Earlier this week, DC released the 11th and final issue of Blue Beetle volume 5 (or, if you're inclined to count Fox and Charlton's Blue Beetle titles before DC bought the character, volume 10).

To their credit, the creative team of the latest book bends over backwards to try to tie up all their loose ends while still leaving room for future growth. (In fact, it reminds me a little bit of Booster Gold Volume 1 #25.)

Most of the issue is spent with Jaime Reyes' supporting cast, including Ted and Victoria Kord, who manage to squeeze in a Booster Gold reference!

written by Josh Trujillo; art Adrian Gutierrez, Will Quintana, Lucas Gattoni; edited by Andrew Marino, Katie Kubert

Could this really be the last we'll see (or hear) of Ted's sister, a character absent from all 9 previous Blue Beetle volumes?^[1] Only time -- and the inevitable eleventh volume of Blue Beetle -- will tell.

Thanks to BlueRedGold for making sure everyone saw this.

^[1]Victoria Kord first appeared in a DC Comic book in Blue Beetle: Graduation Day #2^[2], released in December 2022. Graduation Day was a six-issue mini-series whose creative team would carry over to this latest volume of Blue Beetle.

^[2]Although Graduation Day was published months prior to the release of the Blue Beetle movie (which debuted in August 2023), the character of Victoria Kord was originally created by that movie's writers, Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer and Gary Dauberman. She was played by Susan Sarandon.

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I consider Justice League of America #34, featuring the infamous Club JLI fiasco on KooeyKooeyKooey island, to be among "The 12 Best Booster Gold Stories Ever" for a very good reason: it's very, very good.

I explained my reasoning here, but no matter what I write about it, the best argument can be found in pages like this:

James Gunn could do a lot worse than adapting that!

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It's been a long weekend, so all you're getting from me today are these delightful headshots from comic book artist Francis Portela's Instagram.

Hmm. They look like they're up to something. But then, when are they not?

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Released on July 19, 1994: Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #3.

In hindsight, looking at the costume designs in this comic, maybe the reason that time was collapsing on itself in this crisis event was because the DCU had gotten as "Extreme" as any one timeline could stand.

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Released on July 15, 2009: Blackest Night #1.

Blackest Night is a story about heroes coming back from the dead, but it would take the "rebirth" of the entire DCU (in 2016's appropriately named DC Universe Rebirth #1) to actually bring Ted Kord back to life.

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