Customer Reviews

Blue Beetle (Book 2): Road Trip

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4 star:		(3)
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Road Trip does a nice job of filling in the gaps left in the first trade, and even gives some interesting history on the artifact embedded in Jaime. It's done well without weighing down the story. The excellent writing and strong cast continue. If you aren't reading the Blue Beetle, you should, it's well worth the price of admission.

Blue Beetle is probably one of the better books to spin out of Infinite Crisis. And even with some changes in the creative team of the book the story is more or less on the same level as before the change. Giving you a better background on the new Beetle you learn of how things ended up playing out the way they did and also really get to see the supporting cast at thier best with everyone featured in this volume. Do yourself a favor though and make sure you've read the first volume.

Building off the great foundation of the previous collection, Road Trip collects issues 7 through 12 of the new Blue Beetle series. Blue Beetle's origin is fleshed out in flashback, and we get more backstory about the true nature of the scarab that gives him his powers.

There's an awful lot of exposition, but it's all cleverly handled so as not to be clunky, and the book's supporting cast really gets a chance to shine. For hard-core DC fans, the book has lots of extra treats -- a recap of the history of the two previous Blue Beetles, an encounter with the New Gods, a Checkmate cameo, and a great moment with Batman that I won't spoil here.

There are a number of changes to the creative team during the course of this collection. Keith Giffen and Cully Hamner are gone by the last third of the book. Sadly, Hamner's departure causes the visual consistency to suffer. But John Rogers remains on the title, and his script for Blue Beetle's adventure with Metron and Lonar of the New Gods is bwa-ha-ha funny while still maintaining high stakes and exciting action. Rafael Albuquerque is a great choice to replace Cully Hamner. The title is still in great hands, and I can't wait to see what's next for Jaime and company!

Now that the main cast of players is setup from the fist trade they really dive into what is going on with Jaime and the scarab. They also touch on the background for Peacemaker and then throw in a nifty little space tale with Brenda and Jaime revolving around a mother box. Wasn't as over the top fun as the first one, but definitely stays true to the title of Road Trip since it takes the readers and the main cast on a journey both in terms of locale and digging deeper into what drives each character. The art continues to be very lighthearted and fun. A worthy follow up to the first trade.

This is a great book with a strong cast. Reminds me of Spiderman comics when Peter was still in high school...if his friends and family knew his secret. In other words, it's all teenage fun, no teenage angst.