DCnU - Blue Beetle #1 from DC's New 52

Blue Beetle #1 is written by Tony Bedard. Ig Guara did pencis, and Ruy Jose inks.

Somewhere, out there in space, (Space Sector 2 to be precise) and long, long ago, we see a blue, armored figure ripping into an army. And winning. He destroys tanks, slashes soldiers, and brings wreckage to all who oppose him.

We learn that the warrior running roughshod over the army is one of them. He mourns after the battle, and it becomes clear that the armor is controlling him, and he has just helped to bring about the destruction of his own people. We are told that the same type of scarab that turned him into a weapon against his own people is off preparing another world. That scarab runs into a Green Lantern, and avoids destruction at his hands, but crashes to the planet it was headed to anyway, seemingly damaged but not destroyed.

Then, today, we get to know Jaime Reyes and some of his friends. Just normal high school kids at El Paso High School. One of them has birthday party coming up, and she also has an aunt who has security goons and money from a mysterious source. We then cut to Jaime being told he cannot go to her party, because it is at her aunt's place.

From there, we cut to that aunt's place, and she is in contact with Brutale, a mercenary, to recover an object. Unfortunately, the Brotherhood of Evil is already there, with Phobia, Warp and Plasmus on scene. Brutale's team attacks, and we get a short throw-down before Jaime and Paco happen upon it. Brutale's team has the upper hand, and Rompe-Huesos stops long enough to try and kill Jaime and Paco before grabbing the backpack with the scarab in it.

As Jaime grabs the backpack and runs to distract Rompe-Huesos from Paco, Brutale cuts him down with thrown knives while the Mysterious Lady in Red looks on. A knife into the backpack awakens the scarab.

We end with Jaime transformed into the Blue Beetle.

In the old DCU, Jaime Reyes as Blue Beetle just didn't connect for me. In this comic, it really did work for me. I enjoyed the story, the characters, and the use of Spanish. I had to have Google translator open for some of it, although not knowing the exact words being said would not have spoiled the flow of the story. That reminded me of the good old days of reading X-men comics with my father's German/English dictionary so I would know what Nightcrawler meant when he said "Unglaublich!"

The art was clean and tells the story clearly. The colors are bright and bold, suiting both the Texas sun, and sci-fi based origin of the Blue Beetle.

It's good to see the Brotherhood of Evil in the DCnU. The Doom Patrol comes and goes, but somehow The Brotherhood of Evil perseveres.

This was a fun read. I am definitely on board for at least the first story arc.