Ig Guara: Newest Member of My Favorite Artists
The Good: Ig Guara does some superb art. He hasn't done much, but he's rising really quickly to my favorite artists list, and he's on his A game here. Everything just looks perfect, and fitting. Rarely have I seen a book with art that's not just amazing, but a perfect fit.
The dynamic between Jaime and the Scarab is really entertaining. The scarab wants to murder SO BADLY, and Jaime just won't let him. This creates some excellent setup for some good constant internal conflict. Jaime's dynamic with pretty much EVERY character is great though. The way nobody knows who he is and never gives him a chance to explain, and the Scarab is blocking him at every turn.
I love the choice of the less mainstream villains. It's interesting and all the ones chosen are pretty awesome in various ways.
You really feel Jaime's sense of complete and utter confusion. Suddenly he has alien armor, he's being attacked, his friends are in danger, some voice is telling him to kill; he can barely even begin to decide what he should be freaking out about the most, and it shows. He's barely able to process what's happening to him, and all of this is conveyed spectacularly.
The whole balance of plot elements is superb. On one hand we've got the establishing of La Dama as a big villain, which ties into the everyday school drama of his normal life, and then the hinted involvement of The Brotherhood of Evil, and then on another hand there's The Reach being set up to play a huge role in the series, and even a hook to the Green Lanterns. And none of it is overplayed or underplayed.
The Bad: Once again, UGH. Such an ugly and terrible cover. Kirkham can usually do some good work, so why are his BB covers so utterly heinous, and why did DC use them? I feel like the awful covers are going to make people pass on this series when they really shouldn't.
In Conclusion: 5/5
You when you read something, and you know at the end that it was amazing, but you can't even explain why? That's how I feel about Blue Beetle #2. #2 was great, but something was missing, and I was a little hesitant to be too optimistic. But whatever was missing from #1 is no longer missing. After the terrible cover, Blue Beetle never misses a beat in the smooth journey from page 1 right on through to the end. I literally could not find any flaws aside from the cover. This was just such a great issue, and I had so much fun reading it.
