DC Comics 2016
Story by Keith Giffen & Scott Kolins
Written by Giffen
Illustrated by Kolins
Coloured by Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Lettered by Josh Reed
There are so many elements to this story that i’m really enjoying. We open with Dan Garrett encountering Dr. Fate and this after a rather cryptic phone call to Ted Kord. The timeline here is great because it lets us know when Ted had his heart trouble, how Dan is connected to the Scarab and quite possibly the real reason it was found by Jaime. This has so many parts that pay tribute to the past while still making it brand new and unique.
Part of this book that I like is that aside from “starting all over again” is we get to see the relationship with Paco and Brenda at it’s finest. A lot of times teenage heroes lose their pasts and become entangled in the superhero community and forget where they come from. That, So far, isn’t happening here and I like that. I’d like to see this stay that way for a while and let these odd characters from DC’s past find him through his connection to Ted. I see no reason why this cannot be the mainstream Young Animal book.
Well i’m on the fence with Teri, on the one hand she’s not there to be Jaime’s friend she works for Kord and on the other hand there’s her meticulous scientific curiosity that I”m enjoying. Also this gives us a chance to hear Jaime’s version of his origin. Again the familiarity of the events mixed with how close both Paco and Brenda were in all this can leave the reader, me in this case, with red herrings or possibly avenues for stories down the road. Either way the structuring of this story has been pretty impressive to me.
I”m a huge fan of Scott’s work and I do really love the what i’m seeing here. There’s plenty of that classic style he’s known for but there’s also this maturity to his work that shows his evolution as an artist beautifully. His eye for page layouts through utilising angles, perspective and the backgrounds do wonders for the extra oomph we need.
Not to be the Debbie Downer here but i’m suspicious of this new girl. I wouldn’t have been if she hadn’t been waiting for him and said what she did. Maybe it comes from reading comics for so many years but who knows maybe i’ll be wrong.
This is the beginning of the origin of the Blue Beetle and while it has familiar elements to it forget everything you know. What they guys are doing here really is blending everything we know then adding newness to the mix. It will make your mind start working in overdrive with ideas, thoughts and possibilities that you weren’t aware even you knew about. For me it’s like what if the Scarab is like the Helmet of Nabu, from the same time period and even origin? Could this then too be tied into Black Adam and Hawkman? It could be all this or absolutely nothing like that but that the guys put this in my head and make it spin with a myriad of possible outcomes means they are doing something right.
I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for these characters and this creative team has me on the edge of my seat waiting for it to come.