Wednesday saw the arrival of 3 books I was eagerly anticipating. Some time ago, I had sent off my complete run of Blue Beetle (1986-1988) along with his DC debut from Secret Origins #2 to be professionally bound into two hardcover volumes. Library Binding, a company based in Texas that I found about from Collected Comics Library, did a great job. Incidentally, if you're a fan of comic books in general and trade collections in particular, you should give the CCL a listen. Chris Marshall does a great weekly podcast and he has a complete release schedule of collected editions that stretches from 2006 out into 2011. My bound editions of Blue Beetle arrived Wednesday and I couldn't be happier with them. They are both bound in blue imitation leather with a metallic blue font to mimic the Blue Beetle's color palette. I'm kicking myself for not splurging and getting the ribbon markers, but the next books I get will have them. I had the comics bound as is, so they are complete with front & back covers and ads. I think next time I may make the effort to separate the books, discard the back covers and as many ads as I can. I may also group the front covers together as a feature section in the back.
Wednesday also the release of Blackest Night #8, the final issue of DC's blockbuster mini-series. As a DC fan, I was very happy with the story with one exception. Without getting into too much spoiler detail, a host of characters who have been killed off over the last 10 years were resurrected as a result. There were a number of notable exceptions, but none (to me at least) as glaring as Ted Kord.
Ted Kord, the Silver Age Blue Beetle, was murdered by Maxwell Lord in the events leading up to Infinite Crisis. In the years leading up to Countdown to Infinite Crisis, Ted (along with his ever-present sidekick Booster Gold) had become a laughing stock. None of his fellow heroes took him seriously and despite several editorial attempts, neither did comic book fans. Countdown to Infinite Crisis followed Ted as he tracked down a mysterious organization that was targeting super-heroes. Ted was in top form and discovered his former Justice League cohort Max Lord was behind the organization. Ted refused to help Max and Max murdered Ted. Ted has since shown up in issues of Booster Gold, when Booster had traveled back in time and rescuing Ted moments before he was to be murdered. When they returned to the present time, they found that Max Lord had managed to kill or enslave the majority of the world's superheroes. Ted realized that his death was the key to stopping Max Lord and taking a time machine he traveled back in time sacrificing himself to save the world.
Ted returned again in the form of a Black Lantern raised from the dead to fight Booster Gold. Booster, along with the Modern Age Blue Beetle, defeated him using technology developed by Ted Kord. In the course of this, Booster discovered that someone had accessed one of Ted's secret hideouts in the recent past; something that only Ted could have done.
With the absence of Ted from the resurrected heroes in Blackest Night #8 and the hints dropped, I can only hope that it's going to turn out that Ted has somehow managed to return using his brain and time machine. Hopefully Ted will be back-either as the Blue Beetle or a mentor for the next generation of heroes.
CCL #483 – Collecting Controversy
5 years ago
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