DCU Comic Book Reviews

BLUE BEETLE #27

Black Magic Woman

July 2008

Written by Will Pfeiffer

Pencils by David Baldeon

Inks by Steve Bird

Cover by Zach Howard and Brad Anderson

Synopsis

Somewhere, three men in dark robes cast a mystical spell.  Elsewhere, Jaime and Traci 13 are spending time together when a bunch of demons attack the diner where they are eating.  Jaime morphs into the Blue Beetle and saves the waitress the demons attack.  Later, Traci goes to research the demons as Jaime checks in with Hector and Nadia and see if a computer search picks up anything.  Then, more demons attack.  Blue Beetle saves a convenience store manager, but he is no closer to finding out what happened.  The next day at school, a very large demon attacks one of the teachers.  Again, Blue Beetle saves the teacher.  Meanwhile, Traci figures out the source of attacks:  three teenagers looking for revenge.  She convinces them to stop and the demons disappear. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

While this issue doesn’t have the comedic flair that Rogers brought to the series, Pfeifer still manages to make this a fun comic to read.  While I liked the whole revenge angle for the main plot, I was also a little annoyed that I was able to figure out what the kids were up to and why quicker than the characters in the book; I hate when that happens, it makes the characters dumber than they should be.  The reader should never be ahead of the characters.  Yet, I didn’t really mind since I like the interaction between Jaime and Traci and I liked the fact that they both figured out what was happening at roughly the same time.  Plus, it was great to see Jaime’s school and teenagers come back into play in the book, reminding us that Jaime is still a kid. 

I had originally thought that Traci was going to be a character that was going to appear in only a few issues, but lately she has taken up a large portion of this series.  Not that I mind.  Her relationship with Jaime is slowly developing into something more than just a teenage romance.  Their powers are at the opposite spectrum, and Pfeifer incorporates that well into this issue.  However, rather than try to make them fit like a jigsaw puzzle, Pfeifer shows how Traci’s magic and her ability to save the day when Jaime can’t threatens him.  He is totally powerless against magic and he knows it, but at the same time it seems like having Traci battle the magic for him also bothers him.  I will be curious to see if this is followed upon. 

It is interesting to note that Pfeifer is listed as a “guest writer,” which is usually reserved for those who appear for only one issue.  From what I understand, Pfeifer is writing more than one issue of this series, but I also think there is another writer coming on board who is supposed to be the “regular” writer, so I guess the “guest” tag fits. 

“Gunter Glieben Glauchen Globen” (on the first page of this issue) is taken from the opening segment of the Def Leppard song Rock of Ages.  The words are total gibberish.  The voice heard is producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange.  Apparently, he uttered the now famous phrase because he got tired of saying, “1, 2, 3, 4” as a countdown for the band to begin playing the song. 

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