Blue Beetle Jamie Reyes

The New Blue Beetle

Blue Beetle Jamie Reyes

I was sifting through the new titles that DC is going to be releasing and I saw the new Blue Beetle title by Keith Giffen. I have several thoughts on this new title. First, I wasn’t a big fan of Ted Kord’s death. Honestly, I thought he went out like a bitch. It struck me that his death was rather pointless and was just an excuse to kill off a C-list hero, replace him with a minority character using the old hero’s namesake. Similar to Firestorm. I am definitely one of those people who strongly dislike killing an established hero just so the comic company can take that established name and hand it over to a minority character. If a comic company wants more minority heroes then I think they should take the time and effort and create new heroes who happen to be minorities. I think it usually creates a much more interesting character than cheaply killing off an established white hero and replace him with a minority hero using the same moniker as the dead hero.

Second, rarely are C-list heroes “re-invented” into anything that is cool. Usually, the re-make is cheesy and doesn’t stand the test of time. Think when Fate replaced Dr. Fate. Horrible. Or when Azreal replaced Batman. Generally, “modern” re-makes of a classic hero absolutely suck. I think that this new Blue Beetle is doomed to fail. I don’t see it being a big hit.

Third, if DC is trying to establish Blue Beetle as a serious hero that commands his own title then I’m not too sure that Keith Giffen is the right guy for the job. He is the writer that made Ted Kord a total joke. I can’t believe that he is going to make this new Blue Beetle anything more than what he did with Ted Kord.

I really think DC should have just decided to make a brand new character and have him Hispanic rather than trash Ted Kord and give his moniker to a Hispanic character just to have more minority heroes. The motivation to create a new superhero should be based on the desire to create an interesting character with a good story to tell. It seems that the death of Ted Kord and the creation of a new Blue Beetle were done just to try and get another minority hero into the mix.

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