A good hero, a great villain

This past weekend I attended the New York City Comic Con. The stars, the comics, the lines. The real highlights for me were the panels. Dan Didio, Bob Kane, Geoff Johns, Phil Jimenez, Brad Meltzer and the rest seemed like really nice people who love comics and really appreciate their readers. Amid the revealing of The Flash cover (which looks amazing) and not really revealing anything about Dick Grayson (why wouldn't people shut up about that) Didio said something that stuck with me. He said that no one wants to see a story where Superman takes out a couple of crooks robbing a corner store. That would be boring. Instead you need greater villains to really push your heroes to the max thereby creating great stories. So I have to ask...



What the hell is this?

I'm serious. Where is the amazing villain that Blue Beetle is supposed to face off against? If a great hero is only brought about by an even greater evil where is the challenge in the Ball Chucking Kid? Who is the genius who came up with Captain Jai-Alai here? I see it now. Our mystery writer was probably sitting around one Sunday morning with a serious case of creative block. He or she decides watching some ESPN 2 will get those juices flowing and what comes on but a game with a three walled court and wicker cestas. "Eureka," the person says. "This sport is amazing! What if I replaced a regular ball with globes of plasma?" And so villain history was made.

To make matters worse in the previous issue old Blue Beetle faced off against the bad guy referred to as "Ski Mask". Guess what he wore on his head?

Now, I'm not one of those bring back Ted Kord fanatics. When my heroes die I want them to stay dead and Ted bought it in a very heroic, moving way. All I'm saying is that if DC gave him something a little harder to fight perhaps Beetle would have turned into a hero that wouldn't have been so expendable.