Blue Beetle #11, or: "How DC Ruined Two of my Favorite Characters"

Normally I don't do this. I'm not the type to use my blog just to complain about a single issue that I don't like. In fact, I was really hoping my next post would be my review of "Shada," the Doctor Who novelization by the late Douglas Adams. (Speaking of, it's awesome so far, go read it. More on that later.)

However, this issue just pissed me off so much I had to post something about it. So take note, this is going to mostly be a fanboy's whining, and probably not to the standards of my other reviews, but if you like reading someone complain, you're in for a treat.

Let's begin with a little background on why this issue pisses me off so much. I'm a huge fan of Booster Gold and Blue Beetle. Well, Blue Beetle 3, Jaime Reyes, to be precise. His previous run, pre-reboot, was excellent - great storytelling, wonderful characters, and a hero who was really different from the others. He didn't keep his heroics a secret from his friends or family - he had to get his parents permission before going out and fighting crime, but they were proud of him and supported him. As a legacy character, he had to live up to the previous two Blue Beetles, but he did his best and became a great hero in his own right.

That's why the New 52 version of Blue Beetle was so hard to read; it abandoned everything that made the previous title great, and instead focused on making things as bad for Jaime as possible. He's keeping his identity a secret, he's wrecking things for his friends and family alike (nearly killing some of them in the process), and has recently been living on the streets of New York, getting in fights with nearly everyone he meets because no one will even listen to him. There's no heart, no charm, no love to be found anywhere in it - just things going bad for Jaime.

So why did I read it this far? Because I kept hoping things would get better. I'd always think back to the previous run and think "it could be this good again." It might even be a comic-reading version of Stockholm Syndrome, where I'd hold on to anything, however rare, that the comic did right and think "If they just do more of this, it'll get better."

Boy was that dumb of me.

Then we get to this issue. It opens with Booster Gold going on TV and reaching out to Blue Beetle, offering to hear his side of the story on all the disasters that have been following him. "Okay, good," I thought. "Maybe Booster will mention Ted Kord, the previous Blue Beetle. Maybe we'll have some of the Blue and the Gold again. Maybe this won't be such a mess."

Then, when Jaime goes to meet Booster, what does BG do? Punches Jaime in the face. He claims to recognize the reach armor from the future (Booster Gold is a time traveling hero from the future, for those unaware), and intends to "mercy kill" Jaime, who he thinks is being controlled by the armor, despite all insistences otherwise.

This leads to a fight scene where the dialogue consists of them mostly just shouting at each other. Here's some dialogue: "You're a fake, 'Booster Gold'! You're a liar!" "You're an alien death-machine!" "NO I'M NOT!"

It's pretty much just that for a couple of pages, before Jaime's grandmother shows up with a bunch of passerby's and shouts Booster off. While normally it would be a great moment, seeing Jaime's family come together to defend him from an overwhelming enemy... this is Booster Gold we're talking about, not some supervillain!

So we have Booster acting extremely out-of-character, a pointless fight scene that could be avoided and made for much better development if they'd just have Booster listen, no references to the previous Blue Beetle (Booster's best friend, who he was unable to save from dying before Infinite Crisis, in spite of his time traveling), and a completely wasted moment that would normally be great.

At the same time, we have Paco and Brenda, Jaime's best friends who were both nearly killed because of the Scarab, going in search of Jaime, then getting captured and nearly cut up, turning Paco again into the evil backup beetle... thing, who they have dubbed "Blood Beetle." Let the stupidity of that name sink in for a minute. Blood Beetle.

Dammit, DC, are we back in the 90's? There was a reason we left the Dark Age of comics!

At any rate, I know this has just been me complaining, but there you have it. This is why I'm done with the Blue Beetle reboot. This issue alone took two of my favorite characters, ruined one and seriously dropped the ball with the other.

Next time, I'll have an actual quality review, instead of several paragraphs of me raging. Until then, this has been the crap that I read.