DCU Comic Book Reviews

BLUE BEETLE #8

Road Trip

December 2006

Written by John Rogers

Pencils by Cully Hamner and Casey Jones

Inks by Cully Hamner and Casey Jones

Cover by Duncan Rouleau

Synopsis

Along with Brenda and Mitchell Black (aka Peacemaker), Jaime is on the road the road to meet a relative of Dan Garrett (the original Blue Beetle).  Meanwhile, Paco remains in town to do extra classes at school.  At the Garrett household, Jaime learns about the history of the scarab from Danielle Garret, Dan’s granddaughter.  In the middle of the conversation, Jaime learns of a monster rampaging in the nearby town.  As Blue Beetle, Jaime rushes to protect the town from the creature.  Although the scarab tells him how, Jaime refuses to kill the monster.  So, Peacemaker uses a homemade toxic bomb to knock out the creature.  Afterwards, both Jaime and Brenda agree they need to learn Peacemaker’s story.  

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

What can I say about this issue?  Like all the others, there is a fantastic mix of witty dialogue, great characterization, a deepening mystery, and some great action.  To top it all of, Cully Hamner’s art (for this Casey Jones worked on the flashback scenes) is just perfect for the story in that it is expressionistic and detailed to show the character’s emotions and reactions and “cartoony” enough to deliver the requisite laughs.  

Danielle Garret was a wonderful addition.  In this one issue, Giffen and Rogers created a believable and memorable character (ya just gotta love her contentious attitude about the scarab) in a role that is essentially designed to provide exposition about the history of the scarab and Blue Beetle.  She may not return, but I am hoping she does. 

One of the things that I like about this series so far is that each issue is pretty much self-contained in that events begin and end within 22 pages.  Yes, there is an overall story that is being told regarding the mystery of the blue scarab and I am sure that will read well in the trade paperback.  But for the monthly readers, each issue comes about as complete as can be, whether it is the flashback to the Infinite Crisis or simply meeting Dan Garrett’s granddaughter.  In essence, the main story, the mystery of the scarab may be decompressed, but I don’t get that feeling because the pacing of the individual stories is so great.

 

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