Legacy

UPDATE: May 13th, 2012 I have updated the image to fix how terrible Dan looked in the background. To see the old version, go here: [link]

About time (seems appropriate at the moment, anyway) I did a fanart of my favorite superhero. Meet the Blue Beetle...all of them. Which is my favorite? Do I have to choose?

The guy in the background is Dan Garrett, the first Blue Beetle. He had about five different origin stories(and in fact was initially just a cheap knock-off of the Green Hornet. Get it? Green Hornet? Blue Beetle? Fox Publications, you were so subtle), but we seem to pretty much have settled on this. He was an archaeologist studying a tomb when he came across a strange beetle scarab. Upon uttering the magic words: Khaji Da, he was granted a scale mail armor costume and superpowers.
I can't really recommend too much with him in it, since although he was Blue Beetle for a very long time, it was mostly with a pretty crappy company and I don't think any of it's been collected in trades.

The guy in the foreground in the lighter costume is Ted Kord. He was Garrett's student, and asked for his mentor's help in uncovering a dangerous plot that ended up killing the first Blue Beetle. Ted Kord took up the mantle, but the scarab never worked for him. Without access to superpowers, he had to rely on his agility and hi-tech gadgets in a fight. He was more brain than brawn, but he was pretty tough too.
And if you're thinking he looks kind of like Spiderman in that pose, that's intentional. Ted Kord was created by Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spiderman, and shared a lot of similarities with the wall-crawler. Enough so that Marvel threated to sue over it at one point.
But written right, he was his own, awesome character. If you want to see him in action, I'd recommend his initially comics done by Ditko, but they're only available in a hardcover trade which also collects a couple of other Charlton Heroes. For the more casual reader, I'd point to the JLI minis: "Formerly Known as the Justice League" and "I Can't Believe it's Not the Justice League". They're pretty easy to find - and fun! Though they're meant as comedy, so don't take them too seriously.

After Kord's death, the scarab falls into the hands of Jaime Reyes, who has no connection to either of the previous two. He wakes up one morning to find the scarab is fused to his spine where it starts talking to him and grants him the armor along with a wide array of abilites. Turns out the scarab isn't magic at all, it's broken alien tech, and Khaji Da isn't a magic word, it's the scarab's name. Confused, Jaime decides to learn more about his predecessors, and gains knowledge of the scarab from Garrett and knowledge of how to fight from Kord.
I won't get too much more into it, I'll just say, track down his "Blue Beetle" series. It's all out in trade and it is AWESOME! Seriously some of the best comics I've ever read. It turned me into a drooling fangirl anyway. Seriously. Buy it.

I kind of love how different they all are. Normally legacy heroes are pretty similar from generation to generation, these guys are kind of fascinating and I love them. About 80 - 80% of the DC stuff I own relates to my love of them somehow.

This was a TON of fun to draw and ink and color. I've been meaning to do it for ages, but finally got up the gumption. I'm especially proud because the two in the foreground were drawn using my action figures as references. Figures that can't do poses like that. I'm pretty pleased with myself.