End Game: Blue Beetle 22-25
I'm shocked there's been so little reposted of most recent Blue Beetle series. Jaime and his family are awesome and every guest star comes off looking great.
So I've decided to post some scans of the End Game arc by Rogers. Sailorlibra did post some of BB 25 so I had to adjust my scans accordingly. These new rules are fine for new issues but they can really constrain compilation posts.
we start with issue 22. Jaime's just saved a couple of guys from being overrun by lava and snaps at them for getting over run by something that moves so slow. He apoligizes and then briefly explains what's happened in past issues
we got Dan Garrett's granddaughter, Ted Kord's bug and Jaime right there. Dani's kind of delightfully goofy. Jaime is as practical as always. There are other ways to find out. More superheroes need to be reminded of that.
Bianca Reyes is awesome isn't she? During the Sinestro War a yellow ring honed in on Peacemaker then the Reach dropped a second scarab to Earth to help it take him over in hopes of some gratitude from Sinestro and a chance to take down Jaime. Jaime and the Scarab got inside his head and freed him, then Peacemaker dug the scarab out of him like Bianca describes here.
Alberto faces down La Dama with her goons and tells her if she wants to talk to Brenda then she needs to come without the weapons and the thugs.
Below ground Dani and Jaime discover what seems to be the remains of a lost civilization. They're attacked by TOVAR THE LAVA KING!
Jaime has the sad duty of revealing to Tovar that he and his people that they're all fake. His memories and his people were created by the Reach as part of a plan to eventually enslave the Earth. The Reach are watching though and try to destroy this evidence.
Tovar covers there retreat. Look at Jaime knowing just what to say to encourage him. Someone like Superman would be all like "You don't have to be what they made you to be, you can create your own memories." But Jaime realizes that if you are your memories, then the Reach created a hero right there.
Jaime's pissed. The funny thing is I didn't notice the part 1 in the title so I wasn't expecting this to lead to a major arc. It works well as a standalone that merely acknowledges the overall storyline of the book in my opinion.
Onto issue 23. There's so much great stuff in the early paged I decided to mostly go with that. Jaime's preparing to enact his plan, talking with his family and friends.
What would Ted Kord do? That's become a very important question for the current Blue Beetle. In issue fifteen Guy Gardner told him about the second BB and provided him with some notebook and strategy books belonging to Ted
that grind-y thing with his teeth. Maybe when Jaime becomes a dentist RObin can go to him. The sad thing is it's a year later, the roster is different, yet the character dynamic of the Titans still works like that.
The one thing I don't agree with is Jaime's reluctance to talk to othr heroes. He's made a very good impression on several heroes. They'd at least help him investigate.
I think Jaime could probably take Superman now. The weapons he has available and he can create Kryptonite radiation.
Jaime's right though. The Reach are panicking. Except for Dawur. One of the smartest lackies in comics I think.
Jaime took a parents words to heart without having to lose him. But at the same time he's telling his parents he knows better he's still very respectful to them.
Initially I thought the images in the sky were just artists helping out the fans, but with Jaime apparently partially armoring up last page I think he actually projected them to help get his point across. And of course Milagro is wise beyond her years
I've always felt teen superheroes should be more mature than average, despite authors trying to make them less so, but apparently it extends to families as well.
Following this Jaime armors up and dives down into the Bleed and uses it's time dilation affects to basically appear in three places at once. The Reach think he's trying to pull some world rippers into real space. They reinforce the devices shielding though and he seems to fail.
Negotiator has just started gloating.
I love the stuff Negotiator goes through trying to figure out Jaime.
Turns out what Jaime was actually doing was trying to get info to triangulate the location of the Reach mothership. He finds them and attacks. He puts up a good showing but is eventually captured. He's brought before Negotiator and has to watch as his hom is blown up.
In issue 24 we start off with the Reyes family's rescue.
Traci 13 knows how to introduce herself. Save their lives and bring cookies. Also, Milagro has good taste.
Again Dawur is the more practical off the two of them.
"Heroism" is not an acceptable scientific explanation" Yet it's the right one.
Jaime wills himself to his feet and using a codeword the Scarab left in his head he opens his cell.
Paco, Brenda, Traci and the Reyes are on the move, running from attacking aliens but Bianca is still asking practical questions.
Dawur and his forces track them down and continue the attack. Traci launches an attack using magical bees that mocks Amazons attack.
"I'M PEACEMAKER. THIS IS THE POSSE. WELCOME TO EL PASO!"
I love that line!
Dawur has one of the troops zap the spot everyone was last seen and they're revealed.
The crime boss makes the save. And despite having a bum leg Alberto Reyes is still a father and a soldier. I don't remember if we knew that Alberto had been fighting aliens when he was in the military or not.
Jaime heads for the engine room and enters a code in the main computer that no one can figure out, but is captured again and brought back to Negotiator.
Dawur calls in an air strike and Bianca tells Brenda to get Milagro to safety. She assures her she's not dismissing her, but Jaime says Brenda's unstoppable. That's why she's trusting her to do it. Brenda gets Paco and they run.
There's an attack that knocks Branda out though and we get this reaction shot.
I don;t think this has ever been included in one of these before. I always kind of overlooked it. But Biance Reyes is a nurse. Not a soldier or cop, but she just fits in perfectly well between her husband, a former soldier and an ex-superhero.
A tribute to Ted Kord's death.
KHAJI DA!!
Now as I said I had to make some adjustments to issue 25. It's Jon Rogers fault as much as anything though. When I was putting together scans I was thinking how it'd be nice to be able to include more than 7 1/3 pages. I was sure the book was larger than normal.
But no, it's the normal 22 pages. Rogers put more awesome in a single issue than some writers do in entire miniseries.
Maybe it was concentrated and we were supposed to dilute it with water.
The first page of the book is scenes of Dan Garrett and Ted Kord trying to get the scarab to work and Jaime saying Khaji Da. The next two have the Scarab waking up from where it was studied, flying to Jaime and remerging with him. It's taken Khaji Da as it's name, when it was orignally it's function and serial number. The ship has shut down but the code Jaime put in hasn't activated. We find out his code was nothing more than his locker combo, social security number and Milagro's birthday. The shut down is all Khaji Da's doing
Anywhere here's the pages where Guy and Ice arrive.
I'M THE CRAZY ONE.
Love that hero pose with Milagro.
I was going to include the one with guy and part of this page. Alberto knows all the right things to say.
Meanwhile Jaime is hacking the Reach's communications and a satelite Batman sent into space is active all of a sudden.
You know Superman usually has to work to traumatize Luthor that badly. Jaime's jsut doing it so casually.
Turns out Dani hand delivered it to Oracle, who wonders is she knows Misfit the way she babbles. Everyone on Earth now knows the Reach's plans and start demanding a surrender.
Negotiator decides if they can't have Earth they'll blow it up and tries to force the world rippers to activate.
On Earth Fire arrives, representing Checkmate
Brenda and Paco are running with Milagro. Paco stops them and kisses Brenda after working up the nerve. He was afraid had died in the earlier attack.
Dawur attacks. Brenda tackles Milagro, Paco shoots at him, but misses and gets hit himself.
So he's an alien three times her size and with weapons. She's not going to let him hurt Paco. And Paco is undefeated with a stick in his hands.
Jaime find that Negotiator has locked out the engines after he set them to overload. So he takes the option to block the feedback circuit they're in manually.
Booster GOld to the rescue. My only complaint is the way they drew it Negotiator was obviously out of reach. I wish Jaime had been extending a line or soemthing out to him. But honestly it's perfect emotionally.
And everyone is reunited, safe and happy. The Reach are just able to leave, claiming Negotiattor went Rogue. Guy holds up a big ass EXIT sign for them. We find out Khaji Da had a long talk with the other Scarabs(which does come back to bite Jaime in the ass, but it can easily be fixed to a mostly good thing I think) and Wayne Enterprises rebuilds the Reyes' house. Everyone gets together for a barbeque, where Guy is sure all of them coming together has something to do with Batman and Jaime muses on the past and future of the Blue Beetle line.