Blue Beetle #9: Jaime Reyes Meets Kyle Rayner

[superfangirl1]

Comments

[majingojira]

This was an improvement, but the damage done in my opinion is irrevocable. We're still stuck in "Second Rate Guyver clone without the cathartic moments of the original, with aspirations of being a second rate Spider-man clone" mode.

We see tiny hints of the glory that once was, but the overall farrago is still in place. Hell, it continues to the horrific Countdown Trend I've seen in the entire Nu52 where eveything advertizes everything else.

[md84]

Even the Guyver wasn't this hard to handle. It didn't really have a mind of its own beyond "user preservation" being its top priority. Ironically, this actually made the Guyver do something way worse than anything the Scarab has done so far in this new series.

[majingojira]

Indeed, and that's just one of the many ways in which Guyver is awesome.

[q99]

-
We see tiny hints of the glory that once was, but the overall farrago is still in place. Hell, it continues to the horrific Countdown Trend I've seen in the entire Nu52 where eveything advertizes everything else.-

IMO cross-pollenization is a good thing in comics, but the visitors should be there to be part of the home team's story, not have their own story stop by another book.

[majingojira]

I love crossovers, but it works better if it serves a story purpose rather than a blatant advertizing gimmick.

And christ, the Nu52 has been blatant about those.

[q99]

The original BB had some good ones IMO. The issue with Superman was good, and not just an advert for some Superman story.

[darkknightjrk]

"Hell, it continues to the horrific Countdown Trend I've seen in the entire Nu52 where eveything advertizes everything else."

Showing off a shared universe isn't inherently a bad thing, and Countdown's remembered for being a half-assed, no-good money grab that accomplished nothing but showing off random stupidity and cruelty. This book doesn't seem to have started really well, but it's no where NEAR Countdown bad, IMO.

[majingojira]

Indeed. But the crossovers that appear to exist only for the sake of advertizing other books is a similarity that cannot be ignored.

Hell, this instance isn't even the first time its happened either. The number of "Follow the story of X in Y" teases is just annoying at this point.

Can't I read one book and get ONE story? Not 1.23 Stories or .435 stories?

[darkknightjrk]

For one thing, hasn't that always been the main purpose of a shared universe? What's the point of seeing Thor in the background doing something in Spider-Man if not just to go, "Hey, wanna see where Thor's going? Pick up the latest issue!"

And really, everything that pertained to the main character of Jaime was contained in his own book.

[majingojira]

You seem to think that I'm hating on all crossovers when I'm ranting about how BAD this one was. My point is that its done poorly, not that they should never ever have a crossover ever.

Hell, I'm a Wold Newton Universe Enthusiast--don't tell me I don't like shared universes or crossovers!

If all that you need is a minor cameo, go with that. But if they're going to be in the story for more than a scene than they need to add something substantive to the story. Here, what they add is token.

Compare this "story" to the similar one using Superman in Blue Beetle v2. Same ground covered, done in 1 issue and infinitely more entertaining.

And a good story advertizes a crossover far better than yelling about getting the 'complete story' by picking up things from other books.