BW Media Spotlight

It’s in my comiXology collection. Virtual counts. It’s time for another special edition of Scanning My Collection, complete with special logo!

DC Comics has said farewell to Dan DiDio, and we now wait to see if Jim Lee will fix the bad direction he kept trying to take the DC Universe. DiDio and the people he brought in never seemed to realize that the DC Universe was one of hope and optimism, the aspirational, the best of humanity versus great and sometimes minor but overreaching evil. It wasn’t about huge world-shattering epics but just really good stories with uplifting heroes. However, that doesn’t mean the stories under his tenure were necessarily bad. Some were quite good…as stories. As I’ve stated numerous times in recent years there is a difference between quality of work and quality of adaptation or continuation. It can be a great story but one that ruins characters beloved for years or simply ruins future possibilities for great characters or even minor characters that could benefit a story by showing up in recurring roles. Instead we got characters dying either to darken our heroes or characters showing they were never the heroes we looked up to. That last one is something we get enough of with real world heroes.

One of the best examples of “good story/bad adaptation” is Countdown To Infinite Crisis, part of the series of miniseries events that started leading the DC Universe down a darker path by continuing to ruin or eliminate the more fun characters in the DC Universe. In this case it’s Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle. Originally created for Fox Comics, Dan Garrett was a police officer who thanks to a special vitamin that saved his life gained enhanced strength. Using chainmail armor and a few gadgets Garrett became the Blue Beetle, whose adventures continued into radio dramas (I’ve been listening through them when the weather allows me to take a nighttime walk thanks to the Internet Archive) and a second publisher, Charlton Comics, who turned him into an archeologist who found a mystic scarab that gave him superpowers.

It was during the Charlton series that Garrett was replaced by Ted Kord, an admirer of the first Blue Beetle who had no powers at all since the scarab wouldn’t work for him. He was a good inventor and built a bunch of his own gadgets, including his own mobile headquarters, the Bug, and took over the mantle after Garrett died exposing Ted’s uncle’s plot to take over the world. His tales were later taken over by Americomics and after that by DC Comics, where he inspired the Watchmen character Owlman. (Long story and this intro is getting long as it is.) Kord built his own high-tech company and during this period often became a joke character under certain writers, losing and regaining his company many times and usually being talked into get rich quick schemes by his best friend Booster Gold. Countdown To Infinite Crisis is where Ted Kord met his end since DC wanted to replace him with teen Jaime Reyes because replacing a character and reusing a name takes less work than promoting a new character with a new name. Jaime (pronounced “hi-may” using the Spanish pronunciation) became the third and current Blue Beetle. That only matters with this comic due to foreshadowing.

The thing is Ted isn’t necessarily a joke of a hero. He’s more lighthearted than a lot of DC’s roster but done right he isn’t some comedic fool. The only Blue Beetle to deserve that moniker was a comedic character from the original The Electric Company. He doesn’t deserve what he gets in this story. The writers tried to make his death more tragic but while it’s a good story it doesn’t do Ted any favors until his final moment, making him look pathetic to everyone he works with and having only one friend when it’s all over. It’s a good story…but a poor showing for the second Blue Beetle. As I wrote this article I realized I was going to have to split it up into multiple parts, which I wish I knew before I started. I think what I’m going to do is two chapters (issues) a day for the next three days and give this the attention I think it deserves. So here’s part one of my breakdown of the good and bad of this miniseries.

“Man, we’re dropping like flies lately!”

Countdown To Infinite Crisis

DC Comics (March, 2005)

ComiXology has the trade collection, free for some reason, on their site so if you have a comiXology or Amazon account you can read along. This is the version I’ll be using.

WRITERS: Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, and Judd Winick

PENCILERS: Ed Benes, Phil Jimenez, Rags Morales, Ivan Reis, and Jesus Siaz

INKERS: Michael Bair, Ed Benes, Marc Campos, Andy Lanning, and Jimmy Palmioti

COVER ART: Jim Lee and Alex Ross

Unfortunately this version lacks credits and comiXology rarely credits colorists and letterers. That’s disappointing as I consider them part of the art team and the art in this miniseries is quite good.

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