Christopher Irving

Looks at the history of the Blue Beetle comic book series.

His Many Lives from 1939 to Today

The Blue Beetle Companion

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I have this theory that very obscure, specialized media naturally garners more favourable reviews (than may be warranted) because it's only sought out by hardcore fans who may or may not be starved for information and content related to their interests.

Would I have read this book if Ted Kord, a.k.a the second Blue Beetle, wasn't one of my favourite characters? Of course not.

Did I enjoy reading it? Also no.

One reason is Irving's biases: It's very, very obvious that his main area of interest in this book is the first iteration of the Blue Beetle (Dan Garret in the 30s). I get a very keen sense that's what he wanted to write about. Maybe his editor told him it was too narrow a subject, maybe he thought he'd reach a wider audience if he wrote about the three+ later iterations as well (I guess I proved that right), but his heart clearly isn't in it. Chapters get shorter and shorter as the book progresses -- sloppy mistakes start to pile up (even to the point where he says Ted's name is Edward -- which to my knowledge was a continuity error that appeared ONCE in a story, in all other instances his name has been Theodore).

And even the Dan Garret section is a slog. I appreciate anyone who puts in the work to dive into comic book history -- it's a subject that's been ignored for too long -- but Irving puts in every single thing his researched has unearthed regarding the early years of the Blue Beetle comics: Complete biographies of every person involved, every person who MIGHT have been involved, every person who was meant to be involved at some point but wasn't due to some unrelated circumstances. At one point he prints a photocopy of someone's DEATH CERTIFICATE (!) because they were involved with the Blue Beetle comics earlier in their life. I can't begin to explain how bizarre that is for a book about comic book history.

And he'll recap every plot, every side character, every adjustment of superpowers, opine on the artwork, for all those early Dan Garret stories -- and then in the Ted Kord chapter he goes "and then he was part of the Justice League for eight more years" and move on. Nothing about how the character evolved, or his backstory, the spinoff projects that were advertised but never realized, or what major DC universe events he took part in (like, say, the death of Superman). I'll accept that the latest iteration of Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes) was still very new by the time the book was released and thus that equaled the shortest chapter of all, but still. The creators and artists of those eras don't get their careers explored, their comic book pedigrees celebrated like the ones early in the book.

I'll admit this book still wasn't a total loss -- I did learn a few fun things, I did get to read a book about a fairly obscure set of characters that I have a lot of affection for. But it's scraps. It's just what I have to tolerate if I want to read non-fiction books about media I enjoy.

The Blue Beetle Companion His Many Lives from 1939 to Today

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