InsaneJournal

The Blue Beetle's Enemies, Part the Tri: The Calculator (a henchman's story) and Chronos V1
after going up against the arson-fueled vengeance of Firefist, dealing with the return of the Madmen and watching Doctor Alchemy destroy himself, Ted next found both himself and the Question tangling with the Muse, a gun-having crazypants with a plan to unite the city's warriors-esque gangs under his command to take on the current criminal syndicate in charge.

... however, as most of the good stuff from that's already been covered, I'll skip him. If you want a full account of how it all goes down, a quick google'll avail you.



#8 has Ted going up against the Calculator and his cunning plan to rob a consumer electronics show, but its primary focus is Ed Buckley, former career henchman with a loving family.

On his birthday, he goes out to hopefully get a job at KORD Industries, running into fellow career henchman and friend Rudy along the way.

Rudy passes along some information about a supercrook who's hiring today, figuring Ed'll probably come anyway, despite his claims to legitimacy. Ed says no, but pockets the info anyway and makes his way to KORD:



(curt's a recurring character who'll have a rather interesting role in a few issues.

basically, all you need to know for now? he's a very skilled metallurgist with an accent.

it's rather interesting that all of the employees we see in technical positions at KORD tend to be, if not the best, really damn good in their fields. which is to be expected, considering that the founder of STAR Labs considers KORD Industries one of his biggest rivals.)




Ted on the workfloor, everybody!

Which is rather funny, considering that one of the many running subplots is how his time as Blue Beetle is distracting him from running the solid company he built up from a small research firm.

...which will ultimately lead to a rather neat ending for a series (caps out at 25 issues; we're on 8 now.)

anyhow, Ed resigns himself to henching, because he just can't face his wife and daughter knowing that his attempt to get a job has failed.

Looking at Rudy's info, he heads to the location: a nondescript cafe, where he has to put a dime in the payphone to enter the hirin' supercrook's hideout and go down an elevator:



wow, Ed used to hench in Gotham City. Nice.

anyhow, Abacus turns out to be an alias for... Noah " Calculator " Kuttler, well before his " Evil Oracle " shtick.

Kuttler proceeds to recruit seven henchmen from the group, picking up Ed on Rudy's recommendation.

Buckley wants to hash out a few specifics, though, just to make sure this'll all be worth it:



.... yes, the Calculator uses his bootleg Green Lantern hat for everything. (I cannot believe he ever got laid while wearing that whole rig.)

including projecting a map of the place he's planning to knock over: the aforementioned computer show.

(I can only assume he wants the components to get a corner stall in the local supertech black market, so to speak, or to just build something evil.)

Calculator lays out his plan: his seven henchmen enter the show beforehand in plainclothes, then he busts in, makes a scene, and the henches use the element of surprise to cut and run with everything technical they can get their hands in.

We get a scene of Buckley calling his family, lying about getting the job; he feels guilty about it, but with the share of the loot he'll get, he figures it'll be worth getting on the petty crook wagon one more time.

So it's off to the show the next day, where henchman Buckley is rather ill-at-ease, which isn't helped when he walks by the KORD booth:




personal electronics? those'll never take off, ted, you idiot.

anyhow, this little upswing in Buckley's fortunes evens out when he realizes he's about to rob a man who gave him a job.

He tries to cut out, but the Calculator threatens the family he was so quick to make a point of earlier, seconds before busting onto the scene.

Ed, thrust into the role of rifle-wielding DON'T MOVE AND NOBODY GETS HURT guy, really doesn't want to do his job now; he even lets Ted escape, hoping he'll be able to defuse the situation.

however, when the beetle swings onto the scene, Buckley rationalizes that going back to jail and leaving his family father/husbandless would be the worst possible outcome, so he wades into the fray:



ted is disappoint and anger.

also, jesus christ, calculator's hat is multi-purpose.

indeed, it's only the hat that lets kuttler get ted in position for death by construct-spike-walls... until a recovered Buckley has an attack of morals, that is:



Buckley's still alive, though, and now that Ted understands his story (the whole ex-con succumbing to his old job in a moment of weakness and trying not to hurt anybody thing), he's gonna see if he can help him.

with that, we head into issue nine, where another subplot resolves itself: the identity of the man who's been making KORD receptionist Angela Revere steal things...



(bing cherries. they taste like being beaten with a sack of valencia oranges.)

.. her evil villainous uncle...



(it's rather neat that they show her seriously almost bludgeoning her evil, life-commandeering uncle to death... and then she doesn't.)

... who is the one known...



and he, likewise, is sorta merciful to his relative. interesting, that... or atleast a case of " don't wanna call attention to myself with murder. "

anyhow, with his supervillain gear back in working condition, chronos decides to set a master plan of his in motion by shipping over some gear from his old hideout:



you just know he was laughing that one over for a couple minutes.

while this is going down, more subplots progress- the slow burning of Ted's not so serious relationship with Melody Case, Conrad Carapax's seeking, Max Fisher's investigations, mysterious abductions done for a madman, and Murray Takamoto's subcontracted promethium experiments.

oh, and G. Gordon Godfrey is all preachy at people, which should give you an idea of when all this's going down...

at any rate, ted realizes angela hasn't turned up to work. needing a break from suddenly boring budget balancing, he heads off to check it out... and finds Angela, who spills the beans about Uncle Chronos.

Ted, needing a break from G. Gordon Godfrey's bullshit, decides to stop the Time-Thief, tracking him down to his lair:



what EXACTLY chronos is doing?

we won't get any payoff on it till Chronos comes back again, a bit later. wait till then- it's a pretty clever one, as those things go.



heh. super-weapon my ass, ted. super-tasty, maybe.

(ted had a dust-up with him, in another book.)



chronos cuts and runs on his little clockpad, ranting about his master plan.

ted follows in the bug:



ah, that airship. we'll see him battle Carapax the Indestructible Man with it later (and yes, that should probably clue you in on what Conrad finds and becomes on Pago Island...)



they take a spill into a fountain, Ted captures Chronos with his own time freeze watch, and people continue to be all JUST STOP IT, SUPERFOLK

oh well.

next time, Blue Beetle and the Teen Titans take on Mento and the growing roster of his Hybrid... which'll have some life-changing effects on one member of ted's supporting cast.