DC New52 - Blue Beetle #0 (Scarabs... Scarabs everywhere!)

I've never been much of a Blue Beetle fan.  The Ted Kord beetle story from the crisis lead-in was kinda cool.  Showed him being all dectective ala Batman, but I always thought, "Why not just read Batman?"  Anyway, after the old beetle bit-the-dust, a new guy came up all decked out in armor (ala Iron Man).  I thought, "Man, these Blue Beetle guys alway remind me of someone else."  Where this Blue Beetle is different though, is that he has a living suit, which DOES NOT want to have anything to do with him.  I thought it was an interesting take, and I put up with him in some of the major cross-overs preNew52 - still without much interest in really reading about his exploits in a solo book.

After reading this zero issue of Blue Beetle from DC's New52, I've changed that opinion!

First off, this book is beautiful.  The space backgrounds are some of the best I've ever seen in comics.  I wish Green Lantern books took their cue from these pages, because they are gorgeous!  The character are is also very well done, and at times reminds me of Mark Bagley during his 90's Spider-Man run.  I honestly felt a bit of nestalgia reading this from that.

The pacing of the story is a delight and I was honestly disappointed when I finished.  This is the embodiment of what the New52 should be about: Introducing new readers to the character, while showing something that makes you want more.  The beginning of this book begins with the Scarrab talking to Jaime Reyes about how he came to be.  At the beginning of this origin, we are introduced to a possible villian that will undoubtedly come back to haunt Jaime, as the scarab actually helped the young girl discover her powers.  Albeit, this scene is done a little too quickly, I understand the need to move past it & hopefully we'll get more info about this alien girl in the future.

The scarab goes on to tell Jaime about its adventures and how eventually it wound up with him.  

There's then a montage showing various scenes from Jaime's past - one of which the scarab makes him attack his friend, which then had the consequence of making him a villain... All pretty interesting stuff, if you're like me and don't know about these events!

Finally, the scarab reveals that the reason for this entire exposition is to tell Jaime that there are other less benevolent scarabs with hosts that are weapons of the Reach (the aliens that created them).

This reminded me SOOOO much of Planet of the Symbiots.

I've never particularly cared for this character, and honestly after they reinvented him with Jaime, I really wasn't too keen on his adventures, but after seeing this well-thought-out zero issue, I'm adding this one to my New52 reading lists.