Blue Beetle #26
Apr. 30th, 2008 03:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mandolinSo I was a lunch break ninja and picked up the new issue while running errands at lunch (had to hit the pharmacy anyway). Then I came back to work to find out that a lot of resources we needed to use had crashed utterly.
I... actually don't have a lot to say about the use of Spanish, surprisingly enough. Cut for spoilers and translation of completely random Scarab-speak.
First up, the initial Big Coloring Hiccups aside (Jaime has a mood-ring shirt! and why is El Paso so green?) the art was very very pretty and gave me such an urge to icon. I don't think Jaime's ever smiled so much in one issue. Don't get me wrong, I still love Rafael Albuquerque, but Mike Norton's pencils were gorgeous (and I love the 2-page spread with Jaime and Traci flying, physics be damned).
The use of Spanish... I could take it or leave it, honestly. It made sense in the context of the family reunion but was a little disconcerting when Jaime went off to find out what was up with the Posse and was talking to the Scarab in Spanish. It worked with Traci not understanding what was going on, but when the action switched to Juarez and we lost the "fish out of water" aspect it lost something for me. (Having said that, this made more sense than Parasite tracking down and attacking the family reunion - that would have required some more explanation as to how he found it.)
Jaime's abuela cracked me up. I don't really buy the rationale behind Bianca telling her and it seemed contrived so that Lilly-the-Stereotypical-Family-Bitch could complain about superheroes only to get the verbal smackdown and trigger the speech later on. On the first read, I thought that maybe she'd figured it out on her own and was disappointed at Bianca's excuse. (I still think there's more of a story behind that one.) But still, the reactions and the repeated smacking were pretty amusing, and the last page was adorable. *snerk* I can totally believe this is Bianca's mother.
As for the actual fight - I'm torn. Coming right after #25, having Jaime let the Scarab loose to take down Parasite didn't bother me. What bothered me was that after the big deal made in #20 about what a Reach Infiltrator was supposed to look like and that the Scarab basically took its self-image from Jaime instead... unleashed, it looked like a proper Infiltrator. I could explain that as an intimidation tactic - hell, it certainly gave Parasite pause - but it just bothered the heck out of me. Did like that Jaime could trust it to the point of letting it loose at this point. How it manifested, not so much. I guess that was done to make it visually clear what was happening.
Also, the guest letterer was apparently very very bored or had too much caffeine when adding in the Scarab-speak. I started translating the cipher, and in the middle of the fight it switched to totally random shit.
Seriously, after Parasite uses Pinata's powers, this is the Scarab's dialogue:
"kelly clarkson" (I'm sorry, "Kelly Clarkson" is never an adequate plan B.)
"oh, hamburgers"
"try tuf-acting tinactin"
"let's paint his nails"
"got milk"
"snausages"
"atomic wedgie"
"to infinity and beyond"
*snort* I guess it's preferable to just repeating words backwards as filler or literally having "Scarab-speak" instead.
The bottom line? Not bad, although there are several things I'm not sure about that don't necessarily have anything to do with the language. Also, Jaime's abuela rocks.
I... actually don't have a lot to say about the use of Spanish, surprisingly enough. Cut for spoilers and translation of completely random Scarab-speak.
First up, the initial Big Coloring Hiccups aside (Jaime has a mood-ring shirt! and why is El Paso so green?) the art was very very pretty and gave me such an urge to icon. I don't think Jaime's ever smiled so much in one issue. Don't get me wrong, I still love Rafael Albuquerque, but Mike Norton's pencils were gorgeous (and I love the 2-page spread with Jaime and Traci flying, physics be damned).
The use of Spanish... I could take it or leave it, honestly. It made sense in the context of the family reunion but was a little disconcerting when Jaime went off to find out what was up with the Posse and was talking to the Scarab in Spanish. It worked with Traci not understanding what was going on, but when the action switched to Juarez and we lost the "fish out of water" aspect it lost something for me. (Having said that, this made more sense than Parasite tracking down and attacking the family reunion - that would have required some more explanation as to how he found it.)
Jaime's abuela cracked me up. I don't really buy the rationale behind Bianca telling her and it seemed contrived so that Lilly-the-Stereotypical-Family-Bitch could complain about superheroes only to get the verbal smackdown and trigger the speech later on. On the first read, I thought that maybe she'd figured it out on her own and was disappointed at Bianca's excuse. (I still think there's more of a story behind that one.) But still, the reactions and the repeated smacking were pretty amusing, and the last page was adorable. *snerk* I can totally believe this is Bianca's mother.
As for the actual fight - I'm torn. Coming right after #25, having Jaime let the Scarab loose to take down Parasite didn't bother me. What bothered me was that after the big deal made in #20 about what a Reach Infiltrator was supposed to look like and that the Scarab basically took its self-image from Jaime instead... unleashed, it looked like a proper Infiltrator. I could explain that as an intimidation tactic - hell, it certainly gave Parasite pause - but it just bothered the heck out of me. Did like that Jaime could trust it to the point of letting it loose at this point. How it manifested, not so much. I guess that was done to make it visually clear what was happening.
Also, the guest letterer was apparently very very bored or had too much caffeine when adding in the Scarab-speak. I started translating the cipher, and in the middle of the fight it switched to totally random shit.
Seriously, after Parasite uses Pinata's powers, this is the Scarab's dialogue:
"kelly clarkson" (I'm sorry, "Kelly Clarkson" is never an adequate plan B.)
"oh, hamburgers"
"try tuf-acting tinactin"
"let's paint his nails"
"got milk"
"snausages"
"atomic wedgie"
"to infinity and beyond"
*snort* I guess it's preferable to just repeating words backwards as filler or literally having "Scarab-speak" instead.
The bottom line? Not bad, although there are several things I'm not sure about that don't necessarily have anything to do with the language. Also, Jaime's abuela rocks.
