Blue Beetle

I began my collecting with Marvel and the X-men and only recently have I become interested in the DC universe, because of the good things I've been hearing about. One of those good things is the new Blue Beetle. Meet Jaime Reyes, an El Paso, Texas teenager who finds the discarded scarab we all know and love. This book is pretty interesting. For one, we have a young hispanic hero, presumably of Mexican descent, which we should be seeing a bit more of, considering current population rates (unless our current immigration issues don't jive with DCU's Earth). Also, the scarab fuses to his spine.

I have a truth to tell: I'm a hispanic! A young one! Yes, it feels good to finally let that out. So naturally I wanted to see how young Mr. Reyes was depicted in these, the pages of Blue Beetle. I was pleasantly surprised. The dialogue is pretty great, with little spanglish quirks which were very familiar, yet not cliche. Its funny how profanity can be gotten away with, as long as said profanity is in another language.

The art is original and intriguing. Blue Beetle's design is pretty fascinating. Below are character designs from artist Cully Hamner.

I picked it up initially because of the hispanic angle, but stayed aboard because of the great story these guys have going. In researching, I found co-creator John Roger's blog
and a nice q & a on the first few issues. You can jump on anytime (#15 came out last week, I believe) and should be able to pick up the goings on fairly quickly.

I like this book. Read this book. Do it for the childrens.