Ted Kord Returns as the Blue Beetle Today!

[samurainoir]

This is still one of my favourite Blue Beetle gag in Tiny Titans. It's neither Ted nor Dan that shows up for parent teacher conferences. I love the fact that Art and Franco are tossing in grown-up bits there for those of us that read the comics to the kids before bedtime.

[The Toyroom]

And there's little to nothing you can do about it

Sure there is.... I can *****-n-moan and can vote with my dollar. Or my $3.99

I just don't like the fact that the fans can't accept the fact that Jaime isn't keeping the costume warm for Ted's return. Jaime is THE Blue Beetle. Ted will have to just accept that and take a back seat. WHERE HE BELONGS.

There's no reason they BOTH couldn't have existed....Superman has his "Superman Family", Batman has his "Batman Family", there's a "Flash Family" and a bunch of Green Lanterns running around. They could have had Ted mentor Jamie and have a richer story telling experience out of it. Ted fans wouldn't have been p.o.ed and they might have actually gravitated more to the idea of Jamie as Blue Beetle. Instead they got a bullet in Ted's head.

And I'm not saying kill off Jamie...I hate it went they kill off characters because that always boxes them in as far as using the character again.
In fact, even though I wasn't a fan of the Ryan Choi Atom I was disgusted by the recent Titans:Villains for Hire Special where they butchered him and placed him in a matchbox. Unnecessary IMO.

I've always said, there are no bad characters....only bad writers handling those characters. Is it any wonder Geoff Johns has been able to work miracles with characters that other writers have f'ed up? (With the current exception of his Flash series of course )

[johnnystorm]

Jamie Reyes Blue Beetle fans...come talk to me in 15 years when they kill him off & replace him with a new guy.

The Kyle fans that whined about the Hal Jordan supporters are now the ones complaining he's been left out of the GL picture.

As said, it's not the characters that the fans dislike. I personally like the new Blue Beetle costume. The kid underneath it is a cypher, but the costume is neat.

But the gory, violence ridden editorial policies of DC Editorial are the real villains here. Ted didn't need or deserve a bullet in the brain. He could have retired (they gave him a bad heart), become a mentor to the new guy, or just remained in limbo. Instead, they gave him a messy death. Ditto poor Ryan Choi, who had a PRETTY DECENT series, who HAS A COUPLE ACTION FIGURES, who GUESTS ON B& B quite often...and yet he got an ill deserved & brutal end, his only crime being he had the powers & the name of another hero that Dan Didio likes better THIS WEEK..HIS fame & Fortune didn't help his cause any, so I'd not put stock in murals. If the new BB TV plans tank, don't expect to see him all over the DCU after that. He's tanked TWO series in his short career already.

[B-Lister]

For the record, and so there is no bad blood, I want to say that I'm kinda just playing Devil's Advocate.

I AM a Ted Kord fan, but I think Jaime has earned his place and want to see him keep it.

it was a great series, and he's a great addition to Teen Titans.

I just don't like the 'fake' Ted Fans that came out of the woodwork when he died, who bombarded the internet with incredulous hatred of Jaime, and Righteous Indignation that they'd replace Ted.

where were these fairweather fans when Ted was being published?, they certainly weren't buying any books starring Ted.

and with that I'm done. But I leave you with this final thought:

Jaime Reyes figures sell out everywhere. Ted Kord is still hanging on the peg at my local TRU, and has been for a few months.

[The Toyroom]

Jaime Reyes figures sell out everywhere. Ted Kord is still hanging on the peg at my local TRU, and has been for a few months.

In all honesty, that's apples and oranges....Jamie is part of the cheaper, kid oriented Brave and the Bold line while Ted is part of the more expensive adult collector DC Universe Classics line (which are now $15 a pop!). And I think the Ted Beetle sold well originally...it's the new shipments of that wave that Target & TRU got that continue to linger (including Camo Aquaman, Booster Gold and The Flash).

Heck, Captain Cold is the biggest peg-warmer in the history of the DCUC line so what does that say about him then?

[ctc]

>It's DC editorial/corporate that is PUSHING the use of Reyes as the Beetle, not the demand from kids or anyone else reading the comics.

It sure SEEMS that way.... but sometimes when I see stuff like this I wonder. DC and Marvel aren’t real adventurous when it comes to selling stuff (“needs more Batman!!!”) so I can’t see them pushing something that hasn’t taken hold. So maybe the execs got some numbers we don’t; and the new guy IS popular. With their target audience at least. Abruptly killing off the old one seemed like ham-fisted housecleaning: not wanting two versions of a second stringer around so’s to not confuse the audience. (Not that it WOULD; but execs think that way.)

Although DC seems to be poking and prodding into “new” territory. They do kid stuff, since they realize they NEED a new crop of readers, and they do “grownup” stuff, no doubt an attempt to hold on to older readers. It’s when they try to mix the two that weird things happen.

Don C.