Blue Beetle #1
Apologies for the slight delay. The attempt to read Infinity Inc. was more than a little ill-advised, but more on that later.
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this new Blue Beetle series. I'm still more than a little upset at losing Ted Kord, but, I suppose if we have to have a new Beetle, I'm glad Giffen is writing him. I know there are some people who resent the JLI recasting of Ted as more of a comedic relief character, but there's some pretty solid charactization thrown in there among the wacky schemes.
Still, I remain torn by this new series. On the one hand, it is a Giffen-written Blue Beetle series. Featuring a largely Latino cast. And it's a teenager-centric series that is reasonably well-written (I can't remember the last teenager-centric series DC put out that had remotely believable teenager-ish dialogue. Stars and STRIPE?). On the other hand, there's really no reason this needs to be the Blue Beetle. The scarab really has very little connection to Dan Garrett's scarab. And the title seems to be becoming space-oriented now (though still magical, acc'd to Guy? I'm a little confused)
Really, the whole series seems like a retelling of Tech Jacket. Short teenage kid with enormous, goofy best friend and shop-owning blue-collar father, finds a thing that crashes from the sky, starts talking to him, and gives him some sort of exoskeleton. I'm not sure if Giffen is just all excited about Kirkman's writing that he wanted to try his hand at that kind of story or if there was a corporate edict to get in on that, but it does feel quite a lot like an attempt to do something like Invincible.
Which I'm not entirely opposed to. Giffen seems to be able to pull off the same sort of tone and dialogue in the low-key talky parts, and hopefully the non-talky bits (like this issue's fight with Guy) will improve. Still, I'll give it a few more issues to see where it's going.
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this new Blue Beetle series. I'm still more than a little upset at losing Ted Kord, but, I suppose if we have to have a new Beetle, I'm glad Giffen is writing him. I know there are some people who resent the JLI recasting of Ted as more of a comedic relief character, but there's some pretty solid charactization thrown in there among the wacky schemes.
Still, I remain torn by this new series. On the one hand, it is a Giffen-written Blue Beetle series. Featuring a largely Latino cast. And it's a teenager-centric series that is reasonably well-written (I can't remember the last teenager-centric series DC put out that had remotely believable teenager-ish dialogue. Stars and STRIPE?). On the other hand, there's really no reason this needs to be the Blue Beetle. The scarab really has very little connection to Dan Garrett's scarab. And the title seems to be becoming space-oriented now (though still magical, acc'd to Guy? I'm a little confused)
Really, the whole series seems like a retelling of Tech Jacket. Short teenage kid with enormous, goofy best friend and shop-owning blue-collar father, finds a thing that crashes from the sky, starts talking to him, and gives him some sort of exoskeleton. I'm not sure if Giffen is just all excited about Kirkman's writing that he wanted to try his hand at that kind of story or if there was a corporate edict to get in on that, but it does feel quite a lot like an attempt to do something like Invincible.
Which I'm not entirely opposed to. Giffen seems to be able to pull off the same sort of tone and dialogue in the low-key talky parts, and hopefully the non-talky bits (like this issue's fight with Guy) will improve. Still, I'll give it a few more issues to see where it's going.
posted by padgett at
7:28 PM
4 Comments:
You've pretty much summed up my entire opinion...though I like the bits with Guy...I think you're living in my BrAiN.
:-) It's got some good points and Jaime is at least charming enough as a protagonist though, so like you, I'm gonna give it a few more issues to catch me.
By
kalinara, at 5:31 AM
"The attempt to read Infinity Inc. was more than a little ill-advised"
Best understatement of the year@!
By
Scipio, at 5:23 PM
I'm still trying to get my throughts together on Infinity Inc. I mean, it's pretty awful in so many ways, but there are some redeeming elements.
Blue Beetle has pretty well won me over at this point. The one year jump was nicely executed, characterization seems solid so far, and it actually feels like it's set in a recognizable real world (which isn't always a good thing, but is working pretty well here)
By
padgett, at 2:47 PM
Don't let H find out that trying to read Infinity, Inc. was ill-advised.
By
Anonymous, at 6:11 PM
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