I have been impressed with the quality of writing in the last three issues of BEETLE. Too bad it cannot survive. (Frankly, as I think I've said elsewhere on the forum, it's amazing that the series hasn't been canceled already.)

This is the second BEETLE series of quality in the past 5 years that will ultimately be canned for poor sales. Does the market just not care for the character (too much "he's not Ted Kord" resentment), does the mainstream comic buyer not care for the Hispanic hero, or is there something else causing incredibly low reader numbers?

I guess it won't be the first good series cancelled for lack of audience. It's a genuine shame when a well-written book with a positive heroic lead can't attract an audience while the mean-spirited, lowest-common denominator pablum that is now JUSTICE LEAGUE sells 10x as many issues.

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I think BB may be suffering from nu52 overload, a lot of other "high profile" books competing for a buyer's interest/budget. A few years ago I was still in the "it's not Ted so I'm not buying it" group, but times change and Jaime is Blue Beetle now. I'm hoping that DC is keeping it going in order to see if it can survive with an injection of GOLD POWER. The whole, Booster is interested in Jaime because he knows what the scarabs mean and what they are capable of, that's something new and too good to pass up.

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Good point about the nu52 overload. Very, very few people have the income, time, or interest to follow every issue DC releases each week. Since the series started off retreading an origin, BLUE BEETLE may be suffering from symptoms of a "didn't we just read this?" mentality. That's certainly a sensation I've experienced reading several of the DCnU books.

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Jaime hides from his friends & family
Paco gets turned into a monster
Booster Gold meets Blue Beetle for the first time..and outright attacks him
Booster is willing to kill a 15 year old kid

I am sorry, but these guys are not "my" Blue & Gold.

I just like the dynamic, the older guy who makes mistakes because he doesn't take being a hero very seriously. Teamed with the kid who has a planet killing Scarab symbiotically attached to his body, that he has to constantly keep in check. It points out the differences in maturity and what being a hero is really all about. Or at least it could do, if these two were teamed for any length of time.

In Booster's defense, we don't know exactly what the Scarabs are capable of, but Booster seems to and it doesn't sound very pleasant (for anyone).

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That would be nice, but it was not what we got in this issue. There is of course still hope for the future, but that hope does not make me like the current comics any better.



True, but we are talking about the guy who gave Captain Atom such a verbal beatdown about killing Max Lord that it made the hero who was losing his humanity and emotion look scared.

Point taken.
You're probably right, sometimes I read more into things than are actually on the page, just wishful thinking. It's just, other than the apparently unprovoked attack on Beetle, this is the most like the old Booster that I've seen in quite a while.

Seeing him back in character did give me hope that Booster's future might not be so dark after all. It's strange that his own creator's depiction of him over the past year has been the least interesting (for me anyway) in recent memory.

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Something completely different: Can it be that Booster's Booster have been somewhat upgraded power-wise? He took down Guy Gardner and Jaime rather easily compared on how effective his blasts were shown in the past. Of course one could argue that Guy was not able to put up much of a defense and that Jaime is too new to use scarab to full effect, but both seemed to go down rather easy.

Considering that the last thing Booster said in issue #47 was "the only thing I know for sure... ...is that I gotta get me a new suit", maybe he did make a few modifications, while his new blind tailor was making a "new" suit for him.

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