{"id":27172,"date":"2022-12-07T09:00:49","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T09:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=27172"},"modified":"2022-12-06T17:13:17","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T17:13:17","slug":"blue-beetle-jaime-reyes-book-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2022\/12\/07\/blue-beetle-jaime-reyes-book-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Beetle Jaime Reyes Book One"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Keith Giffen<\/strong>, John Rogers<\/strong>, Cully Hamner<\/strong>, Duncan Rouleau<\/strong>, Rafael Albuquerque<\/strong>, Cynthia Martin<\/strong>, Kevin West<\/strong>, Phil Moy<\/strong>, Jack Purcell<\/strong>, Casey Jones<\/strong> & various (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-77951-506-3 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: All Action Superhero fun and Thrills\u2026 9\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the most recent incarnation of the venerable Blue Beetle<\/strong> brand makes the jump from comic book limbo and kids\u2019 animation reruns into live action movie madness, here\u2019s a recent re-release of the first dozen of the superb 36-issue run that began in 2006: one of the most light-hearted and compelling iterations of the Golden Age stalwart and still a pure joy to behold\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

The Blue Beetle<\/strong> first appeared in Mystery Men Comics<\/strong> #1, published by Fox Comics and cover-dated August 1939. The eponymous lead character was created by Charles Nicholas (AKA Charles Wojtkowski): a pulp-styled mystery man who was a born nomad. Over the years and crafted by a Who\u2019s Who of extremely talented creators, he was also inexplicably popular and hard to kill: surviving the failure of numerous publishers before ending up as a Charlton Comics property in the mid-1950s.<\/p>\n

After releasing a few issues sporadically, the company eventually shelved him until the superhero revival of the early 1960s when young Roy Thomas revised and revived the character for a 10-issue run (June 1964, February 1966) reinventing cop\/adventurer Dan Garrett<\/em> as an archaeologist, educator and scientist who gained super-powers whenever he activated a magic scarab with the trigger phrase \u201cKaji Da!\u201d<\/p>\n

Later that year, Steve Ditko (with scripter Gary Friedrich) utterly recreated the Blue Beetle. Ted Kord<\/em> was an earnest and brilliant young researcher who had been a student and friend of Professor Garrett. When his mentor seemingly died in action, Kord trained himself to replace him: a purely human inventor\/combat acrobat, bolstered by ingenious technology. This latter version joined DC\u2019s pantheon during Crisis on Infinite Earths<\/strong>, earning his own series and a quirky immortality partnering with Booster Gold<\/strong> in Justice League International<\/strong> and beyond\u2026<\/p>\n

Collecting Blue Beetle<\/strong> (volume 7) #1-12 spanning May 2006 – April 2007, this saga follows the hallowed formula of a teenager suddenly gifted with great powers, and reveals how some heroes are remade, not born\u2026<\/p>\n

At the height of the Infinite Crisis<\/strong> (Link please, June 18 2008), El Paso high-schooler Jaime Reyes<\/em> found a strange blue jewel shaped like a bug. That night, as he slept, it attached itself to his back, transforming him into a bizarre insectoid warrior. Almost immediately, he was swept up in the chaos, joining Batman<\/strong> and other heroes in a climactic space battle.<\/p>\n

As this series opens on \u2018Blue Monday\u2019<\/em> (written by Keith Giffen & John Rogers and limned by Cully Hamner), he\u2019s come home to El Paso, Texas; terrified for staying out late on a school night, and is suddenly attacked by Green Lantern Guy Gardner<\/strong>. The situation rapidly escalates as his sentient bug armour reacts instinctively and manically to the emerald energy of the foe\u2026<\/p>\n

As the fight builds in intensity, by way of flashbacks we see Jaime\u2019s life before everything changed: meeting best buds and fellow high school inmates Paco<\/em> and Brenda<\/em> – who were with him when he found the scarab that messed up his life – and bratty little sister Milagro<\/em> as well as his wonderfully cool parents\u2026<\/p>\n

The battle ends as soon as Gardner realises he\u2019s fighting a child, but as when he flies off, the Lantern drops a shocking bombshell: whatever is empowering the kid and manifesting his talking, weapons-infested bug suit, it ISN\u2019T magic\u2026<\/p>\n

The mystery intensifies in \u2018Can\u2019t Go Home Again\u2019 <\/em>as more recovered memories detail early clashes with local super-gangbangers The Posse<\/em> and hint at big changes in Jaime. In the present, Reyes is slowly making his way back to his house, terrified over how his folks will react to his disappearance last night. It\u2019s far worse than he could have imagined and a real shock when he discovers that he\u2019s actually been missing for a year\u2026<\/p>\n

Illustrated by Cynthia Martin & Philip Moy \u2018The Past is Another Country\u2019<\/em> sees Jaime demonstrate his new powers to his gobsmacked family, only to be (initially) rejected and abandoned. Whilst the Reyes clans come to terms with their \u201cdead\u201d son resurrected as a bug monster, the stunned lad road tests his new powers and tracks down his old friends.<\/p>\n

A lot has changed: Paco is now part of the Posse and those outcast teens are locked in a deadly war with the minions of local organised crime-boss La Dama<\/em>\u2026 who just happens to be Brenda\u2019s legal guardian Tia Amparo<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n

Cully Hamner returns in #4 as Giffen & Rogers detail how Jaime starts looking into previous Blue Beetles and owners of the scarab and becomes a \u2018Person of Interest\u2019<\/em> to cyber-hero Oracle<\/strong>\/Barbara Gordon <\/em>who tests him with a view to making him one of her Birds of Prey<\/strong>. That doesn\u2019t end well and presages far worse as militaristic mystery man The Peacemaker<\/strong> hits town on the down-low, secretly seeking old comrade and associate \u201cBlue\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

Delivered in two parts over #5 and 6, \u2018Secrets\u2019<\/em> is illustrated by Duncan Rouleau, Martin, Kevin West, Moy & Jack Purcell. It reveals how The Phantom Stranger<\/strong> arrives, also hoping to clear up the mystery of this new Blue Beetle. Seeking to ascertain the teen\u2019s place in the hierarchy of \u201cthe New Age of Magic\u201d is something many factions are working on, from The Posse to La Dama\u2019s pet goon the Diviner.<\/em> Chaos reigns as all the investigators converge and clash when a baby of great power is stolen and Jaime at last learns that sometimes you just have to step up and do the right thing\u2026<\/p>\n

Following a brutal confrontation with plenty of shocking revelations \u2018Secrets Pt 1 of 2\u2019<\/em> sees a sharp redefinition of allegiances and anew status quo that almost immediately founders when Peacemaker reveals what nobody seemed able to discern – the true nature of Jaime\u2019s scarab\u2026<\/p>\n

John Rogers is sole scripter for BB <\/strong>#7 as \u2018Brother\u2019s Keeper\u2019<\/em> offers a guest-star packed recap of Reyes\u2019 career to date: filling in many blanks since the night the new Beetle helped save the world. Illustrated by Hamner & Casey Jones and with Giffen back on board, \u2018Road Trip\u2019 <\/em>sees Jaime, Brenda and Peacemaker go looking for even more answers: beginning by consulting young cyber-geek Dan Garrett<\/em> – a self-proclaimed expert on all previous Blue Beetles.<\/p>\n

As the original hero\u2019s granddaughter she also has a fair claim to being the rightful owner of the gem, but a potential squabble and their research is interrupted by the return of a monstrous hunchbacked maniac determined to destroy the \u201cdemonic\u201d new hero.<\/p>\n

Following that Roleau renders \u2018Inside Man\u2019<\/em>, telling why Peacemaker has so-unwillingly involved himself in Jaime\u2019s life just as Brenda finds herself in a world of trouble\u2026<\/p>\n

Living with her aunt – the magic-wielding, arch crime boss of El Paso – in a felonious clearing house for stolen super-technology and magical artifacts, it was only a matter of time before Brenda stumbled upon something really dangerous. Whisked to an far-distant world in \u2018Should\u2019ve Taken that Left Turn at Albuquerque\u2026\u2019<\/em> (with art from Hamner and Rafael Albuquerque!), her disappearance forces an uneasy truce between Jaime and La Dama so that the Beetle can rescue Brenda, consequently encountering a selection of New Gods<\/strong> and hungry aliens before successfully bringing her back in \u2018The Guns of Forever\u2019 <\/em>(by Rogers & Albuquerque, and we end on a thematic cliffhanger with \u2018Meet the New Boss\u2019<\/em> as Beetle and Peacemaker investigate cattle mutilations, battle a giant bug monster and meet its owner – an extraterrestrial envoy from extragalactic trading empire The Reach. He also claims to be the creator of the scarab\u2026<\/p>\n

With a gallery of variant covers, sketches and character designs by Hamner, this is a welcome return for a great series: one of precious few comic books to combine action and adventure, with comedy and suspense perfectly leavened with fun and wit. Blue Beetle Jaime Reyes<\/strong> offers an innovative and wryly engaging saga impossible to resist, especially with the artistic endeavours of Hamner, Martin, Albuquerque, Rouleau and Jones making each page a visual treat. Even 17 years on, Blue Beetle remains a fresh and delightful joy, so why not bug out and Go Read This!
\n\u00a9 2006, 2007, 2022 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Keith Giffen, John Rogers, Cully Hamner, Duncan Rouleau, Rafael Albuquerque, Cynthia Martin, Kevin West, Phil Moy, Jack Purcell, Casey Jones & various (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-77951-506-3 (TPB\/Digital edition) Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: All Action Superhero fun and Thrills\u2026 9\/10 As the most recent incarnation of the venerable Blue Beetle brand makes the jump from … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Blue Beetle Jaime Reyes Book One”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10,110,76,15,82,125,275,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-batman","category-blue-beetle","category-dc-superhero","category-green-arrow","category-green-lantern","category-humour","category-phantom-stranger-graphic-novels","category-the-question"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-74g","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27175,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27172\/revisions\/27175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}