DCU Comic Book Reviews

BLUE BEETLE #19

Hard Truths

November 2007

Written by John Rogers

Pencils by David Baledon

Inks by Steve Bird

Cover by Rafael Albuquerque

Synopsis

While Peacemaker and Jaime are in the midst of a training session, an explosion rocks the city.  As Blue Beetle heads out to investigate, he learns from Hector that the explosion occurred at La Dama’s house.  Concerned, Jaime wants to know where Brenda is located.  Meanwhile, Brenda has found the home of Hector and Nadia.  On the computer screen she sees her aunt’s house being attacked by Giganta.  As Blue Beetle fights Giganta, she also learns that her aunt is La Dama.  Angered that her friends kept the truth from her she runs away.  After defeating Giganta, Jaime decides to send some he trusts to find her.  When Jaime’s mother catches up to her, Brenda breaks down crying.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

I absolutely loved this issue.  While the plot starts and ends in this issue, there are a lot of different story threads from previous issues that pop back into play here.  This type of writing is very similar to television writing in which plots are often resolved within the show itself, but the story of the characters continually evolves over time.  For instance, in this issue we see that Jaime is still in contact with Traci Thirteen and still learning from Peacemaker.  We also learn more about Hector and Nadia, two characters that have been around for awhile but have not gotten much panel time.  Their pep talk to Brenda at the end was heart-felt and emotional (especially the explanation of what Brenda means not only to her aunt but also to Jaime).  It is the best part of the issue.  And, we finally get further complications with the strange triangle of Jaime, Brenda, and La Dama.  This particular story has been brewing since the very first issue and it plays out wonderfully here, from the reactions by the characters. For someone like me who has been with this book since the beginning, the big moment when everyone realized what had just happened paid-off handsomely.

It wasn’t until I had to look at the credits to fill in the information above for this page did I realize that Keith Giffen was credited as the co-writer.  It has been nearly a year since he was involved with this title. When he left there was very little difference in the book and, frankly, I would be hard pressed to figure out exactly who Giffen added to Rogers’ normal writing.  This is not a bad thing; it just shows how much the two writers are able to work together to create a cohesive hole. 

How and when did Giganta become such a popular villain du jour?  Besides her regular stint as a Wonder Woman villain, where she was one of the villains since the first issue, she also popped up in The All-New Atom more than once. 

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