Review: Blue Beetle #34

Wham! Bam! A Dead Blue Beetle?

This title can’t come out often enough, but sadly, the faster the issues come, the sooner the series ends (thanks DC). With two issues to go, the big showdown between the new Doctor Polaris and Blue Beetle comes to a head. Only… Blue Beetle died last issue.

If you had any hope that Jaime wasn’t really dead at the end of last issue, guess again. He really is dead. As a doornail. No breathing, no pulse, nothing.

Nada.

Zilch.

No, really – he’s dead.

Doctor Polaris can’t believe his luck, and comments that if heroes are this easy to take down he might have to go after Superman or Batman next. Instead of flying to Metropolis or Gotham to show off his big brass gonads to the world, he flies south of the border back to San Paterno, Mexico to erase all evidence of his former identity. I don’t think he has much to worry about, as I can’t even remember the real name (or face) behind the mask.

What do you do with a dead Blue Beetle body? If you are the scarab, you pump the body full of adrenaline and shock the body back to life. Turns out Jaime’s death was all part of the suit’s attempt to play opossum. It worked, but that kind of mucking around, without letting the host know, really sucks.

In order to combat Doctor Polaris’s powers, the scarab begins to build and charge a Gluon canon to take the big bad out. But as it charges, Jaime still needs to fight mano-a-mano. The Blue Beetle is not alone, as Doctor Polaris’s daughter shows up to make an attempt on her father’s life. The attempt fails, but at least it shows Mariposa has realized the error of her ways and is attempting to bring down daddy.

Even the five magnetized baddies that kicked off this arc decide it’s best if they re-inject themselves with the serum that almost killed them to fight Polaris. They keep Doctor P occupied until the Gluon canon is fully charged, at which point Blue Beetle takes Polaris out with one shot.
The joining of all these characters to fight a common enemy is really good. While it may seem like Matthew Sturges is borrowing the idea from what John Rogers did at the end of his run, Sturges is really following a formula that works. It worked for seven seasons of Buffy, why won’t it work as we reach the end of this series?

Speaking of the end of the series. There are two issues to go and they look to be doozies. I can’t wait to see how Sturges and Albuquerque bring this series to an end.

The Good

• Look at Me! I’m Henry Thomas in E.T!
• Who’s responsible? Rich white guy.
• Setting up a date
• Pacing and art

The Bad

• Predictable ending

The end of this issue was pretty predictable – bad guy loses, good guy wins, and everything goes back to normal for the most part. I once again lament how low the sales got on this series to have it fall under the Axe of Cancellation. I hope DC reconsiders this series sometime in 2009 and pick up where issue #36 leaves off. I know we’ll see more of Jaime in the pages of Teen Titans and in other series, but having a hero learning the ropes in his home town, that is not a major metropolis. was a welcome change. Blue Beetle #34 gets 3 Stars out of 5.

87/87