Jaime Reyes, a confused teenage boy, is accidentally fused to a confused alien artifact with an allergy to Green Lanterns and then unceremoniously dumped into the aftermath of last year’s Major Crossover Event[tm]. Will his life ever be the same? (Hint: no.)

Blue Beetle is what pure, concentrated awesome wants to be when it grows up! It is witty and fast paced and populated with 2D people with 3D personalities. The art is well suited to the story, and it doesn’t slip into gratuitousness when a female character steps on panel. It is FUN, and even though the book doesn’t flinch from the complicated and sometimes messy facts of life for a superhero in the DCU, it doesn’t lose its sense of humour.

If you’re not reading Blue Beetle, you are doing yourself irreparable self-harm. But you are lucky; there is a subscription for that!

Violence: Standard Superhero fare. Things blow up. People fight. Sometimes there is blood. Occasionally people die.

Sexualized violence: Nothing untoward.

Gender: Although the lead is male, there is a wide variety of female character roles: Mother, sister, best-friend… computer geek, mafia-style crime lord, gangland bruiser, superhero. And, like everyone in this series, they’ve all got their own lives and motivations outside the plot points.

Bechdel’s law: 3/3

Depiction of minorities: The title character and many supporting characters are Hispanic, and the book is set in the most believable rendition of Southern-US border culture I’ve yet come across. And said title character’s girlfriend, as well as being an ass kicking adventurer in her own right, happens to be half Asian.

Parents may wish to be aware: Mild sexual humour; discussion of off-panel child abuse; sympathetic portrayal of a crime lord; the suggestion that Batman drugs Robin to avoid “The Talk”; being exposed to 300% your recommended daily dose of awesome.

(Recommendation by OddKaren)

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