I miss Ted Kord.
Ted Kord, if you don’t know, was the second Blue Beetle in DC Comics. Best friends with wanna-be superstar Booster Gold, Ted was a cool character and an ordinary guy. He had no superpowers. Just a costume and a bunch of cool gadgets. He was rich-not Bruce Wayne rich, but still rich-and a technical genius, even if he wasn’t a super-scientist or the equal of Mr. Terrific.
Ted was funny, smart, a detective every bit as clever and brilliant as Batman with a lot less of a need to show off the scary. Yet, he was the most normal, ordinary member of the DC Superhero roster. He had weight problems and heart problems. None of which was caused by his superhero activities and not caused by any “bitten by a spider” accidents. They were just normal, every day weight and heart problems, the same types of problems you and I face.
Ted Kord told bad jokes and good jokes, went out for nights on the town with his buddy Booster, and got outshone on almost all fronts by all the “perfect” characters in the DC Universe. But he was still one of my favorites. Not all writers got his snappy banter and relationship with Booster right, but when they did (like in the original Justice League International), it was a thing of beauty. One of those rare stories that made my heart sing and had me addicted to the series beyond all reason.
The Booster Gold / Blue Beetle partnership had a power that rivaled anything else DC put out during the 80s and early 90s. Hordes of fans began declaring their allegiance to one or the other (Booster or Beetle) with the famous battle cry “Blue vs Gold”. It became so much part of the zeitgheist that even a pair of my college friends would do things like give restaurant hosts the names of “Mr. Blue” and “Mr. Gold” in a mini-contest to see which name got called first when the tables came free.
So we were living the most fantastic comic pair to ever grace the pages of comics, when DC did the unforgivable.
They killed him. Maxwell Lord put a bullet in Blue Beetle’s head.
Many people had gotten tired of the character at that point, after a few writers failed to grasp the depth and complexity of Ted Kord’s character. So, to many, his death wasn’t that big a deal. But to people like me, people who love the side characters (often moreso than the major stars of the line), that death was the biggest event of the decade. It impacted us in ways we didn’t expect, and even made me cry. I loved Ted Kord and he was officially (and forever) gone.
It’s been a year since DC reset its universe (yet again). The year anniversary of the New 52. As I read some of these comics, I find myself reflecting on the best and the worst of my favorite comic book line.
I miss Ted Kord. I don’t miss Ambush Bug. Amethyst is back (YES!) and I’m still waiting for Neron to call in the debt owed him by Vril Dox. (And if you don’t know what I mean with that last line, you missed one of the best storylines ever written by DC.)
And the new Earth 2 / World’s Finest (starring Huntress and Power Girl) are moving along better than I expected. Hmm. I may have some new favorites.
