My hopes are high for new Blue Beetle writer Matt Sturges. First of all, he's co-writer of Jack of Fables, which among its other virtues, has sported what is arguably the greatest comic book cover of all time. But in Jack, he and Bill Willingham have fleshed out the most thoroughly despicable cad ever, and crafted a relentlessly inventive side-trip in the Fables universe.
Blue Beetle Jaimie Reyes is nothing like Jack. He's a genuinely good kid. He wants to do right by everyone, no matter the cost to himself. It's a classic superhero moral outlook, mixed in with all the drama of high school life. It's one of DC's best books, and more people should be reading it.
Michael May at Blog@Newsarama has posted an interview with Sturges that's worth checking out in its entirety. Here's the part where he assuages my fears that the title will take a massive swerve in direction:
One thing that’s really important to me is that I want Blue Beetle to continue to be a book that’s as fun for my twelve-year-old nephew as it is for me and my friends. I think you do that by being smart but not oblique, and clear but not condescending. Kids don’t want dumbed-down versions of grown-up comics; they want smart comics about things that matter to everybody, and without the adult content that would send them either to therapy or detention.
And here's the part where I find out he obsesses over the same things I do:
I’m pretty thoughtful about comedy; Bill Willingham and I have had conversations about which is the funnier item to poke someone with: a spatula or a slotted spoon. You’d probably think spatula, which would be the right answer in prose, because spatula is a funny word; but visually, a slotted spoon is actually slightly funnier. Because it’s rounded.
And here's my favorite part:I have this green t-shirt that I bought from the CBLDF one year at the San Diego Con. It’s got James Kochalka’s Fancy Froglin on it and he’s saying “I am wearing little pants to hide my genitals. It is the law!” I always get a second look when I’m wearing that thing, which is funny, although one time I forgot and wore it to pick my seven-year-old daughter up at school, which was less funny.
I have this teeshirt too. But it's too small for me, so I passed it on to Kathy. Who wears it to paint, because there's no way she's gonna wear it out of the house.
Long story short, I think Blue Beetle's in good hands.
Rob
3 comments:
Yeah, I've been lovin' the beetle, too. It has almost consistently had a moment in every issue that's made me laugh out loud -- and that's not always an easy thing to do these days. And it's not always a joke, sometimes it's a character moment, and that makes it even better.
Of course, sometimes it is a joke, or just a funny line:
"Less talking, more vengeance!"
I think the slotted spoon is funnier in print, too.
You know, I've gone back and forth on that, Don. Where I draw the line is I think "spatula" is funnier to say or hear, but "slotted spoon" might be funnier to read. Or maybe it's just that "slotted spoon" reads more like situational humor, while "spatula" is slapstick.
Poking someone with a slapstick, however, is frowned upon without consent. (As is slapping someone with a pokestick.)
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