beccaelizabeth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beccaelizabeth) wrote2006-02-03 08:33 pm
beccaelizabeth) wrote2006-02-03 08:33 pm
Entry tags:
Reasons I love Blue Beetle & Booster Gold
Because they're just regular guys with a few cool toys
they break as easy as anyone
but they still go out there and put their neck on the line.
They screwed up once, but they decided to do better.
They've been dead, in comas, crippled, chopped into parts, and it *doesn't stop them*.
They aren't like the Bats, ruled by angst.
They're just a couple of guys who go out there and save the world a lot, together.
Blue Beetle is the guy who's scared all the time but does it anyway. He made a promise to a dying man, and his spirit in the depths of a coma wears *that* man's uniform, not the one he reinvented for himself. Nothing comes easy, he has a weight problem and a heart condition and has to work for his skill. But he does it anyway.
Booster was the other kind of guy - everything physical came easy. But he screwed it up. Life didn't work out the way he thought it would. Got stuck as a janitor in a museum. Spent all his time reading about heroes. Decided he could go back and be one of them.
And it was easy, at the start, because wasn't Booster Gold the big hero? History said so. So he, Booster Gold, naturally would kick ass. He leads the charge on Judgement Day and wins. He read all about it.
Only he hadn't figured on how history has to be made, put together with hard work. He hadn't figured at all how hard it would be, how much he would lose, his family, his friends, his life, his health, his arm. And once he finds out, does he quit? Does he heck. He's Booster Gold. He's going to make that mean something. This turns out not to be the easy way. It is blood and sweat and pain and loss. And he is *still here*. He went home once - to get what he needed to know - and he came back, to the worst times, when everything is going to hell. Because he *is* a hero, even if no one likes it.
I just read a thingy someone quoted saying Booster was obnoxious because he called himself a hero. Well, history called him that. Why shouldn't he?
It also said he'd been taken down a peg or two by losing his friend.
So that was what it was for? Kill a guy to give the other heroes a makeover? Cheap. Bloody cheap.
I've said at length before why I love Blue Beetle. Booster is shinier, and never grew up quite as much. He's probably younger. He definitely didn't get as much comic time to play with. So he's harder to like.
But I like them both for a lot of the same reasons.
They weren't born to this. No great power, no invulnerability, no being chosen by the gods. They *chose*. And every single time they could choose otherwise, get out and stay out, be regular guys instead - they choose to be heroes. Even if it's going to cost them everything. Again. They know the stakes, and they choose.
Superman, Wonder Woman, all those born to power types, always much less interesting to me. Most of us will never have their kind of choices. But can we choose to wear blue and fight crime, with a partner, as part of a team? Oh yes. So Blue & Gold forever, say I.
they break as easy as anyone
but they still go out there and put their neck on the line.
They screwed up once, but they decided to do better.
They've been dead, in comas, crippled, chopped into parts, and it *doesn't stop them*.
They aren't like the Bats, ruled by angst.
They're just a couple of guys who go out there and save the world a lot, together.
Blue Beetle is the guy who's scared all the time but does it anyway. He made a promise to a dying man, and his spirit in the depths of a coma wears *that* man's uniform, not the one he reinvented for himself. Nothing comes easy, he has a weight problem and a heart condition and has to work for his skill. But he does it anyway.
Booster was the other kind of guy - everything physical came easy. But he screwed it up. Life didn't work out the way he thought it would. Got stuck as a janitor in a museum. Spent all his time reading about heroes. Decided he could go back and be one of them.
And it was easy, at the start, because wasn't Booster Gold the big hero? History said so. So he, Booster Gold, naturally would kick ass. He leads the charge on Judgement Day and wins. He read all about it.
Only he hadn't figured on how history has to be made, put together with hard work. He hadn't figured at all how hard it would be, how much he would lose, his family, his friends, his life, his health, his arm. And once he finds out, does he quit? Does he heck. He's Booster Gold. He's going to make that mean something. This turns out not to be the easy way. It is blood and sweat and pain and loss. And he is *still here*. He went home once - to get what he needed to know - and he came back, to the worst times, when everything is going to hell. Because he *is* a hero, even if no one likes it.
I just read a thingy someone quoted saying Booster was obnoxious because he called himself a hero. Well, history called him that. Why shouldn't he?
It also said he'd been taken down a peg or two by losing his friend.
So that was what it was for? Kill a guy to give the other heroes a makeover? Cheap. Bloody cheap.
I've said at length before why I love Blue Beetle. Booster is shinier, and never grew up quite as much. He's probably younger. He definitely didn't get as much comic time to play with. So he's harder to like.
But I like them both for a lot of the same reasons.
They weren't born to this. No great power, no invulnerability, no being chosen by the gods. They *chose*. And every single time they could choose otherwise, get out and stay out, be regular guys instead - they choose to be heroes. Even if it's going to cost them everything. Again. They know the stakes, and they choose.
Superman, Wonder Woman, all those born to power types, always much less interesting to me. Most of us will never have their kind of choices. But can we choose to wear blue and fight crime, with a partner, as part of a team? Oh yes. So Blue & Gold forever, say I.