Bumblebee (Karen Beecher-Duncan) Appreciation 2020

[Electricmastro]

An appreciation thread for Karen Beecher-Duncan, who first appeared in Teen Titans #45 (December, 1976).

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[Electricmastro]

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2018:

[Dr. Poison]

Bumblebee is my 2nd favorite Titan(after Donna Troy). I hope she appears on the Titans TV show soon.

[Güicho]

Love these two!
Malcolm Duncan and Karen Beecher as; The Guardian & The Bumblebee need to be showcased regulars on a team.
Also get their own mini-series (with potential for ongoing) developing their characters.

They were all over the place with giving Malcolm a hero ID (less said the better), Wish they had just in continuity kept the Guardian exoskeleton and armor from the go.



If the name is taken just call him Vox Populi. a play on one of his older names, and new.

And Bumblebee: Karen Beecher
Completely self made heroine, computer expert, physicist, engineer, designed, all her own tech and weaponry.

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...=1#post3882157

[Digifiend]

What is it about that powerset that makes creators not want to use them? Bumblebee, and Marvel's Wasp, have the same problem. Writers of their team books (Titans and Avengers respectively) don't want to use them (Rebirth only used her because it used all of the 1970s team). Seriously, I thought it odd that the live action Doom Patrol has Cyborg, but TIL it wasn't the first time they'd had a Titan other than Garfield Logan (who was on DP before the Titans) join them.

[HandofPrometheus]

What is it about that powerset that makes creators not want to use them? Bumblebee, and Marvel's Wasp, have the same problem. Writers of their team books (Titans and Avengers respectively) don't want to use them (Rebirth only used her because it used all of the 1970s team). Seriously, I thought it odd that the live action Doom Patrol has Cyborg, but TIL it wasn't the first time they'd had a Titan other than Garfield Logan (who was on DP before the Titans) join them.

Size alteration is not a popular power. I don't really like it but Bumblebee has grown on me so much over the years. I really wish DC would respect her more more so the comics side but the comic creators are heavily biased in who they use so I'm glad shes thriving in animation.

[John Venus]

What is it about that powerset that makes creators not want to use them? Bumblebee, and Marvel's Wasp, have the same problem. Writers of their team books (Titans and Avengers respectively) don't want to use them (Rebirth only used her because it used all of the 1970s team). Seriously, I thought it odd that the live action Doom Patrol has Cyborg, but TIL it wasn't the first time they'd had a Titan other than Garfield Logan (who was on DP before the Titans) join them.

It's all in how it's depicted. I was annoyed in Avengers: EMH when Wasp would shrink down and go pew pew pew with her blasters because it did nothing except annoy her enemies. Whereas in Teen Titans, Bumblebee was depicted as an extraordinarily competent and effect hero able to resist Brother Blood's mind control ('A'int no man alive who can tell me what to do') and able to use her powers to go toe to toe with Cyborg and even toppled him over using her blasters while wasp sized.

I think the other reason might be that her powers are too visually similar to the Wasp/Janet Van Dyne and people might take it as a rip off. I don't agree since there is always the opportunity to out do the original version.

[Phoenixx9]

Bumblebee is my 2nd favorite Titan(after Donna Troy). I hope she appears on the Titans TV show soon.

Yes, mine too!

[Tzigone]

She's obviously has several incarnations in different media and so forth. For you, what is the ideal time and method for her to enter the superhero community - presuming you were working from scratch? I have limited actual comic exposure to her. I like her, but don't like the '70s era Teen Titans (Jupiter, Lilith, and other stuff), so I'd have a clean break with the first set of Teen Titans and then the New Titans. For me, Karen's primary connection is Mal, and I don't really care either of them being connected to the Titans (probably because I haven't read a lot of '70s stuff that might have had them building those relationships. So I'm fine with the idea of them as independents.

Do you have any particular friendships or working relationships that you think are good for Karen? Even ones not explored in the comics that you think would work well?

[kcekada]

Bumblebee was arguably the best thing to come out of the second run on Teen Titans. Actually, Mal as Guardian was great as well, but an editor didn't like him as Guardian -- though he was Guardian again by series end. Unfortunately, the DC Implosion occurred -- and there was little room to use the couple. I wish they had been used more in Perez era Titans. I was looking forward to them being used in Titans, but didn't care for the new take on them. And why do they try to retain that Herald/Hornblower b.s.?! Brett Booths's new design for Bumblebee wasn't very good.

But the Titans franchise has been a mess for 10 years or more --- mostly due to editorial interference, I believe.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

She's obviously has several incarnations in different media and so forth. For you, what is the ideal time and method for her to enter the superhero community - presuming you were working from scratch? I have limited actual comic exposure to her. I like her, but don't like the '70s era Teen Titans (Jupiter, Lilith, and other stuff), so I'd have a clean break with the first set of Teen Titans and then the New Titans. For me, Karen's primary connection is Mal, and I don't really care either of them being connected to the Titans (probably because I haven't read a lot of '70s stuff that might have had them building those relationships. So I'm fine with the idea of them as independents.

Do you have any particular friendships or working relationships that you think are good for Karen? Even ones not explored in the comics that you think would work well?

I knew her from her appearances in TT and YJ the animated series so I'd pull from that. Having her be an apprentice to Ray Palmer could be interesting.