The Good
The book kept the Spanish aspect intact, which made me smile. It was such a defining characteristic of the Reyes family to see them converse together, and I'm glad that vanter wasn't eliminated.
Most (if not all) of the characters are intact from the original run, if not a little changed (see below); I truly believe that Blue Beetle was a great book because of its supporting cast, and that's something we can't take for granted.
The Bad
I noticed something that was missing from the original book: thought captions. While this doesn't seem like a big deal, it really makes a difference when the character is driven by internal thoughts, meotions or dialogs; Jaime does have a supporting cast, but what made him so endearing was his inner conversations with the scarab and himself.
While Paco and Brenda have stayed relatively the same, role-wise, it just seems that they've been transformed into blander stereotypes. Paco hitting on Brenda within panels of us meeting him was eye-roll worthy; normally, friends who have known each other since kindergarten are a little less hormonal.
The origins of the scarab were a bit long-winded, and I think more of the issue should have been spent on Jaime. After all, we're with him for the long haul, not the super-suit - I mean, we have time to get to that later. All we really know about Jaime from this issue is that he's not the most popular guy at school, he has a male and female friend and his parents have a beef with another family; how many teen superheroes can you count have the same qualities?
The Verdict
Like every other New 52 book I've read (save Animal Man), I feel like I need a couple more issues to see if this book is worth my time or not. While the original Jaime Blue Beetle origin had the advantage of tie-ins to get the audience warmed up (Infinite Crisis, Brave New World, etc), we're going into this one cold turkey. Like with Mister Terrific, I feel like the characters have had a coat of bland varnish washed over them, but I think it's to make things a bit more accessible.
It's not as bad as Static was, however, and should allow for a little expansion as time goes on. The book isn't terrible, but it's blisteringly average; it's like New 52 writers have been treating series' with kid gloves, afraid to actually challenge the people reading their books.
---
Like what I have to say and want to read more? Want to yell at me about comics, the Internet and whatever else? Follow me on my Twitter or my personal Tumblr!
13 Comments