When Charlton Comics updated their Blue Beetle character for the Marvel Age in the mid sixties, they made sure to link the continuity of the character to his predecessor who had been published since 1939. When DC purchased the Charlton stable of characters in the 1980s, they maintained that history when introducing the characters to their new, post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity. When DC created a new successor to the Blue Beetle in 2006, they again carefully maintained the link to the past, ensuring that the Blue Beetle would be among the premier of their so-called "legacy" characters, with a publication history of nearly 70 years.
Yesterday, DC published their latest incarnation of the Blue Beetle. Gone is any suggestion that there were previous Blue Beetles on Earth. Gone is the shared history with his predecessors and the world revealed through their adventures. Is this approach a foolish abandonment of the history that has earned the character nearly 70 years of publishing history, or is it a wise jettisoning of dead weight that is keeping the new Blue Beetle character from being accepted by a modern mass audience?
What makes this issue relevant to Boosterrific.com is the fact that the reboot seems to divorce the Blue Beetle from Booster Gold. Once upon a time, DC depended on the duo to sell comics. Even when the 2006 Beetle was relaunched, Booster Gold was the familiar tool used to introduce him to a skeptical audience. For 20 years, the characters of Booster Gold and Blue Beetle have been as inseparable as Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy or Bud Abbott and Lou Costello among their legion of fans. Now the two characters are more comparable to Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, once arguably America's most popular comedy duo before circumstances drove them apart. While each would continue to be a star in his own right, the shadow of their shared past could never forgotten by their fans, new or old.
So is it in the best interest of DC Comics to recreate the character of Blue Beetle with no shared connection to Booster Gold? Time will tell. Perhaps in the future, DC will reunite the two characters for more shared hijinks. Or maybe future audiences will come to accept that one character be mentioned without the other. But right now, it sure seems like there's something missing.
| | Tags: blue beetle reboot
Eyz posted on Sep. 22, 2011 at 2:26 PM
I would so prefer if they could have done something similar to that:
http://palaceoffunk.tumblr.com/post/9988078833
Still keeping Ted around if not a Beetle anymore.
And restarting Jaime is so weird and useless, I mean Jaime's previous series is so recent and the trades so easily available for newreaders. It was such a fun series that could stand on its own and refer to to past stories...
This reboot is kinda starting to annoy me.
When will get ZERO HOUR 2, in which Kyle Rayner becomes crazy, kills various rainbow lanterns, gather energy and reboots the DCU correctly? Pretty please? (never thought I'd ask for another Crisis!)
Curt posted on Sep. 22, 2011 at 11:13 PM
I concur, Eyz. At least in the case of Blue Beetle, I want a reboot. But in all seriousness, I guess it is possible that when they mention that the scarab changed hands, Dan Garrett and Ted Kord could be among those that had it. But according to this comic, they would look more like Jaime's Beetle outfit maybe??
Eyz posted on Sep. 23, 2011 at 8:02 AM
The new origin clearly kicks out Ted and Dan out of the story, I mean we see the scarab falling from the sky to a sort of inca/maya temple. People keeping it there for many years and people working for La Dama/her rivals fighting for it since its recovery not long ago.
BTW, I'm also a fan of Dan Garret(t) and his long complicated career since his apparation in FOX COMICS originally (read BLUE BEETLE: COMPANION for more!) and kicking him also out is sooooo stupid.
Jobu posted on Sep. 23, 2011 at 12:24 PM
I remember asking DiDio at a panel if Ted will exist in the new52 and he cut me off with "next question!". Everyone erupted thinking we stumbled onto "secret information" about Ted's reveal. Later on I cornered him and asked if he could elaborate and he said flatly "No, Ted will not exist anymore... bla, bla, bla... new readers... bla bla... Jaime's book... bla bla... if there's a reason for us to bring him back in the future, we'll look at it then."
If you can't tell from my use of "blahs" I was incredibly disappointed with his answer. It stinks of "throw it at the wall and see if it sticks and if it don't we'll undo everything" marketing. As well as the tendency for desperate people who are out of ideas to "skew younger" in attempt to be edgy and cool. I can get behind wanting Jamie to be the only Blue Beetle and give him his own book, not wanting to confuse young new readers. But if they found a way for 4 Robins to exist (including Dick mentioning he's filled in for Batman already) in what is supposed to be 5 years since the discovery of superheroes, they aren't even following their own attempts to make younger characters stand on their own with little continuity.
They could easily have Ted around. When so many other smaller characters are still alluded to in the DCnU, it would be so easy (and good storytelling IMO) to have an inventor named Ted Kord somewhere in the DCnU. He doesn't even have to be a former blue beetle, he could just be a guy (heart condition optional) who's good with tech. Maybe Jamie could come to him for advice about the scarab. Maybe he's hired to handle tech for the JLI (I know it was only 1 issue, but c'mon, Ted would be an instant improvement over half the current JLI roster).
It sounds like I'm ranting now so I better stop; short-sighted marketing has always been a pet-peeve of mine. And in this situation, it involves the desperate-for-new-readers company erasing one of the characters who turned me into a DC Comics reader many years ago.
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Sep. 23, 2011 at 2:32 PM
Really, I'm sure they will bring Ted back in some way in future issues, should this series run that long. (For all the multitudes of press Jaime gets, his books haven't historically sold very well.) Nothing in this book really precludes the existence of Ted Kord, and his presence isn't necessary in the story. Ted is too valuable an asset with existing readers and too much a part of the DCU to be forsaken permanently merely for the convenience of streamlined continuity. Eventually the writers will want the world of the DCnU to get bigger, and a cheap and easy way to expand it will be to reintroduce characters that were excised by the Flashpoint. Hopefully this will happen sooner rather than later.
Jake Speed posted on Sep. 24, 2011 at 10:24 AM
Look - even this attempt to hit a target market falls far short. Both of my boys are hispanic and they both HATE the Jaime character. Even they want the Ted Kord character back (who they were exposed to on the new Batman Brave and the Bold series).
Really with this setup they could have named Jaime the indigo scarab and still kept the Ted Kord/Dan Garrett Blue Beetle.
