of the greatest villains of the DC Universe: Hal Jordan, a.k.a. Parallax!
On sale February 13 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

So, the 2nd arc is titled "Blue and Gold". I... hmmmm. Honestly, I've been mulling over this solicit in my head since I first saw it yesterday and I still don't know what to think of it all. Obviously, something's gone wrong, considering that Booster's lost in time, the question is "What?" (And also, probably, "So, what does this mean for Ted?") The two most likely things I've thought up is either that something bad has happened to Rip, or something bad has happened to Skeets. (If memory serves, Rip specifies that he needs Booster and Skeets together to be able to yoink them out of the time stream if he needs to.) Then again, we do have Skeets on the cover, so.... Hmmmmm. I don't know. I honestly just don't know. This is distinctly unusual.

But, hey, origins! Always fun! Maybe they'll explain what's up with Jonar. And I'm always all for the 25th century. It's an interesting place. I wonder why they say "a good friend in tow" instead of specifically mentioning Ted.... And, hey, Hal Jordan Parallax! Funtimes!

And, boy, howdy, that cover.



Man, even I can't name all the Beetles pictured. That's definitely something. I know the one with Cyclops-esque goggles is a Dan, although I'm fairly certain that his goggles ought to be red. I want to say the one with the Scarab design on his forehead is a Dan, too. We've got Ditko Ted with the hourglass-shaped goggles to the left of the Scarab, and modern Ted to the right of it, followed by Jaime. The one after Jaime is niggling at the back of my brain, but I can't place it. Then there's KC Ted, and I don't recognize that last one at all.

Honestly, I'm quite perturbed by how much this solicit just absolutely stumps me. I mean, I'm not saying I should be able to predict what will happen in the book just going by the solicit (goodness knows I've honestly been pretty consistently wrong about it all [and what it's actually been has always been better than my ideas, anywho]), but I usually have ideas, or something that makes me go "*Points!* *Flails wildly!*", but here, I just.... It's like I read the individual words and they make sense, but the blurb as a whole just fails to parse correctly. I keep looking at this and getting the sinking feeling that I'm just missing something that'll pull it all together into greatness.

I hate feeling like I'm missing something. :/

Aaaaaaaannyyyyywaaaaaaayyyyy....

What's next? Ah, Blue Beetle #24.



Lost in space! The Reach brings its Scarab home — and Jaime Reyes is about to die far from his, while knowing that his family and allies will be next. His salvation lies deep within the Blue Beetle legacy; it’ll take a hero’s efforts to find it. Don’t miss the shocking ending to this issue!
On sale February 27• 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Oh, so here's where my monthly dose of "OH MY SHIT" went!

Because OH MY SHIT. I'm not the only one who looks at that and sees a bucketful of Countdown to Infinite Crisis parallels, am I? Terrifying, terrifying C2IC parallels.

...

Delicious.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaant.

I could go over this solicit phrase by phrase, but really, I'm sure all I'd say would end up being "Scary! (That is to say, awesome!)" or "Hellz yeah!", so I'll spare you the effort and move on.

Booster's inclusion in the Man of Steel TPB amuses me, although Skeets is absolutely, positively, entirely, completely the wrong colors on that cover, WTF? Skeets 1.0 was gold with a red visor. Skeets 2.0 and Skeets 2.1 are both gold with blue. Why is Skeets silver?

Showcase Presents Booster Gold! \o/ I do hope we get super-shiny all new art for the cover. I mean, it's not like I won't be buying it anyway, if only for the convenience of having it all in one easily accessible volume for reference purposes, but I would like to get new art out of the deal. Especially since I'm not entirely fond of the cover to #25, which is the image attached to this solicit. Something about the bend of Booster's spine makes me feel nyyyyyyyyyeeeeehhh-y. (I think it might just be the "oh, hai, boobies and butt crammed into one shot!" pose, but it's from the front and on a guy, and that makes it even more mystifying than usual.) Also his hair is totally parted on the wrong side of his head there and that's totally important.

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS VOL. 1 TP
[...]
Reoffered to coincide with SHOWCASE PRESENTS: BOOSTER GOLD VOl. 1...

...Query: Sense. How does this make any?! I mean, what?! Why not just come clean and go "Reoffered! Because we felt like it! :D" That would at least be justifiable!

OK, so that's all the Booster Gold and Blue Beetle that I saw. Tune in tomorrow for the entire rest of the solicits! Same HAC time (that is to say, whenever I get around to it), same HAC channel URL!

I'm Not Sure If Jonar is More or Less Disturbing Than Jonah Hex.

I have kind of a weird thing for tracing family trees.



I think this might make me the third person ever to draw Booster's mom. And that's terrible.

2nd person to draw his dad, probably, too, but considering that his dad's only been around since, y'know, Wednesday as opposed to 20 years ago, that's a good deal more understandable.

Imagedump!

Gimme a week and this'll be on in my LJ icons list where it belongs. Because it's a bit too spoilery as of yet. But I've been waiting to add Supernova III to this icon since the first issue. It's so nice to finally be able to.



This is simply the best piece of Photoshoppery ever. I defy anyone to convince me otherwise.



I finally managed to get a picture of my Blue Beetle yarn. Chexcellent.