Zoinks

Wow, so I got five comments about my last post and I checked my site traffic for the first time in weeks and I still average twenty hits a day – that is crazy! I mean, super awesome but still crazy, I would have given up on this blog ages ago. It’s nice to know that you guys and gals aren’t as fickle as I am. Super props to all you Crazy 88s that have stuck around.

As I said in my last post there were a few comics that have kept me going, that I have kept reading. Blue Beetle (obviously, but we aren’t here to talk about that), Action Comics, The Boys, the return of Scud (which I might write a post about) and a handful of others. These comics are like grand slams in the middle of a losing streak, those few moments of shining hope that say, “Don’t give up on us yet.”

There have been so many of those comics in my time as a reader: Matt Wagner’s Mage, Kevin Smith’s Green Arrow (nuts to you people who don’t like it), and James Robinson’s Starman. I was just reading Starman the other day. Now I have gone through the entire series in trades but I only own three issues (I plan on some day getting all the singles, but money is tight). I was just rereaing issue #29, the introduction of Jake “Bobo” Benetti. What a great issue.

I know there are a lot of people out there who think Starman was kind of lame duck series. They say it was slowly paced. They say it spent too much time on pointless dialogues about popular culture. They say it was an indulgence piece. I say they are wrong.

Starman was different. Starman was one of the first comics to have what felt like a plan. It was an ongoing, monthly that progressed logically. It was about a hero’s journey, about one man’s search to come into his own as a man. And what happens when he finds it? He contentedly moves on, the series ends. That is freaking beautiful.

Moreover it paid homage to all the characters who had donned the Starman costume before. Robinson did his research, knew his character and his character’s history. Then he melded it together, created the interconnectivity that an icon can have. He paid homage to what everyone else had done with the character while opening so many more doors for the character to go through. It was what made the book a great read for all.

This exactly why Blue Beetle is so great right now. So I lied about this post not being about Jaime Reyes. I haven’t kept up my end of the bargain. You know, a guy who starts a bandwagon better keep it going. But I have not been keeping up my bandwagon of Blue Beetle love even though I got it moving in the first place. The title does everything that Starman did. It creates connections between the character and his family and friends. Things that were set up in early issues come back in fantastic ways. With Jaime’s “Khaji Da” we know that Rogers respects all of what has gone before in the Blue Beetle-verse but is not afraid to add to that mythos.

I know there are a people out there who are bummed out that Rogers is taking a hiatus from the book. While I disagree with the writer saying that McKeever is doing an excellent job with the character in Teen Titans, I am o.k .with him leaving. He has told a great story, one that has had a fantastic beginning, middle and end. Now, like a teary Jack Knight leaving Opal City, he taking off and that’s fine, because he accomplished his goals to tell a great story and is passing the torch on to someone else. It’s better than sticking around and letting his writing get stale.

And I know, Chris, that I am not great about e-mails. But I am still listening.