Blue and Gold #1

[Hypo]

Blue and Gold #1 Preview
Writer: Dan Jurgens
Artist: Ryan Sook

[Factor]

I really hope this is good. I love the characters and the concept of them being heroes for hire.

[silly]

Art looks really good.

[Lee Stone]

Well, at least we know Jurgens won't resort to character assassination.
So it can't be too bad.

Preview looks really good!

[Frontier]

Jurgens gets Booster. Of course he would become a livestreaming Superhero.

Oh, and Ted finally doesn't have heart problems! Although he's got enough left to be worried about.

[K. Jones]

Jurgens Booster runs are some highlights of my DC fandom. They're never "ultimate level serious" but there's good timey-wimey shenanigans, perfectly good enough stakes for Booster, he uses good toys and dusts them off and has fun and makes them fun. He riffs well when other players are doing stuff in his Booster territory - he and Giffen were both pretty involved in Fifty-Two for instance ... and Sook art? I'm so down for this. And first time in a long time he's been able to just play with Ted Kord without it being some scenario to get Ted into the story.

[Wally West]

Everyone needs to buy this book. Show your support for these characters and the JLI!

[Frontier]

Is that woman supposed to be from an old Booster series?

[Robotman]

This looks pretty great.

Wow, Ted got seriously de-aged. He looks like he’s 20 years old. I always said that him and Jaime could coexist because they are so different (age, powers, etc.), but if Ted is now the younger hero type I guess that doesn’t leave much for the other Beetle.

[Jim Kelly]

For years and years, they were always threatening to publish a title called THE BLUE AND THE GOLD. Fans wanted this--but I guess it never happened (unless it did and I just don't remember it). Of course, the only creative team for that series had to be J.M. DeMatteis and Keith Giffen.

Calling it BLUE AND GOLD doesn't seem nearly as clever.

[Lee Stone]

This looks pretty great.

Wow, Ted got seriously de-aged. He looks like he’s 20 years old. I always said that him and Jaime could coexist because they are so different (age, powers, etc.), but if Ted is now the younger hero type I guess that doesn’t leave much for the other Beetle.

Well, Ted should be a bit younger than Batman and Superman, logically.
He should be in the same age bracket as Booster, Scott Free, Guy, Fire and Ice. And they'll always be younger than Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Hal Jordan.
When the older heroes get de-aged, it kinda trickles down I think.

I don't mind Ted looking a bit younger, though, because it'll encourage writers and artists to steer away from the pot-bellied middle-aged tropes they were leading him towards.
If anyone should be getting a pot-belly and stressing about 'over-doing it* in their middle-ages, it should be Batman.

[kcekada]

I've just about given up reading comics, but this looks fantastic. Miss the days when comics were fun (without being over the top like Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League -- which got old -- fast).

[Lee Stone]

I've just about given up reading comics, but this looks fantastic. Miss the days when comics were fun (without being over the top like Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League -- which got old -- fast).

I really liked JLI until the last year. It jumped the shark for me with General Glory.
When it started, Giffen & DeMatteis would balance out the humorous stories with serious ones.

Actually, I would say there was three phases of their JLI

Phase One: Pre-JLE (#1-24)
This was when most of the stories were serious in tone, but the dialogue was a bit witty.
Giffen was being more-or-less serious with the plots and DeMatteis was having a little fun with the storytelling, which was brought to great heights with Maguire's art. This, and the first two years of JLE, would be the JLI at its best.

Phase Two: JLE launches (#24-45)
When JLE launched, JLI became JLA. After which, Giffen & DeMatteis took the formula they had used on JLI and used it on JLE, while Giffen started getting a bit more crazy with the plots on JLA.
During this period, JLE would have mostly serious stories with witty banter while JLA would alternate between that and sitcom-like episodes.

Phase Three: General Glory and Breakdowns (#45-60)
During the last year of JLA and JLE, JLA became even more silly and stopped taking itself as serious, while JLE started to soften up some, too.
The General Glory story in particular should've been their serious story during that time, but being somewhat of a send-up of Captain America undermined whatever seriousness they were going for. This left the last year leading into Breakdowns as being unbalanced tonally. With the last 'Early JLI' type story being the Despero/Gypsy story in #38-40, IMO.
Then Breakdowns happened, which was a total flip in tone that felt more of a shock at this time. Of course, a 15-part story was a bit too long to carry that tone in the two books without a comedic break, making it feel unbalanced again, but in the other extreme.

[The Invincible Beawulf]

This looks pretty great.

Wow, Ted got seriously de-aged. He looks like he’s 20 years old. I always said that him and Jaime could coexist because they are so different (age, powers, etc.), but if Ted is now the younger hero type I guess that doesn’t leave much for the other Beetle.

Altough my favorite Blue Beetle is Ted, I disagree with you. Why couldn't we have two Blue Beetles? After this Blue & Gold mini, there should be a "The Beetles" mini starring all the Blue Beetles (Dan, Ted, Jamie, Gold Beetle). Maybe Ted or Jamie could get a new superhero name.

[Veni]

I should mention that the animated Blue Beetle short with Ted Kord will be released with Batman: The Long Halloween part 2 on July 27. Be sure to check it out.