We have, again, seen a few different reconfigurations of Jaime Reyes and his supporting cast. But don’t get me wrong - Giffen’s first Rebirth Blue Beetle volume is wholly passable, and if nothing else I love that DC keeps giving Jaime, his friends Paco and Brenda, and the rest another shot even if it never ends up lasting. It seems Giffen wants to trade on our existing knowledge about the two characters except when he doesn’t, and that - like many reboots of the same type - pulls a lot of the emotional heft from the story. The addition of Blue Beetle Ted Kord to the mix - the aforementioned buddy comedy - helps to differentiate the story somewhat but not a lot. We’ve seen Jaime’s relationship with the beetle scarab evolve, we’ve seen certain friends revealed as enemies, and so taking that journey again for the third time seems tired. Giffen was part of that original Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle team, the best incarnation, post- Infinite Crisis while Tony Bedard did well with the New 52 title, he never quite caught the snappy dialogue of the original, and neither does Giffen here. This book struggles under the weight of its history - this is Beetle Jaime Reyes' third series and his second to lead out from a reboot, meaning we’ve seen writers reinvent Jaime’s status quo twice now.

1: The More Things Change fits the mold, perhaps not such a surprise from Keith Giffen, who’s delivered over time some of the most lasting of DC Comics’ comedy moments. Though not necessarily billed as such, the inaugural Rebirth Blue Beetle Vol. Artist Patrick Zircher was just wondering on Twitter the other day about how buddy comedies have slipped the zeitgeist.

Blue Beetle, Vol. 1 by Keith Giffen