2.254 (619) Blue Beetle (1986) ...

A few reviews ago we did number one and now we are in number two. Why? For some reason, we

actually like Ted Kord's version of BB and in fact we like BB better than most DC Heroes. Go figure, huh?

SPOILER ALERT

At the end of issue 1, as it was an 80s style comic, naturally it ended with a cliffhanger as the fire-bug villain bombed out an entire old building while our Beetle hero tried to do his bit combating the villain and helping out innocents. So we opened this issue with him pinned under tons of stuff and without real superpower of sorts or even body armor, Ted is hard pressed to get out of this but get out he does. Otherwise the issue would be the end of this run, eh?

Naturally as the villain is new, we are given a run down on how he became who he is in terms of his choice of powers and his anger towards who and why. Now to ensure you don't get bored, there is the usual added layer of foreshadowing of future problems to come including potential sabotage and betrayals by those who know Ted in his civilian guise. Naturally these are old in short panels leaving more to be developed at a later stage and trust us, the writer did build up in later issues for all these to come to a head

However, at this point, after he rested a wee bit, our man Beetle is back on the case trying to find out more on the villain and how to nail him the next time they meet and meet they did for the climatic battle and it was a decent battle. What is awesome is we see the Beetle doing Daredevil style moves with leaps and punches instead of depending on gadgets except for the fact that Beetle is more of any style fighting goes kinda chap, know what we mean?

The ending is kinda abrupt yet climatic and because this is issue 2, we are only left with a blurb of the villains of issue 3 at the closing credits box. As we are not fans of DC, we have no idea if the next round of villains are already active in the DCU or again newly created for this and honestly, they do not look that interesting just like this fire setting character. The saving grace is still the Beetle

Ratings: 6/10

2.248 (613) Blue Beetle (1986) #1 ...

Well, there are so many volumes of the Blue Beetle and so many people who have held onto the title that it will be a chore to just iron it all out. So for the sake of this review, the main hero is Ted Kord. And he is the guy who bit the dust a while back in DCU, got it?

In our opinion, we actually enjoyed all 24 issues of his series which we collected from back issue bins and find him to be more entertaining than later volumes including current day

Ted Kord - in his human alter ego guise is another rich industrialist like Batman and Iron Man. The only difference is that when he suited up, he has a decent suit but still with underwear on the outside and a lame ass weapon of a gun. His cool bit is his Bug, the transport airship

Anyway this issue starts off quick because Ted is already the Blue Beetle and he is hitting the scene of a fire growing out of control. At its epicenter is a man in a fire retardant suit spreading ... fire (you guessed it). Well what did you expect for a villain if the hero is still so weak, eh? Naturally even this, Ted couldn't handle and the villain escaped

SPOILER ALERT

Writer Len is awesome as he takes the downtime to immediately fill us in on the history of the Beetle from Ted's predecessor who seemed to possess some sort of real super power and then how Ted came into the role. This is fast paced and a good read

Naturally in the vein of 80s comics, there must be a cliffhanger to rope you in for issue 2 and if you think so far the hero is lame, then probably you wouldn't think much of the cliffhanger as it promises more bouts with that fire setting freak. For us, something about that blue suit makes us interested to come back for more. Yes, shocking, if you read our review you wouldn't think we are fans, eh? But we are and we loved every issue of it. Or perhaps artists on this title played a pivotal role, eh?

Ratings: 5/10