Solar Man of the Atom #26

From the Random Box of Unread Comics.

Title: Solar Man of the Atom
Issue: 26
Date: October, 1993
Publisher: Valiant Entertainment
Writer: Tony Bedard, Kevin Vanhook
Penciler: David Wong
Inker: Fred Fredricks
Colorist: Carol Vanhook
Letterer: Jade
Editor: Don Perlman, Bob Layton

Phil (Solar) and Gayle find themselves traveling through rural Georgia when Solar recognizes a photo of a small-town mayor as an alien foe who had escaped from a previous battle.

Now, Rusk the spider-alien, Mayor Russel to his friends, runs the little town of Terminus, GA, as well as its textile plant. And he's got the corrupt sheriff right out of central casting on his side.

Gayle proceeds to break into a public library at night to find... well, information she could have just found with no problems if she'd waited until normal business hours. Instead, she gets caught and damseled by the aforementioned sheriff.

Solar proceeds to do his thing, while Gayle actually talks a bit of sense into the locals. As it turns out, blood-drinking spider aliens fall into the category of "Try that in a small town".

I'm being a bit harsh here, because the flow of the plot was pretty good, and the decision to make Rusk more pathetic than menacing was an interesting choice that contributed to the tone of the story. I also liked the fact that the townsfolk were not completely blindly obedient to the bad guys.

The interactions between Gayle and Phil were good, and the dialogue all made sense. This was my first time reading this series, and for a random issue, I found it pretty accessible as a new reader.

Rating: 6/10

Blue Beetle #1

As of right now, tomorrow's review of Superboy #1 will be the last of my reviews of New 52 first issues. I have two more titles that were of mild interest (Blackhawks and Teen Titans), but the #2's are starting to pile up and #3's on their way soon, and I've got a backlog of books picked up at cons this year as well. So I'm going to try to post some kind of wrap-up of the #1's in the next day or two before I start reading any of the #2's.

Title: Blue Beetle
Issue: 1
Date: November 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Tony Bedard
Penciler: Ig Guara
Inker: Ruy Jose
Colorist: Pete Pantazis
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editor: Alex Ogle, Eddie Berganza

Opening sequence takes place long ago and in a galaxy far, far away, and the retcon is being applied with a shovel. It's also one of those annoying sequences where we're supposed to be impressed because we see one dude taking on an entire planet's armed forces and winning singlehandedly. Hint to DC: This does not make the bad guy look impressive. It makes the victims look like idiots. Fortunately, much like the "war" that is being depicted, this scene is over quickly.

The real point is to establish that the Beetle scarab is part of a techno-insectoid collective called the Reach (and they are really reaching when it comes to thinking up original names). The Reach are BAD guys. They "assimilate" locals, turn them into unstoppable monsters, and then "coccoon" entire planets, presumably to eat later. They are a universe-level threat and the only force standing in their way is Starfleet Jedi Knights Sailor Scouts the Green Lantern Corps.

Only, that was then, and this is now. One of their scarabs has been sitting around on Earth waiting for an archaeologist or two to go "Hey, look! A cursed artifact of unknown origin! This belongs in a museum! But I think I'll sell it to the highest-bidding unscrupulous relic dealer instead!"

Actually, it appears to be a feud between a couple of black market types and they've each brought in their own team of third-rate super villains. A huge brawl follows and when it's all said and done, the one still standing with the scarab is... Ted Kord Jaime Reyes.

See, there's another plot going on here and it involves El Paso teenager Jaime Reyes, who just wants to play soccer and go to the quinceanera of the cute girl he has the crush on. You know, the girl with the rich aunt who's in the black market artifact-selling business. Reyes was the previous Blue Beetle reboot, and is now being re-rebooted. I'm sure that the Ted Kord fans would have preferred it if he'd just been plain booted. But no such luck. There's an explosion and the backpack containing the scarab literally falls out of the air into the car that Reyes is riding in. One thrown knife later and scarab-mania is about to run wild, but unfortunately we're out of time, so tune in for issue 2.

Okay, this actually wasn't terrible. Well, the opening scene really WAS terrible, but it got better. Reyes has generic teen issues, but the book introduced a pretty multifaceted cast of supporting characters. And while I'm iffy about any villain that shares a name with a toothbrush, the Reach have the potential to be a fairly interesting cosmic-level threat at some future point. Their technology certainly provides some nice visuals, and its ability to shift and reassemble provides a nice counter for the constructs of the Green Lantern rings.

And I also liked the portrayal of Reyes in his first action scene, where loyalty to his friend gave him the courage to act. Comics could use more heroes who act heroic.

Rating: 6/10