This post may just be me repeating, "I hate this book," for the majority of it. From 2005, Countdown to Infinite Crisis #1, written by Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, and Judd Winick; with art by Rags Morales, Ed Benes, Phil Jimenez, and more.
The worst part is, there are aspects of it I really enjoy: the high points of Blue Beetle's history, like the scarab or fighting the Madmen or his history with Booster and Oracle and Max. And then there's the rest: the retroactive insertions, like Ted's childhood encounter with the Department of Defense influencing his future goggles or he and Booster acting like morons in the JLI to lower expectations. (A guess, but I'm pretty sure those would both be added by Geoff Johns.) The completely out-of-nowhere, to this day, heel turn of Max Lord. Most of earth's mightiest heroes either completely refusing to help, or giving lip service instead of anything useful. And yet, Ted still acts like they're the greatest ever, even though they hang him out to dry.
And then Ted Kord gets shot in the head and dies, and then everyone from Batman down the line goes on and on about how swell he was. Ted would probably have the DCU saint position left open by the return of Barry Allen, if the continuity wasn't who knows where now. Yeah, I hate this book; and I hate it so much I had trouble reading any DC books for years after. Remember Batman creating Brother Eye, which would make him legally culpable in the deaths of how many OMAC's? Or the Shazam reboot before the last two reboots?
Enough, sorry to waste your time, better comic tomorrow. Promise. Still, if you have an urge to, for whatever reason, you can actually read all of Countdown to Infinite Crisis and the first issue of Infinite Crisis at Comixology for free. Alternately, you can read any of a number of better free books...
Yeah I agree wholeheartedly with all the points you raised, especially what a bunch of dicks the superhero community as a whole was to Ted. Yes, you have to take into account the fact that while Beetle was seen as a genius with technology, his reputation.along with Booster's as class-A fuck ups seemed to proceed and haunt them for the rest of their careers after the their stints in the JL.
ReplyDeleteStill, you'd think there would have been some goodwill left for them to at least try and help out a fellow crime-fighter in need. The fact that they later kind of canonized Beetle was fucked up, but that's how they were written at the time, so I blame the writers, not the characters themselves.
As for Batman, yeah he was written as a huge dick, especially in light of being totally responsible for those deaths caused by the OMACs as you pointed out. Once it becaame common knowledge that he created Brother Eye, the government should have realistically hunted his ass down and arrested him. Not to mention all the lawsuits he'd have to face. I know Superman chewed him out for the whole OMAC business, but there really wasn't any accountability or judgement put on Batman by the superhero community as a whole.
Anyhow, I did like this issue for the reasons you did, but decided to skip out on IC in general, and really history has proven me right to do it.
Yeah I could go on a big rant with all this, but I'll calm down and stop for now:)
This book drives me insane. There were some really wonderful moments, and some really horrible ones, so I agree with you completely on that. And seriously, while Max Lord always had a certain...pragmatism, he WASN'T a villain...and to this day I resent that they made him into one.
ReplyDeleteDammit, I liked Max! But I loved Ted more. They should bring back TEd.
So glad Ted is back as Blue Beetle in DC Rebirth
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