Blue Beetle #6: White Space

Every Blue Beetle issue sees Blood Scarab terrorizing Jaime and his friends more than the last, so much so that eventually Jaime thought about taking Blood Scarab out permanently. Jaime is less bloody minded now, but that doesn’t mean someone else won’t do it. The story arc gets a fresh new wrinkle as somebody close to Jaime tries to kill Blood Scarab in Blue Beetle #6.

The issue opens in the very recent past as Javier Basualdo and his friends are exploring the Pyramids of Kha-Ef-Re in Egypt. Javier stumbles upon the small red scarab and is transformed into Blood Scarab, controlled by the power of Kha-Ef-Re. Then Blue Beetle #6 jumps to the present. Jaime and Blood Scarab are facing off against each other immediately following the blast from Victoria Kord’s satellite that closed out the previous issue. Jaime is still trying to find a nonlethal way to stop Blood Scarab. But when Javier exerts enough control to give Jaime an opening, Khaji-Da takes over in an attempt to do what Jaime won’t and kill Blood Scarab.

Blue Beetle #6 is largely one extended fight sequence. This should set the issue up to be very successful. The combination of Gutiérrez’s art and Quintana’s colors produce very energetic action. But the action is particularly frenetic here. As the issue shifts between the different smaller interactions within the larger fight, it’s easy to get lost. The transitions are sometimes jarring, with the relative location of one character or another getting lost in the action.

Some of these jarring moments are the result of Gutiérrez using spare to nonexistent backgrounds for most of the fight. There’s an overall lack of geography. But the lack of backgrounds also creates startling visual moments. One of the most striking is a page focused on Gimix fighting one of Blood Scarab’s minions with her curling iron weapon. The three panels themselves feel almost like individual art pieces as opposed to comic panels: Gimix and her adversary are in all black set against a solid color background with white bursts emphasizing impacts. And the issue’s most shocking moment between Jaime and Blood Scarab is emphasized exponentially by happening on an otherwise white page.

Likewise, the white empty backgrounds in Blue Beetle #6 make for more impactful color work. Quintana’s coloring is always an essential part of the series’ action, and it is even more intense in this issue. With four different beetles as well as Starfire, colorful energy beams and movement streaks abound. The issue is a high energy spectacle, and a lot of that owes to the contrast of Quintana’s coloring set against the empty white space left by Gutiérrez.

Narratively, Blue Beetle #6 is relatively light. The fight sequence is the heart of the issue more than anything else. And as it drags through most of the issue, it starts to feel unremarkable. The Blood Scarab storyline has lost its sense of urgency. But Trujillo does deliver two effective emotional character arcs that are coalescing in tragedy before the issue ends.

Coming into the issue, Jaime had expressed a willingness to kill Blood Scarab if that is what it was going to take to stop him. It’s easy for a reader to gloss over the seriousness of that when an enemy like Blood Scarab hasn’t been depicted with any real humanity. Trujillo’s choice to only now introduce that side of Blood Scarab (or, more accurately, the human the scarab took over) throws up a potential speed bump for the reader. “Oh, there’s an innocent person in there. Maybe don’t kill him.” Trujillo then makes it even more complicated by having Khaji-Da try to take matters into its own hands. The stakes are almost as personal as they possibly could be now.

Gattoni’s lettering work is as colorful and expressive in Blue Beetle #6 as it always is. Its best moment here comes in the juxtaposition between something Jaime says versus something Khaji-Da says. In the issue’s aforementioned most shocking moment, where Jaime and Blood Scarab are fighting on an otherwise white page, Jaime screams out “KHAJI!” The excited, spikey dialogue bubble sits above the characters, filling almost a third of the page. It draws more attention than the art beneath it. It’s an emotional moment for Jaime, and the size of the dialogue bubble is meant to convey it. On its own, it’s likely successful. But this isn’t the only dialogue on the page. Alone, near the bottom right corner, is a normal sized blue bubble for Khaji-Da’s dialogue where he says merely, “Objective complete.” The level to which Khaji-Da feels uncaring and matter of fact feeds into the emotional power suggested by Jaime’s scream.