Blue Beetle Cancelled as DC Makes Changes to its Co-Feature/Backup Story Programme
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CBR have an exclusive interview with Dan Didio on changes that DC plans to make to it’s co-feature/backup stories.
Included in this news is the revelation that several comic will loose their co-features completely, including Green Arrow & Black Canary, Doom Patrol, and Booster Gold – which will go back to 32 pages, and a $2.99 price point.
This news makes me really sad, because it means no more Blue Beetle stories! I’ve really been enjoying Matthew Sturges‘ take on the character, and I’m quite dismayed to see DC dropping it. The modern Blue Beetle (Jamie Reyes) started out in his own comic book shortly after the events of Infinite Crisis, in a series written John Rogers (first 10 issues plotted by Keith Giffen). The series was incredibly popular at inception, but eventually sales started to slip, and John Rogers had to leave the title with issue #25, to concentrate on his TV writing career.
The series was passed around various writers for a few issues, until Matthew Sturges, who had previously written several fill-in issues, was made the permanent writer with issue #29. Sturges provided great arc about immigration, told from the perspective of Mexican immigrants, which proved that the title still had a lot of life in it. Sadly though, the fans did not return, and DC announced that the title would be cancelled with issue #36, which was released in February 2009.
In July last year, Blue Beetle fans rejoiced, as DC announced that Jamie and friends would be returning in Booster Gold #21, starring in a 10-page ongoing co-feature. Sturges remained on-board as series writer, telling some wonderful stories that focused on Jamie, Paco, and Brenda, rather than the extended cast of the previous series.
I have suspected for some time that DC were going to cancel the title, as the plot of the co-feature slowly became more and more connected with the plot of Booster Gold, with a story involving the Black Beetle character. Then DC got rid of the co-feature entirely for two issues, for a Blackest Night tie-in written by Dan Jurgens, which had both characters battling a Black Lantern Blue Beetle. Today though,these suspicions were confirmed, as DC put the final nail in the coffin of a great character. I believe that the character is still a member of the Teen Titans, but it’s just not the same!
Another great series that is about to get bumped is Marc Andreyeko’s Manhunter co-feature in Batman: Streets of Gotham, which will be changed out for a different co-feature. This is another story that I am really going to miss, and I feel really bad for Marc, he fought such a struggle to keep the Manhunter series on the stands, before it was relegated to being a backup feature. Now even that has been cancelled!
On the bright side, Greg Rucka’s Question co-feature from Detective Comics will remain in place! Which made me breath a sigh of relief. If DC had cancelled this, there would have been hell to pay!
For the full-list of changes, head over to CBR, where you can also see some great artwork by Duncan Rouleau for his upcoming Justice Inc. co-feature from First Wave!
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