DC Comics Epic Synergy Fail

That Blue Beetle? Canceled.


This Blue Beetle? Just got major exposure in the debut episode of the latest Batman cartoon.

You know, it isn't like the Blue Beetle series was kid-unfriendly. They couldn't just wait a few months more?

Blue Beetle Canceled

Thought I'd share a quick bit regarding Didio's announcement regarding Blue Beetle:

One of the books that I’m most disappointed about in that regard is a book like Blue Beetle, which we are cancelling. That’s a book that we started with very high expectations, but it lost its audience along the way. Recently, we felt that it was standing on firmer ground, and was getting a more positive response. The problem is that the firmer ground and positive response is not enough to keep the book afloat. So unfortunately, we had to cancel that series.

You put Matt Sturges on the book and pretty much immediately had an arc about illegal immigration/border-crossing. When that happens right after a writer change, it feels a little dubious. If it happened in the middle of Rogers' run, I wouldn't have raised a brow. If it happened after a half year of the new team, maybe I'd be fine with it. But it turned me off immediately to where I dropped it quickly.

I can deal with message books, but not when they're heavy-handed. Blame Winick, but I've been made very wary of the overall quality of a story in a message book. Having it be about the first thing of an announced new direction (right after the Spanish language gimmick issue), didn't send signals that would leave me hopeful.

Blue Beetle All-Spanish Issue

You know...not to get pulled completely into the debate that has been going on for the last few weeks about the Blue Beetle issue...but...

It has been argued that there was an in-story reason for the issue being almost completely in Spanish.

Not so much.

The in-story reason is supposed to be the family reunion with the side of his family that doesn't speak English at all. Right. Lilly, who is married to a businessman with a private plane who is in Metropolis for work, doesn't speak a word of English? That's kind of suspect already. But let's leave that alone for now.

Jaime leaves the shindig and winds up now, for no apparent story reason, talking to the scarab in Spanish...and then conducts his whole discussion with Parasite in Spanish, despite the fact that Parasite's first language is English.

So...let's just completely chuck the idea that this was an all-Spanish issue for story reasons. It wasn't. A majority of the Spanish in the issue didn't even happen around Traci 13, who was supposedly who we English-only speakers were meant to identify with in being lost in a new language.

No, this was a clear grab at trying to attract more Hispanic readers at the risk of alienating the current readership. Not alienating them based on their being racist or ignorant, but from the distinct reading discomfort of not knowing what is going on in the panels without having to awkwardly keep flipping to the back of the book. Yeah...that makes for an experience that immerses you in the story.

And these readers who apparently couldn't be bothered to check out a Hispanic super-hero until there was an issue almost exclusively in Spanish? They're not getting an issue done in Spanish next month...or the month after...or the month after.

So, while incredibly well intentioned, DC Comics risks alienating their already small readership for this title for a particular audience that doesn't really seem to be that likely to come around or stick around? Doesn't seem wise to me. But, then again, this could be a last ditch effort to draw attention to a book that, given DC's recent history of low-selling books that switch creative teams (cough...All New Atom...cough), might not be long for monthly publication.