I still remeber you eating crayons in kindergarten.
Gosh darn él! Out of all of the languages that they had to teach me in school, why oh why didn’t they teach me Spanish. I mean out of all the characters in the DC world I’m only going to be able to understand all the English speaking characters, Sir Ystin and a little bit of what the Wild Huntsman has to say. Now I’m going to have to go out and take some night classes just to understand what’s being said here….. Or maybe I should pick up an English copy of this issue rather than the Spanish one (and try and keep in touch with the character that way). Well let’s see if I can understand what’s going on now in my English copy by picking up and reading Blue Beetle #1.
The issue opens to space sector 0002, a long, long time ago. The people of an unnamed planate run in fear from some mysterious foe as the military lines up and prepares to fire, stating that this “thing” has destroyed countless cities. Then visual contact is made. Out of the rubble stands a Blue Beetle named Khaji-Kai. As the military tanks fire Khaji-Kai strikes, tearing through the fire power, tanks and soldiers as if they were made of paper. 12 Tactons (?) later Khaji-Kai looks at the destruction around him and asks himself what he’s done. Just as he asks himself this question a group of ships fly over, and a small craft with a person wearing similar blue armour to his (minus the head) comes down to him and congratulates him on a good job and welcomes him to “The Reach". The person then
says how “the reach” are sending even more scarabs to other worlds to create more soldiers like him. We then follow a scarab, Khaji-Da, as it drops out of its high velocity speed into a solar system far too familiar with us. It’s then seen and blasted by a Green Lantern. The scarab then crashes into the third planate of the solar system, next to a Mayan pyramid, ending the Prologue. We’re then brought to the “not so long ago” time of El Paso High School where our hero, Jaime, is standing with 2 other classmates in a gym class (?) as a goal blocking player in a soccer penalty kick, with his hands covering his crotch. Dose he block that kick and prevent a goal or does he suffer the pain than only men can know? Pick up Blue Beetle #1 to find out.
Tony Bedard brings Jaime’s’ run of Blue Beetle back to the beginning introducing us to both Jaime and Khaji-Da. The concept of “The Reach” is introduced in the first few pages, though not in to much depth, and mention of the Scarab being moved around from place to place dose mean that it’s still possible that the scarab did fuse slightly with Dan Garret before, meaning that Jaime is still the 3 blue beetle and not the 1 (though I’m probably just looking to deep into this). We’re also re-introduced to Jaime’s friends and family, who were very prominent and popular in his other series, and get a small understanding of who they are and how their all related and interact. The main downfall to this issue is that it is played out as an introduction for our main characters Jaime and Khaji-Da, and despite the action that is present in this issue our hero is not involved with it. But never the less a good introduction to the characters that isn’t trying to chew off more than it can bite. Now on to art work and I must say that Ig Guara did a very good job, in my own opinion with the pencilling of this issue (as I unfortunately didn’t pick up Jamie’s old series and therefore cannot compare the artwork and depiction of characters) and Ruy Jose dose and equally good job with the colouring of the issue.
In conclusion I give Blue Beetle #1 a 3.5/5. The issue itself is a good introduction to the characters which new readers to this series, such as myself, can understand and that, I hope, older readers of the Blue Beetle series won’t find insulting or bad. It’s a good issue which promises more action and fun for the next few issues. Buy. Now before I go and look for my Spanish dictionary I conclude with Blue Beetle #1:
3.5/5
